This is really weird, but I think today is the first day I've actually known a person who died relatively well... It's pretty depressing. This dad and two of his sons go to my kong fu class, and they were in a car crash this weekend. The dad died on Monday and his wife is critically injured. And they have 4 children, and though they weren't injured, still. Their dad died. It's almost worst that I saw him healthy and very much alive on Friday, just last week.
The really sad thing is that they just got out for Spring Break this week, and they were on their way to Disneyland to celebrate the dad's 40th b-day. Can you imagine dieing in your 30's? And the dad was a special needs teacher.
It's stuff like this that especially makes me stay strong in my belief that there isn't a God. What kind of "loving, merciful God" leaves a young widow and four children, ranging from ages 7-14, to fend for themselves? Can you imagine waking up everyday and knowing that you'll never see a person you love ever again?
Can anyone explain how it is fair that God lets a good, loving father die while millions of worse people go on and live their happy little lives? I mean really explain, without using the excuse "God has his reasons." Because there are no reasons... Not for this.
4 years ago
21 comments:
Yes there are, Olive. We may not know them, but there are. And maybe God was saving this man from something worse.
About these supposedly "bad" people that you want to see smote? It's called grace. If He kills them now, they'll be stuck in hell, where they deserve, but He wants to save them from that. He's giving them the time they need to make that decision.
And yes, I can imagine. I can imagine very well.
The merciful God is the one that doesn't leave the children and wife alone - he helps them through their trials and gives them help through other people. The merciful God is the one that will let them be together in the next life. The merciful God is the one who knows them and how they feel and blesses them - the one who loves them and does everything He can to help them. Yes, tradgedy happens. And we come out stronger because God helps us. This life is but a moment of our eternal lives. They haven't said goodbye for forever. Just for a while.
What can be worse than death? And how is it grace to kill the good man? Besides, God already knows whether or not someone will repent for their sins or not, so what's the point of keeping them alive if they won't?
God didn't need to kill the guy in the first place. It's like me saying... I dunno. Say I... steal your history essay or something and then you freak out because you can't find it. Then I "come to the rescue" and let you copy my essay or I magically "find" your essay again and give it back.
Oh. There are things worse than death. In dying...you die. It's simple. You cease to be, physically at least. But who really knows what life is like after? Can anyone honestly say? Sometimes...it's the feeling of not knowing that's scary, even though i do believe in heaven. And sometimes death is the most peaceful part of life. A restful passing.
Well, what if your passing wasn't restful? Personally, if I had a whole family, I wouldn't want to die, no matter how peaceful it was. Not only do you die, you are lost to everyone else. I'm not saying death is hard for the dead person... it's hard for those that are left behind.
Livvy, you're right - it is hard for the people who are left behind. But those people will never forget that this could be the last time they'll see someone. And they will learn and grow stronger. And they aren't left behind forever. Just a short while.
we're looking at this all wrong. God didn't say, I'm going to kill this poor innocent man today!
He said, today I'm going to give all My people free will. Some of them made really stupid choices, and as a result, this man died!!! God's not going to lock us in a soundproof opaque ball so we can escape consequences.
Tell me one thing stupid thing the guy did. He wasn't drunk or anything, and they think that it was probably the other driver's fault... So why did the innocent one die?
And I thought God controlled everything that happened, and knew when and where they'd happen.
To Moriah (or anyone else): What is a person like when they go to heaven? Would they stay the same way they died? For example, say your wife died and you fell in love again and remarried. So when you went to heaven, which one would you choose, or love more? Or say you had a friend that died, and you guys were best buddies. But eventually you changed, as we all do, and when you went to heaven, you found that this friend didn't understand you anymore. How does that work?
Olive, I mostly agree with you. But I do think there are things worse than death. I think it's harder to be left alive than to die.
No, I totally agree. Dying is easy. If you think like Riah, you get to go to heaven and be happy. Whereas this family, the mother has to support her four children on a teacher's salary (she's a teacher too) and she has to put all of them through college. She has to try to find money to let them do sports, and skateboarding, and dance, because I know all of the children have their own activities. And none of those are cheap. And those are just the monetary problems, not to mention what else she has to go through. It'll probably be at least half a year before she completely recovers from her injuries, and much MUCH longer before she recovers from her husbands death...
I don't think Kenz meant that the guy who died did anything wrong. I think she meant that the other driver did something stupid, and as a result, the guy who died and his family suffered.
In Heaven, we're basically the same person, only perfected. Everyone understands each other in heaven. I think that if someone remarries, they will be with both people.
He does control them all, Olive, but He's not just going to sit around and give us poofs of happiness! Troubles are a part of life, okay? That does NOT rule out the "possibility" of there being God!!!
Well, God doesn't have to give us happiness... but he doesn't have to kill of some poor kid's father either.
1. God did NOT kill the kid's dad. God didn't just say one day, "Hey, I'll strike that man down." No. The other driver killed that kid's dad, and God welcomed the kid's dad home with loving arms.
"We cannot know true happiness without first knowing true sadness."
Doesn't God controls everyone's actions? Doesn't He know what you're going to do before you do it? So why didn't He stop the other driver?
No, GOd doesn't "control" everyone's actions. Quite the opposite actually. God gave us all FREE WILL. It's true he gave us teachings which we should follow and apply to our lives, but it's all our choice, all our own accord. God isn't a controlling diety, one who treats His (or Her) people as games on a chess board - go here! do this!
No. No. No. It isn't like that at all.
I suppose that God could have struck down the other driver with a lightning bolt or something, but he gave the other driver the chance to choose what to do. The driver made the wrong choice, but that is no fault of God's.
ok... well here's the problem I have with the concept of free will. Yes, I suppose when you're born, God gives you the choice to do what you want. However, the fact remains that you believe that he knows what you are going to do before you do it. Meaning that he made you a certain way so that you would make these decisions. So every decision we will have to make has already been programmed into us because God already knows what we're going to do. So yes, we have the choice. But God was the one who made us the type a person that would make a specific choice. Take believing in God. I suppose I have free will, and that I have the choice whether or not to believe in God. But God supposedly is the one that made me into a cynical, "seeing is believing," person, so it's not really my choice at all because in my mind, God is not logical. and God was the one that made my mind think that way. If any of that makes sense.
I think on one level you're right, but you're not completely right. Do we ever make out of character decisions? Yes. Do we ever change our mind? Yes. And God didn't get up at the beginning of the world and say, "heehehe. I'm going to make a cynical little girl, and because of that she'll never believe in Me. Then she'll go to hell! Ha!"
NOOOOOOOO...
It's not like that, at all.
God created this cynical little girl because he realized how she could overcome her challenges and use her strengths to bless other people's lives and do good.
We aren't perfect. But we can become perfect. People can change their nature. Believe it or not, I used to be really belligerent and forceful. But I'm not anymore because I worked on that. And that's one of our challenges in this life.
It's a wee bit like fixing a position issue in violin. You might not notice that it's a problem, but with the right teacher our mistakes can be identified, and more importantly, fixed so that eventually playing correctly is natural.
I don't believe in God, but that's because I'm a control freak.
If I can't control my own life, what do I have? That's also a reason to stay single, in my opinion.
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