• After Ebola outbreak, Liberian churches confront crisis of faith
    34 replies, posted
[url]http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/10/world/africa/after-ebola-outbreak-liberian-churches-confront-crisis-of-faith.html[/url] [quote=New York Times]It decimated hospitals, schools, families, fortunes and, for many, even their faith. Now, it is officially over. The Ebola outbreak has ended in Liberia, the World Health Organization announced Saturday, an enormous milestone that seemed impossibly far off last year when dead bodies blocked roads and the sick prayed for ambulances that never came. Desperately, the country is trying to rebuild just about everything, from its health and education systems to its economy and international image. But in the dim hall of the United God Is Our Light Church, its generator turned off to shave costs, the congregation has been trying to repair something more fundamental: its spirit.[/quote]
It must be terrible to have witnessed this: [quote]when dead bodies blocked roads[/quote]
Experiencing death on a scale like that is sure to rock a person to their core. I'm kinda not surprised people are questioning their faith after a horrific event like an ebola outbreak.
Everyone should question their faith, I don't think enough people do, and that leads to blind following, extremism, etc...
My guess is that pastors will play it off as "god is testing us", a new church is formed out of the still-believers, and the end result is a smaller but more hardcore faith group. That's how these things usually play out right?
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;47693366]My guess is that pastors will play it off as "god is testing us", a new church is formed out of the still-believers, and the end result is a smaller but more hardcore faith group. That's how these things usually play out right?[/QUOTE] I never understood the whole "god is testing us" bit. Well if god is testing us, then god's a fucking dick for killing my friends and family. Why would I want to worship an asshole like that? Why would a father want to see his own children suffer? Just my 2 cents on that. I have nothing against people pursuing their faith.
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;47693366]My guess is that pastors will play it off as "god is testing us", a new church is formed out of the still-believers, and the end result is a smaller but more hardcore faith group. That's how these things usually play out right?[/QUOTE] Same thing they've done back in the dark ages, when the bubonic plague ravaged Europe in the 1300s. Some things never change...
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;47693394]I never understood the whole "god is testing us" bit. Well if god is testing us, then god's a fucking dick for killing my friends and family. Why would I want to worship an asshole like that? Why would a father want to see his own children suffer? Just my 2 cents on that. I have nothing against people pursuing their faith.[/QUOTE] Theologically, due to the Original Sin, the world categorically isn't, and neither supposed to be a good or pleasant place. Bad things happening is all part of its natural order.
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;47693394]I never understood the whole "god is testing us" bit. Well if god is testing us, then god's a fucking dick for killing my friends and family. Why would I want to worship an asshole like that? Why would a father want to see his own children suffer? Just my 2 cents on that. I have nothing against people pursuing their faith.[/QUOTE] Or, "why would an omniscient being even need to test us seeing as he's OMNISCIENT and already knows what's what, everywhere whenever".
[QUOTE=Géza!;47696297]Theologically, due to the Original Sin, the world categorically isn't, and neither supposed to be a good or pleasant place. Bad things happening is all part of its natural order.[/QUOTE] thus proving that god is a huge cock who i wouldnt worship even if i thought he existed
[QUOTE=ScottyWired;47693366]My guess is that pastors will play it off as "god is testing us", a new church is formed out of the still-believers, and the end result is a smaller but more hardcore faith group. That's how these things usually play out right?[/QUOTE] Don't forget the part where God demands a sacrifice to stave off the next plague, so everyone starts hacking up the unbelievers. [editline]10th May 2015[/editline] [QUOTE=Kahgarak;47696433]Or, "why would an omniscient being even need to test us seeing as he's OMNISCIENT and already knows what's what, everywhere whenever".[/QUOTE] "I always knew that [i]you[/i] would survive." "Did you know my whole family was going to die thanks to dehydration and internal hemorrhaging?" "Course, I did."
[QUOTE=Solo Wing;47693394]I never understood the whole "god is testing us" bit. Well if god is testing us, then god's a fucking dick for killing my friends and family. Why would I want to worship an asshole like that? Why would a father want to see his own children suffer? Just my 2 cents on that. I have nothing against people pursuing their faith.[/QUOTE] Condolences to you. Since you asked, you have to keep in mind you are talking about a being who is in charge of all of creation. A very big picture guy. Think a CEO or leader of a big country. Eggs will be broken to make an omelet so to speak. Let take the bible for starters. A guy got sold off into slavery by his own brothers and had to endure hell for decades before getting a high position in the Egyptian goverment. Which led to him being able to persaude the pharoh to store about seven years of grain. When famine hit its highest point, the grain was then shared amongst the people of Israel. Some one mentioned the black plague. The process was horrible but centuries later it turns out the survivors had a gene which could block aids...... In the case of Ebola? I still remember where people were robbing the clinic to prove Ebola doesn't exist and those idiots ending up contracting it........
Genesis 6:7 So the LORD said, "I will wipe from the face of the earth the human race I have created--and with them the animals, the birds and the creatures that move along the ground--for I regret that I have made them." This Omnescent God who knows everything has also regretted many other things besides creating us. I don't believe in any of this bullshit, but it goes to show how odd JudeoChristian religions are. Their own Holybook is full of contradictions. They worship a God who has ordered the killing of Men, Women, and children, who will kill your entire family and village to test your faith, and who has no problem killing his own son instead of exercising his supposed infinite power and wiping out evil. Hell, even the evil power in the Bible, Lucifer, is a better person than God. He killed like 10 people, Jehovah killed millions! Lucifer even helped to give us knowledge.
I don't believe the god of the bible is the main god but a war deity who got evlavated to such an honer but not such a position. If he regretted it, that would mean he didn't know ahead of time his regret.
Heaven is supposes to be so much better than earth, if it really is paradise then maybe god gives human death as a gift, seeing as earth isnt supposed to be a good place.
[QUOTE=DJrorok;47696706]Heaven is supposes to be so much better than earth, if it really is paradise then maybe god gives human death as a gift, seeing as earth isnt supposed to be a good place.[/QUOTE] Or more likely it's all bullshit, but yeah sure whatever floats your boat.
[QUOTE=zach1193;47693317]Everyone should question their faith, I don't think enough people do, and that leads to blind following, extremism, etc...[/QUOTE] I think that people shouldn't rely on their faith to fix their problems. Whether they believe in some kind of deity is another thing.
[QUOTE=Liberia][video=youtube;tS0mQ25ezq4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tS0mQ25ezq4[/video][/QUOTE]
[QUOTE=Rapscallion92;47696894]Or more likely it's all bullshit, but yeah sure whatever floats your boat.[/QUOTE] Actually not more likely. There being some kind of afterlife has exactly the same chances as there not being one, for all we know.
[QUOTE=DJrorok;47696706]Heaven is supposes to be so much better than earth, if it really is paradise then maybe god gives human death as a gift, seeing as earth isnt supposed to be a good place.[/QUOTE] Thats such a fucked up way of thinking, "death is a gift" holy shit Yeah that mother of 2 was "gifted" when she died from a car accident. That 10 year old boy was "gifted" when he died from cancer. I mean we might as well kill ourselves, since the world sucks!!!
[QUOTE=proch;47697164]Actually not more likely. There being some kind of afterlife has exactly the same chances as there not being one, for all we know.[/QUOTE] Right, so the question is, if there is an afterlife, why is there one?
[QUOTE=Rapscallion92;47697178]Right, so the question is, if there is an afterlife, why is there one?[/QUOTE] HBecause God recycles....
[QUOTE=CrossTownNews;47697332]HBecause God recycles....[/QUOTE] Not really, God's less about recycling than he is about eviscerating everything he created so he can restart again.
That's still recycling technically.
I believe there is no god, and if for whatever reason I'm wrong and there is a god, he's a arsehole on an existential level.
[QUOTE=ReligiousNutjob;47697385]I believe there is no god, and if for whatever reason I'm wrong and there is a god, he's a arsehole on an existential level.[/QUOTE] Or maybe said God is not all-powerful. People need to stop blindly following a religion and figure out for themselves if there is a God, and what he/she/it may be like.
Or maybe it's a reason Pastors give to help ease the pain of their followers. It'd suck dying to a disease, only to be told by a religious leader "Well sucks for you, looks like God abandoned you. Have fun in hell faggot."
[QUOTE=proch;47697132]I think that people shouldn't rely on their faith to fix their problems. Whether they believe in some kind of deity is another thing.[/QUOTE] The problem is that this is a central tenet of Christianity. Read the opening of the Sermon on the Mount. "Jesus" basically tells everyone to just forget about their miserable plight on earth because they'll go to a magic fantasy land some time in the future.
[QUOTE=Pilot1215;47696652]Their own Holybook is full of contradictions.[/QUOTE] This chart says all that needs to be said about just how many there are: [t]https://sciencebasedlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/biblecontradictions-reasonproject.png[/t]
[QUOTE=wickedplayer494;47701067]This chart says all that needs to be said about just how many there are: [t]https://sciencebasedlife.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/biblecontradictions-reasonproject.png[/t][/QUOTE] Considering the Bible was written for over one thousand years, and that the documents we have aren't even [I]the[/I] originals, is it really THAT surprising that the Big Book is full of contradictions? The only thing I really have a problem with is idiots who take everything the Book says as [I]the[/I] definitive set of rules to life by, and idiots who feel the need to criticize every single thing religion does wrong as a sign that they're all fucked up beyond redemption, like Richard Dawkins (Seriously, sometimes he really comes off as a fanatical idiot, and he's supposed to be the clever one)
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