I am deeply curious as to why you called out to Jesus. Did you grow up in the church, had you walked away from the Lord, etc.? What reason was there for your cry to him?

Given the fact that we live in a country where people are thanking (or cursing) the name of Jesus regularly, it is no surprise to me at least that you called out to him. It is common for Catholics to call out to Mary for help, and during the middle ages it appears to have been common for people to cry out to saints or even apostles to save them during times of trouble.

I guess here is the thing I really struggle with. How is it that this becomes evidence of anything for you – at all? I’m having a hard time seeing it as evidence myself, although I am truly grateful that you survived and are with us today. It may perhaps be personal, subjective evidence, but what would you say – for example – to the dream which I have in my post (From Tormented Soul to Freed Atheist – Part 1)? I saw that dream as evidence for quite some time but ended up changing my stance.

I am the I-95 survivor and I wanted to make some things a little clearer about what happened….theologically speaking, I mean.
Some posts back someone asked “Why God?”…as my savior and not someone/thing else. My answer didnt come until a few days after the crash, in the hospital.
I had been there four or five days and was reacting terribly to morphine, concussion, lack of sleep, etc. I was having pretty dark and bilical hallucinations from the mix. When things seemed at their darkest and the pressures on me were at their acme, I instinctively called for Jesus to help me; not Siddhartha, not Mohamud, not krishna…Jesus. To that point I hadn’t shed a tear in over 17 years, for anything. When I made the decision to accept Him I wept, profoundly and deeply wept. Thats why.
Thanks for the posts and the good reading . Bob-

The problem with worrying about why bad things happen to good people and vice versa is that God, being defined as a “do-what ever-he-wants” God can do just that. The mind of God as most often defined is that of no mind at all rather one that is completely beyond our comprehension thus when a person converts to a religion because their life was miraculously saved it shows a complete misunderstanding of what religion is. Namely, faith or belief without reason or proof. God may have indeed saved their life to see if they convert only to later, at the pearly gates, tell them that was not the right reason to convert and off to Hell they go.

I am fond of the theory that religion is just such a test and that when we all get to the pearly gates the agnostics and atheists will be accepted to heaven and all the religious believers will go to Hell. After all, did you think getting to heaven would be as simple as following a book? Like a recipe? Come on!!!! THINK!

Curtis, what do think of that possibility?

From Wikipedia:
Deists typically reject supernatural events (prophecy, miracles) and tend to assert that God does not interfere with human life and the laws of the universe. What organized religions see as divine revelation and holy books, most Deists see as interpretations made by other humans, rather than as authoritative sources.

More here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deism

If I were to return to belief in god, I’m pretty sure it would be to deism, rather than to any particular theistic belief. At this point, I don’t see that happening but I’m never going to say “never.”

BUT, He’s decided to step back and relinquish some of His power to His creation (us, the animals, the Earth, etc.) and has put us in each other’s care?

THUS, good things happen to “bad people” and bad things happen to “good people”… aka: stuff just happens.

BUT, the flipside is that when people use their God-given intellect & ability to love each other, and invent things like medicine, seat belts, air bags, water purifiers for 3rd world countries, etc. Then, indirectly, God has performed a miracle and stepped into time and saved people. He just hasn’t done it in a flashy and overtly supernatural way…

For the skeptics/agnostics/atheists here… what do you guys/gals think about this as a possibility? I might be alone on this one, but as someone who whole-heartedly believes in God/Jesus, this standpoint is starting to sound more and more feasible to me…

However, when it comes to miracles and tragedies we still see people reaching for explanations, and answers to things that just don’t make sense. Many Christians seem to rationalize that these things were “of God” when someone was spared from death or harms way, and conveniently say it is not of God, but “of Satan” when tragedies occur.
? This never quite works for me. Isn’t God suppose to be more powerful than Satan? Couldn’t he have stopped him?

I think, there are still some people who will think that people “deserved” whatever ill fate they had, for whatever reasons. Scary.

Luckily, I don’t think that is as common these days. More commonly, I hear from Christians that we just can not possibly understand God’s plan… but, someday we will.
??? How do you argue with that one? I guess we shouldn’t. We should just accept it, right? But, where would humanity be today if we just “accepted everything” that didn’t make sense to us? I can’t believe any God that loves us would want us to do that either.

My own father survived a near fatal fire when he was 12 yrs old. He was burnt on 70% of his body, and nearly died. Another boy did die in the fire. My Dad beat the odds, but he spent about 3 yrs in the hospital recovering – and many more outpatient surgeries after that. My dad was an atheist. He said it wasn’t because of his accident, though. They called him “miracle boy” in the local papers back then, and many thought he should thank God he survived. But, I suppose it’s hard to be thankful when you are laying in bed, almost dead, and in so much pain that you wished you were dead. Ironically, I DO think he was thankful to be alive… and he claims it wasn’t his own accident and suffering that made him loose his faith and question God’s existence – but, it was because of all the other tragedies he saw when he was in the hospital for those three years. ( I wrote more about it here: http://savemenot.wordpress.com/2007/06/17/my-dad/ if anyone’s interested.)

When I was young… I use to plead with him to give God a chance… to just believe. I didn’t want him to go to hell and burn forever. Wasn’t he afraid to burn anymore – forever? But, now, I can see why he did not believe… why he COULD not… and I can’t see how anyone could blame him…

Luck is all there is. Good things happen to bad people. Bad things can happen to good people. Sure, we can work towards improving our lives… as we should… but, who knows if some uncontrollable act of nature or accident will occur? It’s much easier for me to believe there is no divine intervention – than to believe there is one who picks and chooses whom he will help.

~smj

what if this whole time we have been making up the existence of a good God when really there exists only a totally Bad God

aka The Demiurge/Yaldabaoth/Ptahil