Dear God:

The BBQ Pit
21

I, for one, will respectfully disagree. I am and remain an atheist, and I am not going to run now to a God in which I don’t believe for comfort, or do-overs, or anything else.

What I am going to do is what I am doing. Stay in touch with my family in the NYC area and support them. Give blood. Make donations to the Red Cross. Support our Armed Forces in any way I can. Support the powers of human reason and action to track down those who assisted the perpetrators of these actions, bring them to justice, and work to eliminate the scourge of terrorism from the face of the earth.

God, whether he exists or not, is not going to do it for us. We have to do it, together. That’s the only way anything will be accomplished. I won’t belittle the need for people to seek comfort in the wake of these events, but I will encourage constructive action.

And I also will not pretend that I am a different person than I was on Tuesday morning. I will not apologize for being born in a country where I am capable of a certain lifestyle–something over which I had no control. It certainly is beyond my control that the bulk of the world’s population was not born here. What I can do is, again through human reason and action, take positive steps to make the rest of the world more like the place I live, rather than to see the place I live turned into something more like the rest of the world.

22

Well, he could leave a note, written in big, gold letters in the sky above New York that said something like, “Yesterday something really bad happened, but I fixed it.”

As to the second question…if he has repaired previous catastrophes, why did he let others go on as normal? (The Holocaust, earthquakes, hurricanes, etc.)?

Speaking for myself, I was just expressing my wish that, somehow, this disaster would be reparable. I didn’t honestly think that there would be any divine intervention.

Whether there is or is not a God is unprovable. The existence of evil, though, seems unquestionable. Furthermore, the vermin who perpetrated these acts will soon come to fully understand that Hell isn’t simply a metaphysical place where bad people go–it can also be delivered by F-15’s.

23

If this is how I, and others, vent our unspeakable anguish, I’d respectably ask to be let to do so. We’re all mourning, venting, seething in different ways. Grief is personal. I surely did not mean to raise any more ire in anyone else.

The OP was merely the almost wordless litany that’s been going through my mind since Tuesday morn. Make of it what you will, but please don’t be upset by it. There’s too much stuff out there to be upset by.

24

Guess what. If we don’t go to war and “destroy” MANY of our fellow human beings (most of whom are innocent) very soon you will not get your wish. If we do nothing, the attacks will get worse. (Can you spell nuclear?)

This is why I don’t believe in god. If I did, I would have to conclude that god allows evil, and this scares the shit out of me.

I am sitting here watching Billy Graham telling a cathedral full of phonies (ok , there are a few decent ones)that the victims of the bombing are all in heaven. What? So they are better off? Then why are we so upset?

So now that they have heard Rev. Graham it is time for them to go and start the killing.

Life is a mystery. It is OK not to understand this mystery.
Of course, if I found out I had cancer this morning, I’d be back at 6 AM Mass Sunday morning in the front row.

Life is a gag…Keep laughing

25

Perhaps I will get a little flamed for this, but when reading the OP, this quote from Watership Down came to me. For some reason, I’m not sure why, I take comfort in it.

Hazel: Lord Frith, you’ve done so much for me already, and I know it’s wrong to ask for even more now, but my people are in terrible danger. I propose a bargain: my life for theirs.
Frith: There is not a day that goes by when a doe does not offer her life for her kittens, or an honest officer of an Owsla his life for his chief’s, but there will be no bargain. What is is what must be.
—Watership Down, Richard Adams.

I do believe in a higher power, and over the last several weeks have had my personal spiritual crisis, this is more than that, and I do believe that what happened is not because of god, but because of people. I think the diety is as horrified at this as we are, but what happens, happens and I would have it no other way.

26

I don’t know why you’d get flamed for it; but I, for one, thank you. I’d completely forgotten that story.

And to the OP: what you said, only moreso. In the past few days I’ve read some heart-rending prose; but nothing nearly as primal and…familiar, I suppose.

Thank you.

27

Kind of like when our beloved moderators fix something around here. I’d take comfort in that.

28

He did exactly that. Something really bad happened and He fixed it. He left a note that has consistently been the best selling (and most given away) note of all time year in and year out.

I can almost understand hurricanes, at least if you believe that Pan is really a god, but for the Holocaust, you should blame Hitler. God let Hitler make choices, just as He lets you make choices. Ought He, in your opinion, to elminate the free will of those who choose evil?

I understand. I think, as I said, that your sentiment is noble and beautiful.

As New York firemen, police, and other rescue workers have proved, the existence of goodness (and therefore God) is also unquestionable. But I do understand what you mean.

Agreed! There should be no violence spared in the pursuit of the cock roaches who did this. They should be swept off the earth like thieves from a temple.

29

[QUOTE]
*Originally posted by djf750 *
**

That is one thing I have never understood about the Christian view of death. So WHAT if they are better off? News flash: when I grieved for my father (I still do, sometimes) it wasn’t because I was worried about HIM, but because I was worried about ME. The same goes for the people killed this week. I’m sure they’re fine, wherever they are, but I’m here, and we’re on the brink of a WAR. I’m scared!

I remember flipping news channels Tuesday night, wondering if this wasn’t just some huge ugly hoax being perpetrated on the world. The only thing I was worried about this week was a geology test I had Tuesday morning; when I finished that test and got in my car and found out all hell had broken loose, I suddenly didn’t care that I knew I’d probably failed it.

Isn’t there a backup of this week somewhere?

30

And just how in fucking hell did He “fix it”? You’re back to being cryptic and obscure, I see.

Well, yes. That would be their punishment.

The existence of goodness does not necessarily prove the existence of God. And you know it. (Or you should.)

31

Oops. Sorry. I guess English can be cryptic to some people. Let me rephrase:

See Jesus.

Teach, Jesus, teach!

See religious leaders.

Run, Jesus, run!

See them kill Jesus.

Get up, Jesus, get up!

See Jesus rise to heaven.

See Mark write.

Write, Mark, write!

You call that punishment? Being absolved of all responsibility for your actions? It is to laugh. Ha.

If Goodness is what you worship, it does. And I do. (And you should.)

32

Libertarian

It must be really difficult to be so dumb, yet think you are some kind of genius.

You have just proved the existence of God - throughout history, no philosopher has ever been able to do so, yet you have. WOW!

Teach me more, brainiac.

33

Having read, most, if not all the posts in this thread, I am stunned by some of it. Not because I am particularly religous but by the out-pouring of emotion.

Nym,

Again, I am not religious but I believe in a God or a Universal Intelligence or whatever. The moment I got off the phone and watched the events on the TV, I cried, I bawled, I was out of control for some time.

But something in my heart knew that there was more to it than just a terrorist attack. That somehow events like that tend to ground many of us into understanding there is more to life than our small lives. We all are connected in some fashion. To some that means through Jesus, some Jewish beliefs, some Buhdda, some Alah (sp), some through a Shaman (sp)…sorry it’s late and my thoughts are a little jerky…but knowing what we know today, as people of this Earth, I believe there is more to it than a simple life and death.

I am not a follower of any religion but I feel in my heart our lives are deeper than just existing. We are more than the sum of our fingers, toes and hair color. We have more than our legs, eyes and voices to speak. There is a purpose, a purpose I don’t understand, not one freaking bit but it’s there. Why? I may not know till I die. I might find it in a small way but I believe that there’s more to what we can physically feel, see or touch. This can’t be all there is. If that’s all there is, this existance on this Earth then what is the purpose?

That’s my main question to most that think that there is no strong reason for us to be here…aka complete atheism. I don’t poopoo the idea as I have been there but something snapped in my life and changed me to an ideal that was more that felt we have more about us, in a very questioning way.

The events in our lives cant change us forever. I hope that people who have no spiritual ties won’t deny it forever. I don’t want them living in a world for them that has no hope beyond what they experience. It’s not a matter of boxing themselves in some form of religion but a matter of hope and prayer. Prayer doesn’t mean you have to live within the confines of going to church, it can be a simple prayer to acknowledge that a friend, loved one or even someone you don’t know will have good will in their lives.

It’s not about a GOD in my eyes, it’s a presence that gives us meaning to the things that happen in our lives. It’s about a people coming together in a means that supports and shows love. It’s about we, as a human race, giving a rat’s ass about the person next to us that has just suffered a tragedy, a birth, a new happiness or just plain in normal status.

It doesn’t have to be a God it can be the understanding that you love, give love and accept love. It can be the fact that you accept the worlds problems and you work with those problems to resolve yourself to be a better person.

For me, it is about a belief in a God, in a Universal Intelligence, something that connects us all. I can’t explain it all that well but knowing there is more to this than our short time on Earth helps me deal with issues I deal with or problems I face.

It’s just damn hard to explain to the religious, the atheists and those like me. Damn hard and I wish I had better words for it.

34

Techchick

How beautiful! Thank you!

leander

Impossible. Only God can make something out of the void.

35

God,

I know I’ve been ignoring you lately, because I wanted to further my own interests, being a teenager is so hard, but you were a teenager too, once. But now I’m so scared. My “big brother” since freshman year will volunteer if it comes down to a draft… and most of my good friends are 17-25, just the age that worries me most. My real big brother may get drafted, and that day I saw him months ago may be the last time I see him for a long time. Please don’t let it get to this- Don’t let more people die, and mostly, in my own selfish way, don’t let my friends die, and me get hurt. I couldn’t live without most of them- Seriously. Not like typical I-couldn’t-live-without teenagerness, like, suicide with a note not-live-without. I just can’t see it happening. Lord, please save us as a whole, even those of us who can’t see your presence in all this… Please help…

Amen

<tears>

~C~

36

See? I thought you were cryptically referring to the terrorism and you were cryptically referring to the Crucifixion and the Gospels.

I thought free will was supposed to be one of the greatest things God gave us. How can it not be a punishment to be deprived of free will and be made a mindless automaton?

37

Uh huh. And when I speak of force in an ethics discussion, do you presume that I am cryptically referring to the product of a philosophy’s mass and acceleration?

Now Jab, be honest. How much thought have you given to this matter? Of your own, I mean.

38

I am an agnostic. I am doubtful about God, about whether he or she exists, about what form God takes, about why we are here, about what role God plays in everyone’s life (whether they acknowledge God or not). I haven’t been to church in 10 years, when I was a strict Catholic and lost my faith.

Yet on Friday, I went to the Basilica of the Assumption, the church my great-grandfather helped build with his own hands, the church that I went to twice a week for the first decade of my life. I pulled down the kneeling bar, and I wept like a baby. I listened to the bells echoing from my church and other churches around the city, and I prayed for the first time in as long as I can remember. Back then I was praying for a happy home, for candy and popularity and new clothes. All the verses and catechism of my youth came back, and I prayed for peace, for comfort and solace, not for myself but for everyone who is hurting right now.

It was a big moment. I can honestly say that I am a different person than I was on Monday, or driving to school Tuesday morning. I lost a lot of my naivity, my innocence, my belief that good always wins over evil, my feeling of safety. But I was given back my faith.

I don’t know what it all means. I still don’t know what’s up with God. I don’t know what religion I want to actively follow, or why I’m alive and so many others aren’t.

But I do know that there must be some reason for this destruction. And my newfound faith is telling me that something good will come of it all, eventually.

One verse kept coming back to me over the past week, even before I went back to church. I think it’s from Job: “Blessed are ye that weep, for ye shall laugh.” It’s not saying everything will ever be perfect again. It’s not claiming that God will solve all your problems. It’s just saying that sooner or later, the darkness will lift, and we’ll all see some light.

39

Nacho4Sara

[…admiring your awesome beauty…]

Thank you.

40

It doesn’t take much thought to realize that I would not want my free will taken from me. To know that I could no longer direct my actions and be ruthlessly directed by someone else, to be that person’s slave and unable or unwilling to rebel would be unbearable.