So a few months ago, I got me a prime ticket to see my beloved Knicks take on the Hornets in Charlotte. Was looking forward to it.
Then, more recently, I realized that I had a three-day weekend coming up, and I wanted to use that to travel to see my girlfriend.
I tried to sell the ticket, but no takers. So it looked like I was either going to go to the game and wind up driving until 5AM to get to my girlfriend, or miss the game and be out $55.
But then God stepped in!
God saw fit to take the life of a Hornet player a couple days ago. Because of his funeral, they are postponing the game! Which means I get to see my girlfriend at a normal time this evening, without getting exhausted working all day and driving all night, and see the game when it is rescheduled! Perfect!
So I want to thank God for this miracle! He helped me out of a tough situation!
In fact, I also want to further thank God for having Martin Luther King assassinated, for his act got me the three-day weekend to begin with!
Yep, God sure DOES work in mysterious ways… It’s a miracle!
Now, now Satan. That’s pretty close to a troll. The vast majority of theists here do not spout such stuff. I an sure they are annoyed by an allegation that they must think like that as I am by allegations that I must hate God, or be a clone of Ms. O’Hare, or have no basis for my moral code.
Besides, how can it be a GD if you don’t ask a question?
Ah, Yasss, Stan you must remember that I take the high moral ground whenever I can to show what a “lady” I am. So honest, so fair, so gentle when I remonstrate.
Apologies all, pardon me while I adjust my parasol…
I do hope that parasol is shoved firmly up your ass. And if it isn’t, may I shove it there for you?
(I am a patient person, but for God’s sake even I have limits. Read the http://www.straightdope.com/ubb/Forum5/HTML/000521.html to find out why I am peeved. And I accept fully any rebuke I get for posting an obscene insult in GD.)
Well, I think I knew where Satan is going with this, and I must say I agree; ie, people who say “Thank God” when something bad happens to other people but not them are nuts.
I worked a temp. job about 6 years ago now with a lady who talked about like Satan does, only she really meant it.
The first day of our job was the day after the MLK Day earthquake of 1994 in California. She had been in LA over the Christmas holiday, a month and a half before the earthquake. Upon hearing about the earthquake (she hadn’t heard about it when it actually happened because she only watched Christian television and didn’t even know what CNN was), she immediately gave thanks that it hadn’t happened until she was back in Oregon and repeated, “God is merciful, God is merciful.” I thought (but did not say), “Yeah, tell that to all the people who lost their homes, loved ones, or own lives in that quake.”
But then some people are more honest than others. I read on the Skeptic’s Dictionary page that the president of the Philipines actually gave thanks to God after the December 1999 ferry sinking because the people who drowned must have been wicked since they weren’t spared. He called it a Christmas miracle.
So the debate is are people with this mindset nuts or not? I vote affirmative.
So there
“I hope life isn’t a big joke, because I don’t get it,” Jack Handy
Are you crazy? Apologize to Gaudere at once, please. I assure you that you are mistaken about her. As it happens, you can find a picture of her in the BBQ Pit. Go see for yourself, and don’t come back here till you do.
You say you admire me, so I respectfully request this of you as your mentor.
Yeah, I agree that they’re nuts. No one should claim to know God’s will (not that that stops anybody). I wish we had someone who would defend their point of view, though, or else this isn’t going to be much of a debate. MKM? Nav?
If God has a will, what does it matter who’s mentioned in it, since when He dies, so does the Universe.
And where’d he get a lawyer!?
Oh, different kind of will.
Judges 14:9 - And [Samson] took thereof in his hands, and went on eating, and came to his father and mother, and he gave them, and they did eat: but he told not them that he had taken the honey out of the carcase of the lion.
Thanks, Lib. I admit I’d rather have Phaedrus raving on this MB than in private emails to me (not that this in any way means I condone his behavior here in the slightest!). The email was kind of creepy.
Let me say this. We should never take other people’s misfortune as a ‘divine blessing’.
Another, personal opinion, I would not attibute Satan’s ‘blessing’ as from God, but I wouldn’t try to limit God and say there wasn’t some ‘divine guidance’ in the way things worked out.
I didn’t really think they did, but perhaps they know some who do and could explain it? I just don’t think it’s going to be much of a GD. (Although Satan’s example was amusing. But, heck, he didn’t have to make one up! I’m sure we can find someone saying a tornado was God’s will or something online.)
Gaudere: There is a scripture that talks about God taking the bad and using it for good. Can’t remember it off the top of my head.
In recent memory there was Wedgwood Baptist Church that had the mad gunman a few months ago. The pastor there saw many good things happen in that tradgedy. IIRC The people that died, were all strong Christians (so maybe the guy was accurate), but many bullets missed (so maybe he isn’t). I’m sure there is a site somewhere with the details. In the end, we do not know the mind of God, or (Brian aside) the mind of Satan. To try to nail it down is kind of fruitless, IMO.
