The legitimacy of prayer is beside the point, which is this: the OP comes off as a complete dick. He calls this facebook person his friend, but the fact is, his friendship is strictly conditional, and the condition is, “you cannot hold beliefs, traditions, or opinions which differ from mine.” Now, if this facebook friend attacks with his beliefs, then by all means, defriend. But this supposed friend is asking for help and compassion, and you’re here calling him an idiot because he used the word “prayer” instead of “wish” or “hope.”
Defriend him, but not because of anything he did to you. Do it because you clearly care nothing for him.
Your statement about what Christians believe is flatly false. Christian doctrine includes, for instance, the Fall of Man, which God did not approve of. Therefore, obviously, you’re wrong when you say, “Christians believe … no action goes unseen or unapproved by God”. Nothing more can be said on the matter.
It seems you’re more interested in delivering sermons about what Christians believe than in actually asking any Christian what we believe. If you gave it a moment’s thought, however, you’d realize that such a stance is inane. I am a Christian and you are not. There is no way that you can know more about what I believe than I myself know about what I believe. You are obviously unfamiliar with even a cursory outline of Christian beliefs. To be wrong is excusable, but to continue insisting that you’re right after being informed that you’re wrong is a different thing entirely.
Rita Klaus’ healing is not anecdotal. It is a well-documented case, owing to the fact that over a dozen doctors had worked on her case before the healing and investigated the facts after it occurred. If you want to read their testimony, it’s reported in Remarkable Recovery or in summary in The Miracle Detective. The doctors testify, and it’s clear even from the quick description I linked to earlier, that this is not merely a case of the disease going into remission. Klaus has been wheelchair-bound for many years, her muscles had deteriorated to almost nothing, some of her bones were warped or fallen out of place, some of her ligaments had been cuts during surgery, she was nearly blind, yet all of this was healed in a few hours and she was restored to good health.
As your your “what about them” argument, that’s another of the lame arguments that most people grew out of years ago. A miraculous healing is a gift from God. When a person receives a gift, that’s a good thing, not a cause for resentment among people who didn’t receive the gift. If my grandmother gives me a barrel of popcorn, should the rest of the planet get mad because she didn’t give me a barrel of popcorn? And even if they did, would that in any way cast doubt on the fact that it was her who gave me the barrel of popcorn?
I’m curious, how do you know this was a result of your God’s ‘good will’ as opposed to Ahirim’s trickery? It seems to me that convincing people that Yahweh did something instead of Ahura Mazda would be a sufficient reason for doing such magic.
I went to a private school for 6 years while they brainwashed me with the silly nonsense you believe, so don’t tell me I don’t know about Christianity. I know that it makes people think illogically, and I know that it closes people’s minds and lets them get away with being judgmental people under the guise of it being their “morals.” I also know that it prevents people from thinking critically (coincidentally why so many religious people think evolution is a farce). Just the fact that you’ve admitted that you became religious after you were able to think critically and question things is certainly something I wouldn’t publicly and proudly proclaim…
Oh please, people of ALL religions (or lack thereof) who have illness are miraculously “cured” daily. Your anecdote isn’t going to make your argument any more powerful. According to your logic, either such recovers never happen to non-religious people, or God simply hates a lot of religious people who do get such diseases and who die by the truckload daily. It’s ridiculous that you’re cherry-picking one example and trying to use that as credible evidence on this message board of all places.
Did you read something different from what I wrote? I didn’t say any of those things. And if I were a real dick, I’d have confronted said friend about their dumb beliefs, but alas, I came here instead.
The friendship isn’t conditional. I can disagree with my friends on points and still be considered their friend. I did not say “come to your senses or begone!”
I simply dislike all forms of stupidity, whether it causes someone to believe in God, or that Obama was born in Kenya, or that vaccines are bad for you. It’s all the same, unfounded, bullshit that rational, critically thinking people don’t fall for. It’s all ignorance, and that is (supposed to be) the enemy of this site.
I’m an Epicopalian; we let gays marry. What else ya got?
Frankly I find it intolerant that you want to stop someone else from posting something that is important to them on their own wall. Should we also ban people from posting about politics? Or music we don’t like? You’re just being self-centered. For heaven’s sake, just Hide your friend from your feed already, or keep your outrage to yourself.
Why is it they are always ‘cured’ of some horrific disease instead of…oooooh, I don’t know…mis-fucking-diagnosed?
Or why don’t they do stories on the families that have been devestated by chronic disease and how praying for them didn’t do JACK SHIT. All it does is make the sick person feel slightly better mentally Which is fine and dandy, but it doesn’t take away the crushing depression and loneliness that is their fucking lives. but physically, it’s all the same. What it does is let the Do Gooders feel they are doing GOOD when infact they are doing FuckAll for the sick or dying. That’s right, I said it. They are doing FuckAll. This is why people who are chronically ill and wasting away LOSE ALL THEIR GODDAMN FRIENDS. Because they are all ‘praying’ for them instead of actually doing something for them.
At every one of my brothers’ funerals, the people the show up for them MAYBE three actually were regular visitors in the shit-situation that has been my family’s live for a long time. I’ve long to go up on the stage…errr…altar and shame all them Do Gooders, but I think I’ll wait until it’s my Mom’s funeral. Then I’ll let lose. Ok, I won’t. But I can have a dream sequence about it all and have some kind of branding device to let the world see their epic fail.
Sorry, bit of a rant.
Well, gosh, Skammer, I find you pretty intolerant for wanting to ban the OP from posting about his annoyances. I mean, since apparently now expressing annoyance with something is identical to wanting it to be completely banned.
Yeah, I’m religious (admittedly, Zen Buddhist) and I’m pro gay marriage rights. Take your strawman and put it up in a field somewhere, at least it’ll scare crows away that way.
I didn’t suggest anything like that, I just said it was stupid. He can post about it if wants to, and we can respond to it. Just like we’re doing. But he said:
Maybe “ban” is too strong but he’s pretty comfortable telling people what they can and cannot post on their own Facebook wall.
One can be religious and allow gay people to marry.
Just because I am Christian does not mean that am believe in the ‘literal bible’ or the leviticus nonsense.
In fact, my husband’s minister is openly gay and they are one of the first churches to accept openly gay members.
You really hate Christians, don’t you? What a shame. We really are pretty nice people, in general. Or at least we try to be nice to others based on the tenets of our beliefs.
I thought we weren’t supposed to make generalizations about Christians.
No, seriously. I’ve known plenty of nice, pleasant Christians. I’ve also known plenty of hateful and intolerant Christians. I wouldn’t say that Christians are generally hateful and intolerant, but I also wouldn’t say that Christians are generally nice and pleasant.
