I was listening to a radio interview with a guy who was involved with the investigation of the recent mass murder in Newtown, CT. He was in the room when the bodies of the children were still cooling, and he helped in the cleanup as well as in dealing with all the grieving families. He mentioned that this event really tested his faith in Jesus, and had made it stronger.
I completely don’t get this. The Christian god is omniscient and omnipotent, so God clearly knew about the murder of all these kids ahead of time, and had the power to stop it if he had felt like it, but preferred not to. That kinda flies in the face of the whole omnibenevolent thing, in my opinion. I don’t understand how a person can confront such horror and come out of it with a stronger faith in something that seems to me just got viscerally disproven. Obviously it can’t be because you think if you worship hard enough, this kind of thing won’t happen, because LOOK, it just did. What’s the thought process, or psychology, or whatever you want to call it here?
Some people will turn to anything to avoid dealing with grief. They often become irrational. It’s the stuff classic literature is made from.
He just wants to believe, that’s all. Whatever happens, he’s going to rationalize it somehow to support his beliefs. It doesn’t make sense to me, either, but then I’m not a believer.
See, one of those kids would have grown up to be a dolphin hunter. And another one would grow up to be a child-abusing priest. So their early deaths save untold misery for future generations of Catholics and dolphins, and even possibly Catholic dolphins.
I know, it doesn’t make sense. But that’s religious faith in a nutshell, emphasis on nuts.
Much more of an IMHO topic…IMO 
My personal reaction to tragedy was to openly become atheist. I had been in my head for years, but a personal tragedy gave me the emotional push to be explicit about it.
Believers set up a system whereby any result confirms their faith. Something good happen to you? God is rewarding you for being a faithful servant. Something bad happen to you? Everything happens for a reason - it builds character or opens some other opportunity or whatever nonsense you want to make up.
Doomsday cultists who set a specific date for the end of the world - when that date comes to pass, and the world doesn’t end - they actually become more convinced and more dedicated to their ideas, they just find a new date.
In what way was he avoiding dealing with his grief? He uses his religious faith to cope with his grief. In fact, I have never noticed Christians as a whole to avoid grief. A few weeks ago I went to a funeral at a Baptist church with the eulogy given by a pastor and he specifically mentioned the grief and pain felt by all those who lost a friend/loved one.
But the OP suggests that some people’s belief is strengthened by tragedy. Which we hear about often enough so there is very likely some truth to it. In that sense, a case can be made for some cognitive dissonance being exhibited by a particular individual.
In times of trouble, you cling more tightly to what is dear to you - it can be really that simple.
Perhaps the strengthened faith is due to the need to believe that there was a higher purpose to the tragedy, and that it wasn’t just a terrible senseless act of violence showing what a cruel, cruel place the universe can be.
Have you seen “The Invention of Lying”? Consider how Ricky Gervais’ mother views her impending death before and after he tells her about the afterlife. That’s it in a nutshell.
Religion provides a social and psychological framework that provides support in difficult situations.
If this guy played Call of Duty when he was stressed out instead of praying and doing church-related things, he probably would feel more strongly about the positive power of video games instead of Jesus.
I don’t see much point in trying to hash out the specific logic of it, since the “why does God let bad things happen to good people and why do people believe in an omnipotent God” is really its own debate (and one that I think is ongoing in this forum right now).
Anecdote isn’t data, but most of the EMT’s/Paramedics I worked with were not big on “gods will” and plenty of jokes along the lines of “defying gods will” and “god wont save you but I will.”
Whatever tattered scraps of religion were left in me when I started that job died a couple months later. People wonder how Police and EMS types can get cynical, its because of the hate and suffering we see inflicted on others, by others, who will still claim to be believers, and expect to go to heaven.
If your faith is in a God who prevents bad things from ever happening, then a tragedy like this is going to weaken or kill such faith; but that’s not the kind of faith that mature Christians have. Everyone who’s been alive and paying attention knows bad things happen, and innocent people get hurt or killed. The Jesus we have faith in was himself tortured and executed.
Tragedy can, and often does, bring people closer together—to each other, and to God.
I couldn’t have said it any better myself. HennaDancer obviously has a limited understanding of Christianity. For anyone with a seriously knowledge of the subject, the answer to his question presents itself.
That sounds dangerously close to “You don’t understand because you’re not a Christian.”
I’ve met plenty of non-Christians who’d be quite capable of answering HennaDancer’s question.
I’m a non-Christian, and I think I could. Faith in a benevolent God is tested constantly by the reality of the world, and its seeming lack of a benevolent outside influence. When faced with an arduous test, such as the massacre, one’s faith will either be broken, or strengthened, by the experience. If you hadn’t previously had to reconcile your faith with such a horrible occurance, doing so means raising the bar of what would make you abandon your faith to a new high. Going forward, an event like, say, failing to achieve a promotion you prayed for, would be less likely to rattle your faith.
It’s simply a matter of that you don’t really feel and know the true strength of something until it is rigorously tested. For all you naysayers, for this guy it might make him more comfortable to call it Jesus or faith, and it might make you more comfortable to call it inner strength or courage or resoluteness. I say what you call it is not as important as being able to call on it.
Considering how he called them home, I’m not sure I would have any more comfort knowing they are in his care now.
His choice assuming he existed, and if this was even done to him. If he wanted to commit suicide, that’s quite different than the killing of innocent children who had no say.
Not for all. The problem of evil has been driving theists crazy even before Christianity.
Some people value comfort more than reality. I call it the “I don’t want to know if my kid is gay or that I have cancer” syndrome.
The value of religion as a placebo for what ails you is only as effective as the belief that fuels it.