Some People Think Different Things About God And Heaven

the first thoughts are the seeds for all future thoughts .. we want to sow good seeds here so we can grow strong plants.

 

i would argue that even after "finding this out" that the kid still hasnt learned to think and reason on his/her own, nor developed the skills to do so. so he finds out, but why is this so? why does he take the word of the kids at school over his parents ... can he not deduce on his own that the idea of samta clause is irrational and actually superfluous reasoning?

 

I was five years old when my older sister, Carol, who was fourteen, told me that the Tooth Fairy was, in fact, mom. I was young, but I remember my response. All thought stopped, and I stood there thinking about whether it was possible that it was my mom. In our house, you put your tooth in a glass of water and then put the glass on the kitchen window sill. In the morning, the tooth was gone, and there was a dime at the bottom of the glass. Took me about ten seconds to determine that it could easily be done by mom. So, I went to her and asked if there was really a Tooth Fairy or if she was the one taking the tooth and putting the dime in the glass. She didn’t answer right away, and she had a strange look on her face. I’d seen the look before. Something was up; she was hiding something.

Without looking at me, she finally said, “Did somebody tell you that there wasn’t a Tooth Fairy?”

I said, “Yeah, Carol told me it was you.”

“Well she’s wrong,” she said. “Now go tell her I want her.”

I went outside and found Carol and told her that mom wanted her. A little later, Carol came to me and said that she was kidding about mom being the Tooth Fairy. She was visibly subdued. It was obvious that she'd been yelled at or something. Even at five, I knew a conspiracy when I saw one. There was no fuckin’ Tooth Fairy. Later, I found out about the Easter Bunny, and then Santa Claus.

On the up side, I learned to not believe everything I was told--not even if it was my mother who told me. Funny thing is that, even after all that, it still took a lot of years before I decided I was being lied to about the existence of the biblical god. I attribute this lag in the application of critical thinking skills when it came to the Almighty to the fact that, unlike Easter and Christmas, the adults were really playing this one to a tee. Every Sunday since the day I was born, lots and lots of people filled churches, sang songs, and talked to God, all while holding their sacred book. And even if you stayed home instead of going to church, there were religious programs all morning on most of the TV stations. There was no escape!

But like I said, the upside is that I learned that, despite who it is that tells you something is true, or how many people believe it, it just might turn out to be bullshit. So, even if the Pope--especially if the Pope--tells you something, think twice, if not three times.

 

If I had been more thoughtful back then, after finding out that my mom had lied about there being a Santa, I would have gotten even with her. I would have gone to her a couple days before Christmas and said, "Mom, if someone was hiding outside on Christmas Eve and wanted to sneak up on Santa and hit him in the head with a baseball bat and steal all the presents he had, and then turn his reindeer loose and burn his sleigh, would his magical powers protect him?"

 

in a way, i almost have to feel sorry for anyone who's that deliberately self blinded, but i do have to agree with your point.

 

People think different things about God and Heaven because both concepts are essentially meaningless, giving people a lot of room to associate them with things that either appeal to them personally or that they've been taught to value through faith or the media or drugs or whatever.

I find more comfort in the fact that nothing really matters in the grand scheme of things than in some promise of a reward, punishment or judgment of some kind at the end of it all.

 

Yeah, every rule has an exception.

I can easily counter her claim, which makes it a 50/50 equation.
She claims depression and getting fucked up, but I claim no big deal.

And not only about Santa, but the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy, religious figures and so on.
There's no more or less proof of God than there is of Santa Claus.


(Not to say it isn't completely fucked that, as a society, we agree to lie to our kids for years on end about mythological figures bringing them gifts and not that parent/s bust their asses to get everything for them.)

 

Woah... you have to hold on a sec there, cowboy.
Faith and belief are extremely powerful tools and nowhere near meaningless.

For instance, I have a much different outlook on religion now than I did 25 years ago.
But, I can't deny that a group prayer can have serious, palpable results.

For instance, atound 25 - 30 years ago, I actually watched my leg, which had been a bit shorter than the other leg, grow to match the length of my other leg... due to group prayer. (And has been fine since then)
Whether that was a heavenly gift or the power of collective human energy is up to interpretation, but the 'vehicle' was clearly a group of people concentrating on the same goal through a shared experience (healing prayer, in this case).

 

I didn't say that faith and belief were meaningless, I said that Heaven and God were meaningless terms.
People just project whatever attributes they imagine onto them.

It's the same sort of fantasizing that people do when they imagine themselves with celebrities.

 

Ok, gotcha... I misunderstood.

So yeah, the messed up part is that most religions are all based on the same source material.
Judaism, Catholicism, Christianity, Islam... all based on the same material.
Same God.


It's like choosing Pepsi or Coke.

 

except those aren't most religions. most denominations/sects people in america are familiar with, are of those three. which are actually successive iterations of the same religion, just older and newer iterations/updates/upgrades to it. so naturally THOSE are going to resemble each other closely. and those you've named are the 22nd, 23rd, and 24th releases of it. (protestantism isn't even a full upgrade. its like 23.1, or 23.2 if you count the gnostics) but there ARE some spiritual principals, nearly every brand name system of belief DO have in common. ('eastern', 'indginous', and 'other', along WITH, the 'aramaic' ones as you've mentioned)

 

Did you measure your legs before and after? Were there witnesses to this other than you? Were you expecting this happen, as in praying for this very thing? Were you on any kind of medications? Do you have a history of mental illness, drug use, or suggestibility? Are you deeply religious? Did you contact any kind of medical or scientific authority regarding your leg both before this incident, and afterwards in the spirit of sharing this knowledge of mankind and researching it further? Do you think there is any kind of explanation that does not invoke the paranormal, or a breaking of the laws of nature?

Do you believe that God has a plan for this world? For you? Do you believe that your asymmetric legs were part of that plan, since that's how you were born? Is prayer then a way to change God's plan? If so, what kind of plan is it, if he's willing to change it just from a few people closing their eyes and holding hands and asking him? Why did god make your leg grow slightly longer thanks to prayer, but won't cure your cancer if you get it? Or won't stop an earthquake from dropping a church ceiling on 100 innocent old ladies? Do you think god likes to show his existence through "little hints" like this, including but not limited to appearing on toast and giving people good mortgages from the bank after lots of prayer? Why won't god just show his existence in some conclussive way to all mankind? Our eternal souls are at risk, mind you.

Finally, if you had just lost your leg outright, why wouldn't god heal you? Why won't god heal amputees?

Just some questions that immediately enter my consciousness upon reading/hearing stories like yours, and I wonder how many of these questions occured to you, and how many you asked yourself truthfully.

 

I have a friend who claims he was healed from a wound after sleeping in a pyramid (we have such things in Oklahoma.) And another friend claims to be able to see auras and offered to teach me how to do it, too. Both of these guys are otherwise normal, rational people and not at all religious. So I store this information in my X-files pending further information. I know that both of them have used psychedelic drugs, so if I were really pursuing this scientifically that would be an area I might focus in on.

 

I don't remember measuring my legs at any point.
There was an entire room of people (a few dozen or so) who were there, but probably only a few who witnessed it as it happened.
I didn't expect anything when I went to that church... it was just another boring day at church with my mom and sister... albeit, a church we hadn't been to before.
I wasn't on medication then, now or ever.
I have no history of mental illness or suggestibility... I do have a history of drug use, but it didn't start until years after this incident.
I am not deeply religious, but I used to be.
Yes, I do think there is a non-supernatural explanation, which I mentioned already... collective human willpower. (I do think a collective concentration of energy can accomplish some feats.)

I don't know who or what "God" is... or if there even is a "God" as most people currently think of him.
So, no, I don't believe there is a definite plan by an all-seeing/knowing/present being of ultimate power.
(This last bit meaning the rest of your questions are useless to me.)


The whole story:
I went to a doctor because I had back pains.
The doctor said it was due to unequal hips or leg lengths or something.
I went to a new church with my mom and sister.
The pastor asked if anyone had any issues... I didn't respond.
My mom urged me to raise my hand because of the back pains, so eventually I raised my hand.
What ended up happening was an extremely emotional outpouring of concern and empathy from everyone in that tiny church.
They gathered around as the pastor held my foot in his hand.
They all prayed for awhile.
At some point, there was a trembling in my leg and the pastors hands holding my foot.
I sat and watched, in awe and disbelief, as my leg grew about a half an inch to match the length of my other leg.
From that exact moment forward, that back pain was gone.


I used to be very religious.
I don't know what I am now.
But I can't deny that I was healed that day.
Whether it was God or a collective human energy, I don't know.
But something healed me that day.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ3qZE__W9E

 

you have lost all credibility.

(dont worry, just to me. unk: )

 

could aliens have come down and somehow regrown his leg half an inch?

some ancient astronaut theories predict.....YES.

 

i can't imagine why, but i'm sure some alien kid might have thought it a great joke to do so. aliens are just people. why wouldn't some be as kind and generous as our own? if not more so.

like gods and so many other things we can never be sure of, might or might not, the one as easy as the other.

 

Why?