(February 8, 2016 at 1:22 am)Rhythm Wrote: Would god violate a rapists free will if he waited until the rapist had made the decision to rape, stepping in after that moment but before the rape occurs to protect the victim?  Nope.  No more than a cop who sees an assault-in-progress and prevents it before serious harm is done has somehow violated the free will of the perpetrator.  

These free wills excuses are just horrid.

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

Okay, it's now obvious you're a POE who likes making up stories to try to convert us 'heathens'.

Yeah, I've heard that one. It 'happened' to a pastor of one of my friends some fifteen years ago, almost exactly the same way, only there was more than one assailant. Same punchline though, almost word for word.

(February 8, 2016 at 1:37 am)Cecelia Wrote: Okay, it's now obvious you're a POE who likes making up stories to try to convert us 'heathens'.

No that's a true story which she really doesn't like to talk about. I don't know what a POE is.

I'd run for the hills if my date started maniacally praying to jesus too.  She's either wishing for armageddon or trying to cast a magic spell.  I'm not going to stick around to see the culmination of either. 

If that's all you can provide, you have nothing of value to me.

The next day she 'talked' to her rapist. Why would she talk to the man who tried to rape her? And of course the story sounds similar to so many other stories people tell. So if you aren't a POE, then your Aunt made it up. It's not a true story at all.

I mean consider it... Jesus helps your Aunt, but all the young children who undoubtedly cry to him for help before they're murdered by their rapists never get that same help. It's insulting. And what of other women who cried to God for help as well?

The claims are highly dubious. If you really and truly believe them... I've got some ocean front property in Kansas for sale. Real cheap. And there's a bridge in Brooklyn. Also they took gullible out of the dictionary, if you donate $500 now, we can get it put back in.

(February 8, 2016 at 1:32 am)scoobysnack Wrote:

(February 8, 2016 at 1:22 am)Rhythm Wrote: Would god violate a rapists free will if he waited until the rapist had made the decision to rape, stepping in after that moment but before the rape occurs to protect the victim?  Nope.  No more than a cop who sees an assault-in-progress and prevents it before serious harm is done has somehow violated the free will of the perpetrator.  

These free wills excuses are just horrid.

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

Even if her prayer was answered how do you prove it was Jesus? Because ghats the one she prayed too? Never mind this is a commonly circulated story with massive holes. Like talking to her raoist the next day? Come on. You can't believe everything people tell you, especially when their religion is involved.

If God wants someone to "learn a lesson", can he do so without people having to ever be raped?

No: He's not so powerful then

Yes: He chooses to use rape because he wants it to happen when he had alternatives

Religious people love their stories, sorry, "anecdotes", whereby reality is subverted for fantasy, or otherwise known as the continuation of delusion.

(February 8, 2016 at 1:32 am)scoobysnack Wrote:

(February 8, 2016 at 1:22 am)Rhythm Wrote: Would god violate a rapists free will if he waited until the rapist had made the decision to rape, stepping in after that moment but before the rape occurs to protect the victim?  Nope.  No more than a cop who sees an assault-in-progress and prevents it before serious harm is done has somehow violated the free will of the perpetrator.  

These free wills excuses are just horrid.

All I can provide is a story my aunt told me. After a high school dance her date took her out behind the school. After a while he pushed her to the ground and tried to rape her. She resisted, but being a very petite female didn't stand much chance. She started praying to Jesus. Suddenly her date looked up and behind her with a startled face, and ran away. She had no idea why, but the next day talked with him who told her a very tall man glowing in light was standing behind her and scared him away.

This is a true story, and I have others. All it takes is a faith in God. I would recommend Jesus since there are many other stories I can share. All you have to do is invite Jesus into your heart, and ask for forgiveness. Jesus will save you. God is real.

Let's operate under the shaky assumption that your story is 100% true, which is very likely not the case. The human mind is extremely susceptible to illusion. I like to use UFO's as a point of comparison. If your aunt's boyfriend had made the claim that he had been abducted by aliens that only he could see, would you be as inclined to believe it, even if he swore up and down and on the graves of his mother, his father, and his dead uncle Perry that he was telling the truth? Eh, probably not. Because that story doesn't fit into what society has conditioned you to believe.  

Every two minutes, someone is sexually assualted. That adds up to hundreds of thousands of rapes a year. Some of them are of children under the age of 12. But now you're here making the assertion that, rather than there being 243,000 rapes that year, there were 242,999, because your god stepped in. Well congrats. But, being as your god is all-powerful and can stop all rapes at any point, he must be held accountable for the other 242,999 that he allowed to happen. A conflict of conscience that convinces him to stop one crime does not cause him to be exempt from the others that he permitted to continue. I'd like you to tell that story to some little 10 year-old girl whose innocence was stolen from her - no doubt her first question would be why such a wonderful, merciful god who is everywhere at once would save your aunt but choose to watch and allow her to suffer a crime that no human being should ever have to endure.