Telling children that they are going to hell is abusive?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I'm happy to be a test case for this.  I lost an eye when I was 17.  There are numerous photos of me with and without my eyepatch.  The incident in which I lost my eye was reported by news outlets around the world.  There are literally hundreds of people are can stand witness to the fact that my left eye is missing, including the surgeons who operated on me.

The day my eye grows back is the day I'll start believing in miracles.

Boru

So if the miracle happens to you you'll believe but if it happens to others than not so much? An what would believe.? You wouldn't be likely to conclude that it was the God of Israel or of the Christians because Scripture is a bunch of trash. I don't want to put words in your mouth but it's a safe bet that's what you think. And I still don't get it. If someone has parkinsons or cancer one day but not the next how is that something that you would not bring you to believe in miracles. You're a very demanding guy it seems. Not just any seemingly miraculous cure will do. It has to be of a very specific type.

Using the example of my eye was just that - an example.  I'd happily accept as a miracle Oscar Pistorius' legs growing back, or the girl in Atlas' video waking up tomorrow with two arms.

In fact, I'd accept as miraculous ANY event for which there is no possible mundane explanation.  Simply because we don't yet know why some diseases spontaneously go into remission doesn't mean there isn't a more prosaic explanation than miracles.

Further, plenty of instances of diseases appearing to cure themselves occur across religious lines.  If a devout Hindu with Parkinson's suddenly became free of the condition, I'm not sure we could confidently attribute it to the God of Israel.

And you're perfectly correct that you shouldn't put words in my mouth, as I'm honestly OK with some parts of scripture, such as the bits about caring for the poor, being kind to strangers, the injunctions against anger, and so on.  It's just the goddy bits I have an issue with.

Boru

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