one thing i don't understand bout god/christianity

[leodeo]

i have mental illness and suffer from sever depression and im 24 and became christian at 16 and always was told god helps, heals, etc....

but over the years things have just gotten worse and worse, and i'm at the point where i feel like, even if "god is with me, loves me and is watching over me" ....does he actually do anything to help?

i see so many verses and "motivational pictures" thrown at me talking bout how he feels my suffering, sees my tears etc...but how does any of this affect me and my problems?

i talked to a pastor and he said that "god doesnt directly intervene in our lives because we have free will....but he loves us more than we can ever imagine and only wants the best for us"......wtf?

[Cinjin]

Your pastor has lots of excuses. They all do. You want answers? You will NEVER find them in the Bible. Start reading anything other than a book written by frightened uneducated primitives turned self-proclaimed prophets.

Many of us were once devout Christians. I was too. The greatest thing I ever did for my own life was get rid of that horrible religion.

[Ryantology]

The fact that the Bible is chock-full of overt threats against nonbelief just proves that the inventors of the tale understood that the belief could never survive purely on its own merits.

[Minimalist]

i talked to a pastor and he said that "god doesnt directly intervene in our lives because we have free will....but he loves us more than we can ever imagine and only wants the best for us"......wtf?

Your pastor is full of shit....like all of these holy joes.

[Mxwll]

It is easy to rely on something that claims to have all the answers and hard when you discover it does not. Reach out to humans, like you are here. Seek out people who will try to understand you and offer you human kindness untainted with dogmatic requirements. Join a humanist group, take a philosophy class, or just talk to people here. Love and compassion are human virtues, look for them among your peers.

[Optimistic Mysanthrope]

Examples of things that God can do which would impinge on our free will:

• Direct intervention in our lives
  

Examples of thing that God can do which would not impinge on our free will :

• Kill people
  
• Kill lots of people (i.e. genocide)
  
• Destroy cities
  
• Flood the entire planet
  
• Throw rocks around
  
• Set fire to plant life
  
• Have a wrestling match with humans
  
• Inflict plagues upon entire nations
  
• Impregnate virgins
  
• Talk to people
  
• Part the red sea
  
• Draw self portraits on toast

[Ben Davis]

---

Examples of things that God can do which would impinge on our free will:

• Direct intervention in our lives
  

Examples of thing that God can do which would not impinge on our free will :

• Kill people
  
• Kill lots of people (i.e. genocide)
  
• Destroy cities
  
• Flood the entire planet
  
• Throw rocks around
  
• Set fire to plant life
  
• Have a wrestling match with humans
  
• Inflict plagues upon entire nations
  
• Impregnate virgins
  
• Talk to people
  
• Part the red sea
  
• Draw self portraits on toast

---

Yup, this has to be the biggest contradiction in christianity as it trashes everything that god has ever 'done', the power of prayer, claims to omnipotence... if god is 'non-interventionist', he is a useless god.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

"god doesnt directly intervene in our lives because we have free will....but he loves us more than we can ever imagine and only wants the best for us"

It's called a:

[Einharjar]

Actually, god does impinge on free will. Optimistic gave several examples that do: genocide, city purges, the flood, egyptian plagues, all resulted in the deaths of children whom never grew beyond the age of accountability. This means these persons never the option to experience choice of will in either profession of faith, or denial of fiath. And if that's not good enough? The fall, Christ and the end times are all orchestrated by god since the very beginning. He purposely created Lucifer knowing he'd rebel, her purposely placed the tree of knowledge of good and evil knowing it would lead to the first sin, he purposely let mankind fall so that he could send his son to be murdered as a martyr and he is purposely letting the antichrist come so that he can create the Tribulations of the End Times. Still want more? Fine.
Did you know that the plagues of Egypt would have never happened if god did not intervene with free will? That's right, the douche "hardened pharaohs heart" making Ramses choose to NOT let the Hebrews go. Prior to this intervention, the man was quite convinced by the first Miracles to let them go but bloop, god apperently plays our lives like a SIM City fetish and adorns us with cataclysms because its fun I guess, no matter what we decide.

He does nothing to help if he exists or not. Your fate is sealed if he does as he will just choose your life for you, and if he doesn't exist? Well then atleast you have more freedom than what was shown in the old testament.

[leodeo]

great posts!

this is the christian crap that pisses me off the most

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/confessions.asp

ben stein, billy graham and his daughter all basically saying the reason we are having so many problems like terrorism, hurricane katrina and etc is because we kicked god out of schools and government so he removed his blessings from over us :|

this was shared on facebook and hundreds of people were like "omg thats so tru, i couldnt have said it better myself!!!"

and i just got so mad i threw my tablet across the room, but im thankful for this forum because u guys seem to be the only ones that see christianity to be a lot of BS like i do.