on question for religious people

Author: Lunar108

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Lunar108
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Why hasn't a "god" ever healed an amputee?
I've just copied this question from facebook and I'm just asking for help here .
Wylted
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@Lunar108
They'll be healed when they die. In heaven it will be as if they still have legs. Why the fuck would God heal a paraplegic?


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Why doesn't God show us any pictures from Heaven?
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This is the dumbest question I've ever seen in my entire life. Until I read the second question.
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@Polytheist-Witch
don't you mean the hardest question ever 
It's ok to say I don't know
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No I don't mean hardest I mean stupidest. The gods don't heal anybody of anything. And human beings can't grow limbs back it's not in our DNA. 
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It could be about plausible deniability.  God will miraculously heal someone but leaves room for doubt.  Faith is asked for by God and a person only has faith if there's room for doubt.
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@Lunar108
if bad thing, why doesn't do anything about it

The Problem of Evil has been debunked trillions of times. Next

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@Dr.Franklin
@Lunar108
A Zedku for Doc and Lunar.


And floaty about GODS have also been debunked trillions of times.

(Just referencing  your dodgy statistic Doc).

Not that it makes a lot of difference,

Because all the relevant data,

Is, out there floating around,

Anyway.

So in simple terms,

A GOD has never healed an amputee,

Because GOD is a concept.

Though amputees do heal,

They just don't regrow,

The bit that was amputated.

Though,

Some go on to be,

Athletes.

Whereas,

Some entire people,

Go on to be,

Fat and lazy.
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@Lunar108
Why hasn't a "god" ever healed an amputee?
Who said God hasn't? 

I think the better question would be why doesn't God heal every amputee? 


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@Wylted
They'll be healed when they die. In heaven it will be as if they still have legs. Why the fuck would God heal a paraplegic?
It depends really doesn't? If they repent and turn to Jesus - they will receive a resurrection body. Otherwise - they won't.  

Yes, even amputees and paraplegics go to Hell. 
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@FLRW
Why doesn't God show us any pictures from Heaven?
But he has - haven't you read Genesis and Revelation and every book between?  There are many pictures of heaven. 
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@Polytheist-Witch
This is the dumbest question I've ever seen in my entire life. Until I read the second question.
People do that. Including me unfortunately. We ask dumb questions.  


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@Lunar108
don't you mean the hardest question ever 
It's ok to say I don't know
No. It is not a hard question. The harder question is the one I asked as a better question. Why doesn't God heal every amputee? 
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@n8nrgmi
It could be about plausible deniability.  God will miraculously heal someone but leaves room for doubt.  Faith is asked for by God and a person only has faith if there's room for doubt.
Hmmm - your brain works on a different level to mine.   If the purpose of all that God does is to bring glory to himself - a worthy and honorable thing to do if not only you deserve it but if done in true humility - - then God would never need to deny anything,

Also I don't agree that faith requires doubt.   Reasonable faith leaves no room for doubt.  Blind faith does. 

God heals lots of people. And lots of people God does not heal.  It is not a matter of faith. It is a matter of why. God chose not to heal Paul.  Why was that?  It was too teach Paul that grace was sufficient.  Yet God did choose to heal lots of people - and many of them never came to faith. Why is that? 


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@Polytheist-Witch
You don't have to be rude about it. 
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@Tradesecret
They'll be healed when they die. In heaven it will be as if they still have legs. Why the fuck would God heal a paraplegic?
It depends really doesn't? If they repent and turn to Jesus - they will receive a resurrection body. Otherwise - they won't.  

Yes, even amputees and paraplegics go to Hell. 

You know God still loves you, even if you go to hell. Hell is not fire and brimstone. God believes in free will.. your death means that you will be merely separated from God, or as separated as is possible with an omnipresent entity. In hell, you will not be tortured. You'll get your arms and legs back. You'll also still have the opportunity to repent and be with God. 
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@Lunar108
I rarely stray in this forum, but here I am today.

This question essentially falls down the line of “why are bad things happening” / “why was I not granted the miracles of others?”

The answer is that any miracle is considered extreme grace and a chance to live out a plan God had for you. 

But keep in mind one is not entitled to any sort of grace because of our sins. We deserve misery on Earth and Hell alike.

The only miracle that every human alive has been granted is the death of Jesus on the cross and resurrection three days later. That miracle and sacrifice is what saves God’s people from Hell. All one has to do join God’s people is accept that Jesus is the Lord and Savior.
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@Mharman
Bad is a concept relative to the concept of good.

People do things is the bottom line.

Some things we like,

And somethings we don't like.

And some people like things that we don't like,

And some people don't like things that we do like.

And in the same vein,

A miracle is just something that happens,

Not by magic,

But because it can.

Miracle is a concept relative to actual possibility.
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@Wylted
Why the fuck would God heal a paraplegic?

Why ever would he not?  Why did Jesus only cure only  a few "lepers" and not simply eradicate leprosy from the face of the earth? Why cure only a few blind men  when he could have eradicated all blindness from the face of the earth? 
Why didn't Jesus raise his cousin and the" greatest prophet" that ever lived John the Baptist from being dead ?

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@Stephen
It's pointless.  I will explain why it's pointless in a bit. I think it's worth going over whether he healed anybody at all. I know you probably would say to yourself "obviously he didn't heal anybody, he is a fraud or fake". However, presuming that these miracles took place, Jesus credited people for their faith usually. Jesus really never took credit for these healing and instead flatly stated they were healed through their faith. 

He has also said. "If one has the faith of a mustard seed, they can move mountains" . So these people healed themselves. 

More to the point though. It's pointless to cure leprosy, and honestly we don't know whether God did cure leprosy. Nobody seems to suffer from it anymore. However if somebody is blind or diseased or handicapped, they at worst live with it for like 100 years,  in those times it was like 35 years. 

That is nothing compared with eternity. So what if somebody suffers for 30 years, when they have eternity . Why would God cure them? That suffering on a grand scale in their lifetime, is almost like 2 minutes of suffering 

You also dismiss other explanations of things. God doesn't exactly have human morality. You are missing that, maybe he just doesn't give a shit. He doesn't care if you or I suffer and for how long. 

Him not giving a shit, doesn't disprove his existence, just as good things happening doesn't prove his existence. 
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The concept of God is incoherent. God is conceived of as a (supernatural) being that is eternal, omnipresent, omnipotent, omniscient, all good, all just and all merciful. These attributions appear to create logical difficulties, sometimes singly, sometimes when taken together, though it is in some cases necessary to add facts about the world (such as the existence of evil) to create the incoherence. In such cases, it is the whole picture of the nature of God plus aspects of reality that is held to be incoherence. The concept of God was created by early man as an opiate to ease the pain when his children were eaten by wolves. 
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Join together 100 billion neurons—with 100 trillion connections—and you have yourself a human brain. Once this is destroyed you no longer exist.
This is how this simulation we are in was created.
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@Wylted
Why the fuck would God heal a paraplegic?

Why ever would he not?  Why did Jesus only cure only  a few "lepers" and not simply eradicate leprosy from the face of the earth? Why cure only a few blind men  when he could have eradicated all blindness from the face of the earth? 
Why didn't Jesus raise his cousin and the" greatest prophet" that ever lived John the Baptist from being dead ?

It's pointless. 
But it obviously wasn't pointless to Jesus was it? Otherwise why bother curing these few blind and leprous individuals. He must have had a reason. 


He has also said. "If one has the faith of a mustard seed, they can move mountains"

Yes he did didn't he.  I wonder what that actually means. 

 Mother Teresa is said to have had more faith than a mustard seed but her faith or her prayers didn't save a single suffering baby in those dying rooms of Calcutta. Maybe mustard seeds in Jesus's time were the size of mountains.


Do you have enough faith to move a mountain, Wylted?


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@Stephen
Mother Teresa is said to have had more faith than a mustard seed but her faith or her prayers didn't save a single suffering baby in those dying rooms of Calcutta. Maybe mustard seeds in Jesus's time were the size of mountains.
I'm not too familiar with what happened in Calcutta. I also can't know how much faith she had. I know we can read portions of her diary discussing.

Do you have enough faith to move a mountain, Wylted?
The mustard seed example can get pretty deep philosophically. I think above the level of most who gravitate towards the religion forum.  Think Sartre, but some other existential philosophers as well. 

Why would you assume the faith of a mustard seed, is a small amount of faith? 

A mustard seed grows into what? 

We are getting into new thought now. You believe something is already done and it is done. When a child grows into an adult, his body is responding to his faith he will grow. Do you have that much faith, you will grow a 3rd leg? If so, it will happen. 

The mustard seed also has that faith. Just completely knowing it will grow. It does. Jesus credits the faith of those healed with healing them. He doesn't make it happen. He does take credit for some miracles, such as turning water into wine or walking on water, but he gives credit to his faith for those things, not some magical property. 

So when you say. 

But it obviously wasn't pointless to Jesus was it? Otherwise why bother curing these few blind and leprous individuals. He must have had a reason. 

It doesn't make sense. Jesus did not cure those people. Their faith cured them. Jesus was merely a tool for them. When he brought Lazarus from the dead, he said Lazarus was merely sleeping, almost crediting the parents of Lazarus with having so much faith Jesus could raise him, that the past changed in order to accommodate their faith. Jesus did nothing. 

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Well, in your own example from Mathew and the mountain  we are talking just a tiny amount of faith - the size of a mustard seed - that is said to enable one to move a mountain. Regardless of little things growing into big things.

Do you have enough faith to move a mountain, Wylted?


Jesus did not cure those people. Their faith cured them. 

Well that is not what scripture states, is it? In fact it mentions nothing of faith when curing the leper. It simply says the man requested he be cured and  "Jesus reached out his hand his and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean". So here there is direct contact. No mention of Jesus telling the man he would be cured just by having a little  "faith" and he will be cured. Why not?

Same with the blind man. Jesus made contact with his by spitting first on his fingers and rubbing the mans eyes. Again, no mention of Jesus telling the man would be cured just by  having  a little "faith" and he will be cured. Why not?

In fact neither Matthew 8: 1 - 4, Mark 1: 40 - 45, and Luke 5: 12 - 15 mentions nothing of faith playing any part at all in these instances.

And again here. These people just brought along relatives with one disability or another and not a single mention of them not having faith or having any faith at all. Not even a tiny amount the size of a mustard seed:


Matthew 15:30 King James Version

30 And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:

When he brought Lazarus from the dead

 Has it ever crossed your mind that these ancient stories may simply amount to nothing more that a initiation of sorts and were not "miracles " at all?



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@Wylted
You know God still loves you, even if you go to hell. Hell is not fire and brimstone. God believes in free will.. your death means that you will be merely separated from God, or as separated as is possible with an omnipresent entity. In hell, you will not be tortured. You'll get your arms and legs back. You'll also still have the opportunity to repent and be with God. 
Can you demonstrate these doctrines of yours from the Bible or are they just your understanding of how things work? 

You know God still loves you, even if you go to hell.
How and why would you say that? It is true God loves the world so much.  Yet, what is the world in that passage referring to? Elsewhere we read that God loved Jacob but he hated Esau.  Hence we know that God does hate some people.   Why would it be difficult to imagine that the people in Hell are not the ones that God hated?  Can you please find me some evidence that God loves those people in Hell. 

Hell is not fire and brimstone.
What is it then? And what does the Bible mean when it describes Hell as a burning lake of fire in Revelation.

God believes in free will..
What is free will? And how can free will exist in a universe where God controls all things?  And what does free will have to do with anything in this topic? If someone hurts themselves or loses a leg, are you suggesting that was part of God's plan or was completely outside of it? 

your death means that you will be merely separated from God, or as separated as is possible with an omnipresent entity. 
What do you mean separated from God?  Isn't an Atheist separated from God on earth? Does that mean Atheists live in Hell already?  Can you find for me any reference in the bible which talks about Hell as being separated from God? 

In hell, you will not be tortured.
Surely Jesus' point of teeth being gnashed has to do with torture? And surely you would agree that torture can take a form other than physical? There is such a thing as emotional or psychological torture? Wouldn't the fact that you know that you are separated from God be a form of torture? This is not to even enter the discussion of torment or burning fire.

You'll get your arms and legs back.
Really?  So where do you get this information?  

You'll also still have the opportunity to repent and be with God. 
Again, where do you get this information?  And if this is the case, why does God put preachers and evangelists on this planet in history? After all, if we just live like we want and then go to Hell and seeing the obvious we repent - that would be the best outcome, wouldn't? 

An interesting question to add for you: 

Do you believe people are born with immortal souls?    If so why?  
 
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@Tradesecret
Can you demonstrate these doctrines of yours from the Bible or are they just your understanding of how things work? 
The Bible doesn't mention hell. It mentions sheol. Sheol is a Hebrew word meaning underground. Like in the dirt. There is no biblical concept of hell and it has been just falsely assumed by Christians using extra biblical material. 

As far as separateness from God, we have the Bible discussing a type of heaven or hinting at it. I can make a more detailed post later for a separate thread. I am messaging on the phone now and depending on memory. The mention of heaven for those who accept Jesus Christ as their lord and savior also in other verses say that God has given us eternal life because of the sacrifice of Jesus.

The next part is more philosophical, but I think it is reasonable to assume.  I will create a thread to go into more detail later. If we assume that God is good and we accept the verses in the Bible are true, and that I am interpreting them correctly, I think by extension we have to conclude that hell is a separation from God. We have some stuff that hints at something like this anyway, but you have to look at the original Greek of the new testament, where some stuff is lost in translation. Just like with the word sheol being translated to hell in many versions of the Bible. 

So as you can see it's a mix of Bible based with extensions in logic about biblical hints and philosophical workings. 

How and why would you say that? It is true God loves the world so much.  Yet, what is the world in that passage referring to? Elsewhere we read that God loved Jacob but he hated Esau.  Hence we know that God does hate some people.   Why would it be difficult to imagine that the people in Hell are not the ones that God hated?  Can you please find me some evidence that God loves those people in Hell. 
God loves all men. The word in Hebrew from the passage with eseu is a Hebrew word meaning basically preferred.  God preferred Jacob over eseu. You can confirm this yourself by looking up the original Hebrew word and reading what scholars say the meaning of the ancient Hebrew word is. 

What is free will? And how can free will exist in a universe where God controls all things?  And what does free will have to do with anything in this topic? If someone hurts themselves or loses a leg, are you suggesting that was part of God's plan or was completely outside of it? 

Somebody losing a leg could be for a lot of reasons. Perhaps God will use that tragedy for good, but it doesn't mean it is in God's plan.  If you have ever heard the objections to the problem of evil, they usually at least in part consist of explaining that God values free will. We can see biblical evidence God respects free will though. In the garden of eden, he gave humans the opportunity to disobey him. Something he did not have to do. 

I brought up free will, because of the topic of hell. People are all pretty much condemned to death because of sin, but Jesus grants us eternal life through his sacrifice. So even non believers will live for eternity. God respects your free will to reject him, which is why you have a place to go, called hell. This hell is not the fire and brimstone you have heard about from deep south preachers though. 

God does not control everything. He does know every possible future though, like Dr strange. It's up to you, to choose which possible future you will live. It's also luck and chance, because of other players in this game we call life, both natural and supernatural entities have some influence over this as we have found out in the book of Job.

What is it then? And what does the Bible mean when it describes Hell as a burning lake of fire in Revelation.

It doesn't describe hell that way. It describes casting the devil into a burning lake of fire, but that is not hell, and he is the only one cast into the lake of fire. 

What do you mean separated from God?  Isn't an Atheist separated from God on earth? Does that mean Atheists live in Hell already?  Can you find for me any reference in the bible which talks about Hell as being separated from God? 
Nobody can be fully separated. God is with atheists also, but in hell his presence is even less there, though not completely because of  omnipresence.  I'll see if I can explain the concept better later when I get to a computer. 

Surely Jesus' point of teeth being gnashed has to do with torture? And surely you would agree that torture can take a form other than physical? There is such a thing as emotional or psychological torture? Wouldn't the fact that you know that you are separated from God be a form of torture? This is not to even enter the discussion of torment or burning fire.

If you find yourself in hell, and you are in pain because of this separation from God, I advise you to repent for your sins and accept Jesus christ as your lord and savior and join him in heaven.  Jesus did not mean gnashing of teeth literally, but hell sucks. The hell is of your own making and you can get out, when you want to. 

Again, where do you get this information?  And if this is the case, why does God put preachers and evangelists on this planet in history? After all, if we just live like we want and then go to Hell and seeing the obvious we repent - that would be the best outcome, wouldn't? 
That is a fair question. I owe you an explanation of my thought process and will start a thread so that way the atheists here can tell me I am stupid, while other Christians call me blasphemous.  I am correct though and they are wrong. 




An interesting question to add for you: 

Do you believe people are born with immortal souls?    If so why?  
 
I'm not sure. 
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@Wylted
I read through your post and just wanted to add some info on the two references to Hebrew that you make. The first is on the use of the Hebrew word "sh'ol." What you say is effectively true, that the only mention of a negative "afterlife" is the references to sh'ol, which is understood to mean "the grave". I think that there are more interesting, deeper interpretations based on the root of the word, but it simply means, as you said, in the ground (death and burial) and not some sort of fire/brimstone thing.

The second word is a bit of a tougher sell. I am assuming, though, that you are referring to Malachi 1:3. The Hebrew word there is "saneiti" from the sin-nun-aleph root. Here is one dictionary's explanation

שָׂנֵא (v) heb
  1. to hate, be hateful
    1. (Qal) to hate
      1. of man
      2. of God
      3. hater, one hating, enemy (participle) (subst)
    2. (Niphal) to be hated
  2. (Piel) hater (participle)
  3. of persons, nations, God, wisdom
Klein's Etymological dictionary of Hebrew has

שׂנא
    1. to hate.
    2. (— Qal)
      1. he hated.
    3. (— Niph.)
      1. was hated.
    4. (— Hiph.)
      1. he caused to be hated, made hateful.
    5. (— Hoph.)
      1. was made hateful.
    6. (— Pi.)
      1. he hated violently (in the Bible occurring only Ps. 139:21).
    7. (— Hith.)
      1. he became hateful.
  1. [BAram. שְׂנָא, JAram. שְׂנָא, סְנָא, Syr. and New Syr. סְנָא (= he hated), Aram. סָנְאָה, Syr. סָנָאא (= hater), Samaritan part. סנ(א), Mand. part. סאנא (= hating), Arab. shani‘a (= he hated), OSArab. שׁנא (= to hate).]Derivatives: שׂוֹנֵא, שָׂנוּא, שָׂנְאוּי, שָׂנוּי, שָׂנִיא, שִׂנְאָה, הַשְׂנָאָה, מְשַׂנֵּא.
So I'm not sure if the "preferred" language which you invoke is the best suited for this word. If you are talking about a different verse, my apologies.


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@rosends
I will have to go over it again. I think the verse he referenced was in genesis.