LogFAQs > #961713871

LinkPizza posted...

This makes me think of something. When someone prays to God because they need money, he wont make a bag of money appear. But he would probably help you to get a job where you make money. And that same logic could be used with hospitals. When you pray for someone to get better, he may not just make them better. But he would give you a doctor who could do that

A man is stranded on the roof of his house during a catastrophic flood, with the water slowly rising. Some of his neighbours pass by in a rowboat and offer to save him, but he says "no thanks, God will save me." Some time passes, the water rises further, and some more neighbours pass by in a larger boat and offer to save him, but again he says "no thanks, God will save me." More time passes, and the water has risen to his feet, when a SaR helicopter flies by, offering to rescue him. Again, though, he says "no thanks, God will save me," and the helicopter crew moves on to rescue anyone else they can find. The water continues to rise, and the man drowns.

Upon arriving in heaven, then man asks God "I had absolute faith in you, why did you abandon me to die?" God says "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, dude. You're just a dumbass."

That's not an official biblical parable, obviously, but it's one that's seen an awful lot of use in recent months. Being religious does not in any way require you to reject all earthly help. One can very easily believe in a benevolent God by believing that he helps mankind by granting some of us the intelligence and ingenuity to solve the problems we all face. Religious objections to vaccines are stupid, and more often than not just amount to people making flimsy excuses to avoid admitting that they're scared of the shot (fear which is actually quite justifiable and could be assuaged if they stopped clinging to it as a matter of personal identity).