Do you thank God?

Solamnus · Post by **Solamnus** » 2003-08-05 12:50pm

Let's say someone kidnapped your child. Many weeks go by as you plead on national TV for the safe return of your son or daughter. You get guest spots on CNN, Fox News, your local newspaper, maybe on the cover of Time™ maganize (seems to be typical nowadays). Your feelings of despair over the uncertainty of your child obviously overwhelms you; afterall, we are only human. These 'selfish' feelings pay no heed that this happens on a daily basis in America. Someone else's kid disappears who knows where.

But after many weeks of torment, you receive a call from the local sherif. They found your child. The breaking story interupts every scheduled show on TV, the parents are elated that their child has been found from the efforts of many people: The police, the local townspeople, a concerned citizen. But all you hear the parents say is "Thank God. The Lord was watching over my child, and He brought him/her safely back." All the while ignoring the fact that God did not return the other child safely...he/she was found murdered and ditched in a shallow grave.

Why thank God? Why not thank all the people involved? It is all a divine plan? Is that why God chose one child to live and one child to die? If it is a divine plan, why pray? Who are you to ask God to change his divine plan? Does this mean there is no such thing as free will, because God is involved so personally in our lives? Does God exist? Is this an absurd question?

Thoughts? Rants? Jokes?

StarshipTitanic · Post by **StarshipTitanic** » 2003-08-05 12:53pm

It's because people are stupid. So there.

NapoleonGH · Post by **NapoleonGH** » 2003-08-05 01:15pm

first off i think you changed the story, the first half it was "your" child, the second half it was someone elses.

Regardless no need to thank anyone, if the kid is dead then the law officials didnt do a very good job of protecting the citizens which is their official purpose (though it seems their modern purpose is more to prevent the citizens from having certain freedoms, ex. the drug war)

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-05 01:20pm

I might as a colloquallism but not as an honest prayer. If God returned my kid then he's the bastard that let my kid get kidnapped in the first place. I wouldn't thank him for that.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-08-05 01:29pm

I say a multitude of things, but if i had my kid returned to me, i'd thank the people who got the kid back safely. As a colloquialism, i occasionally say god, godless, or Zeus depending on my mood.

Xenophobe3691 · Post by **Xenophobe3691** » 2003-08-05 01:48pm

Personally, I'd thank God, but I'd let the public know who the real heroes were. The detectives, the police, and that informant who let everyone know where the child was.

NapoleonGH · Post by **NapoleonGH** » 2003-08-05 03:54pm

Rye: i happen to prefer Jove myself, i think it has some nice ring to it, especially using the excelent victorian era phrase of "By Jove"

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2003-08-05 04:19pm

NapoleonGH wrote:Rye: i happen to prefer Jove myself, i think it has some nice ring to it, especially using the excelent victorian era phrase of "By Jove"

Heehee, showing that paganism had still survived into the victorian era, with Jove (Jupiter, leader of the roman pantheon) christmas trees(bringing the forest into your home and giving it gifts), touching wood when someone says "touch wood", Santa itself is an old pagan myth too...

little did they know.

Jason von Evil · Post by **Jason von Evil** » 2003-08-05 04:24pm

I wouldn't be thanking the guy who would probably forgive the sons of bitches that killed my kid. I would thank the police and everyone who took time out of their lives to help find a child. Afterall, they're the ones who would've worked their asses off, not some mythical uber being who couldn't even keep his own angels in line.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-08-05 08:27pm

If the child is found alive, then praise God!

If the child is found dead, then it's all part of God's bigger plans.

The system is rigged so that God cannot lose.

Lonestar · Post by **Lonestar** » 2003-08-05 08:35pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:If the child is found alive, then praise God!

If the child is found dead, then it's all part of God's bigger plans.

The system is rigged so that God cannot lose.

Well, Yeah, it is.

Admiral Johnason · Post by **Admiral Johnason** » 2003-08-05 08:43pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:If the child is found alive, then praise God!

If the child is found dead, then it's all part of God's bigger plans.

The system is rigged so that God cannot lose.

Do you think a casino owner would be alowed to loose in his own casino, especially if he is a mob boss?

God is the Frank Sanitra of deities, he can do whatever he wants.

Wicked Pilot · Post by **Wicked Pilot** » 2003-08-05 08:56pm

Admiral Johnason wrote:Do you think a casino owner would be alowed to loose in his own casino, especially if he is a mob boss?

God is the Frank Sanitra of deities, he can do whatever he wants.

I find your analogy quite humerous and fitting.

Montcalm · Post by **Montcalm** » 2003-08-05 09:13pm

Thanking a false god "HA" if he exist and is so good,he would made every bastards who molest children spontaneously combust.

Grand Admiral Thrawn · Post by **Grand Admiral Thrawn** » 2003-08-05 09:16pm

Remember, God may have saved your child, but he kidnapped them in the first place.

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-08-05 10:18pm

Id thank the police.

god could have poofed the kid back, and saved the police its time and money.

Admiral Johnason · Post by **Admiral Johnason** » 2003-08-05 10:40pm

Wicked Pilot wrote:
Admiral Johnason wrote:Do you think a casino owner would be alowed to loose in his own casino, especially if he is a mob boss?

God is the Frank Sanitra of deities, he can do whatever he wants.
I find your analogy quite humerous and fitting.

The whole mob boss thing only relates to death and smoting everybody. I don't think God is fat or Italian. He's an Irish Jew.

jegs2 · Post by **jegs2** » 2003-08-06 02:32am

I would thank God. I would also thank those involved in searching for my child. Why does it offend some of you for people to thank God? If you don't believe in Him, then why should it even matter to you?

Enforcer Talen · Post by **Enforcer Talen** » 2003-08-06 02:37am

some thank god alone. it is annoying because the cops and the rest were involved, and deserve thanks as well.

Post by **Darth Wong** » 2003-08-06 02:41am

jegs2 wrote:I would thank God. I would also thank those involved in searching for my child. Why does it offend some of you for people to thank God? If you don't believe in Him, then why should it even matter to you?

It depends on whether the person in question does not sufficiently thank those truly responsible. I am reminded of the common "medical miracle" syndrome where surgeons and doctors sweat and slave to save someone's life and the person not only thanks God rather than the doctors, but actually denigrates the doctors after the fact and claims that they didn't know what they were doing, hence the necessity for divine intervention (I have an example of just such an ingrateful scum on my Creationism site's hatemail pages).

Tsyroc · Post by **Tsyroc** » 2003-08-06 12:00pm

On the "God" front, on an everyday basis I have more problems with sneezing or being around people who sneeze. It's considerd polite to say "God bless you" or an equivalent that means basically the same thing. This bothers me more because I feel that in saying it I'd be hypocritical plus the historical basis for it (protecting the person while their soul temporarilly leaves their body when they sneeze) is stupid.

For some reason the "thank god" bit doesn't bother me quite as much because our language is kind of lacking in non-religous based/related words that would convey the same sense of relief.

NapoleonGH · Post by **NapoleonGH** » 2003-08-06 12:03pm

I am more likely to say "you are blessed" than "god bless you", this has lead to people believing me to have a god complex.

You can always say Gheusentheight (however the fuck you spell this word, my german is horible)

Knife · Post by **Knife** » 2003-08-06 12:03pm

Tsyroc wrote:On the "God" front, on an everyday basis I have more problems with sneezing or being around people who sneeze. It's considerd polite to say "God bless you" or an equivalent that means basically the same thing. This bothers me more because I feel that in saying it I'd be hypocritical plus the historical basis for it (protecting the person while their soul temporarilly leaves their body when they sneeze) is stupid.

For some reason the "thank god" bit doesn't bother me quite as much because our language is kind of lacking in non-religous based/related words that would convey the same sense of relief.

I was under the impression that the 'God bless you' thing came about durring the plauge. Sneezing was one of the first symptoms (or percieved symptoms) so if ANY one sneezed you bless them cause their a gonner.....

Solamnus · Post by **Solamnus** » 2003-08-06 12:55pm

jegs2 wrote:I would thank God. I would also thank those involved in searching for my child. Why does it offend some of you for people to thank God? If you don't believe in Him, then why should it even matter to you?

It is not that "thanking God" is offensive. It seems at times to be rather absurd. People who do so seem to mean in not in a colloquial (sp?) sense, but rather literally. Why would God choose one child over another? While one parents of faith can thank God, other parents of faith cannot. Age old question I guess....

Solamnus · Post by **Solamnus** » 2003-08-06 12:56pm

Knife wrote: I was under the impression that the 'God bless you' thing came about durring the plauge. Sneezing was one of the first symptoms (or percieved symptoms) so if ANY one sneezed you bless them cause their a gonner.....

Or as Milhouse once said, "Sneezing is when your soul is trying to escape, and saying God Bless You crams it back in!"