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I guess people just ignored what I said about the incredible hubris it takes for a person to believe that the Hand of God is dolling out rewards and success to you when your neighbor, who could also be a Christian, has a wife dying of cancer, an autistic child, just lost his job, the house is being foreclosed upon, and he's going to lose his medical insurance that pays for his wife's treatment.
How can anyone stand around feeling good about themselves thinking that there is no luck - that all of the good and bad things that happen to us are exactly what we deserve. Worse still it's what we think -others- deserve.
Yet bewilderingly, there is no correlation AT ALL between someone's religious piety and their successes. A lot of successful people got that way by being dishonest and yet I don't see God toppling their house of cards.
There were over 42 serious assassination attempts on Hitler's life, most of which he escaped through "luck" of the draw. For instance, Hitler's train was always routed first, even if other trains had to wait. But this one time ... just this ONE time ... Hitler's train was delayed and a normal passenger train went ahead of it. Which also happened to be the ONE time assassins put a bomb on the tracks. The passenger train hit it and killed 140+ innocent civilians.
The point I'm making here is that if you don't believe in any kind of luck, what you're saying is that God protected Hitler not once, not twice, not ten times - but 42 times. And that doesn't even count the numerouls times Hitler -should- have died on the battlefields of WWI but 'miraculously' escaped harm.
I dunno ... you can either believe in luck or believe that God was actively saving Hitler again and again while letting Hitler's Holocaust victims die by the millions.
By OMG you mean "oh my God" then yes I think that dishonors God and I don't think I need to answer about taking His name in vain.
As an expression which came out of a real cry to God,this is not of itself bad .It becomes so, when it is used in a casual or deliberately insulting way .
In other words, if the intention is bad or careless.
I find using Jesus name as swear word really bad, as it is delberately insulting .
I guess people just ignored what I said about the incredible hubris it takes for a person to believe that the Hand of God is dolling out rewards and success to you when your neighbor, who could also be a Christian, has a wife dying of cancer, an autistic child, just lost his job, the house is being foreclosed upon, and he's going to lose his medical insurance that pays for his wife's treatment.
How can anyone stand around feeling good about themselves thinking that there is no luck - that all of the good and bad things that happen to us are exactly what we deserve. Worse still it's what we think -others- deserve.
Yet bewilderingly, there is no correlation AT ALL between someone's religious piety and their successes. A lot of successful people got that way by being dishonest and yet I don't see God toppling their house of cards.
There were over 42 serious assassination attempts on Hitler's life, most of which he escaped through "luck" of the draw. For instance, Hitler's train was always routed first, even if other trains had to wait. But this one time ... just this ONE time ... Hitler's train was delayed and a normal passenger train went ahead of it. Which also happened to be the ONE time assassins put a bomb on the tracks. The passenger train hit it and killed 140+ innocent civilians.
The point I'm making here is that if you don't believe in any kind of luck, what you're saying is that God protected Hitler not once, not twice, not ten times - but 42 times. And that doesn't even count the numerouls times Hitler -should- have died on the battlefields of WWI but 'miraculously' escaped harm.
I dunno ... you can either believe in luck or believe that God was actively saving Hitler again and again while letting Hitler's Holocaust victims die by the millions.
The choice is yours.
Well here is where most christians will disagree with me,but I believe we have all been here before .
I grew up in a fundamentalist household where there were "bad words", Not cuss words. But bad words. One was "worried". A normal human emotion. But we were denied it, or made to feel guilty if we were worried. So we were worried and guilt ridden.
Then there is luck. There is nothing wrong with the word or event of "luck". I have a son who is very, very lucky. Since he was a little boy, he could be walking down the street and notice a twenty dollar bill on the sidewalk. Things like that happen to him frequently.
He's lucky.
I am an ordained minister of the gospel. I am so tired of fundamentalists outlawing certain words or emotions.
How about this? Don't go by feelings. Sorry but God gave us feelings. If you feel that a particular authoritarian church is repressive and heavy handed, follow your feelings and RUN.
God gave us intuition. Use it.
IMHO saying this word or not saying this word is just another form of bondage that we can let ourselves become entangled with. Folks we are free!! If Im convicted of saying something by the Holy Spirit then of course Ill do my best not to use it..but Im sure wont become the language police over it.
Agreed. I also believe that the words we use tend to frame our thinking, and so I appreciate precision. "Lucky" or "fortunate" are my preferred terms because "blessed" introduces agency into the causal chain that I don't think is remotely justified. All three terms however represent a judgment about an event being "good" which in itself may be simplistic or inaccurate, and may itself be an unexamined assumption.
I understand that saying that you're "blessed" is an attempt to give god credit but in doing so we are also claiming god's approval and favor, which also implies god's disapproval and disfavor on others who are not "blessed" and who are therefore less deserving. Taking it out of the realm of impersonal events (luck) and putting it into the realm of reward and punishment reflects a lack of humility and assumes way too much about the inner motivations and (lack of) effort of others. Saying that you're blessed is, in my view, an example of "humble-bragging" as much as, and often more, than it is evidence of gratitude.
The aversion of some believers to words like "lucky" or "fortunate" is also often in my view an example of projection. They are so accustomed to seeing agency (good and bad) in the simple unfolding of events that they assume these feared words are loaded in ways that they are not. That they are magic talismans that conjure or enable evil spirits or the devil himself to be active in your life. In so doing they ironically affirm and glorify the power of Satan that they claim to oppose.
I do not think that primitive Christianity intended for its followers to develop paranoia and fear in this way. That is why the prohibitions against divination exist in the Bible ... the attempt was to introduce a more elevated way of thinking about life. If god is truly in control of his own creation then it would seem like believers would be able to rest in that. However as it turns out, I suspect that early Christians would spin in their graves to know that Christianity itself has become just another manifestation of magical thinking and otherizing, just as all religions ultimately do.
I guess people just ignored what I said about the incredible hubris it takes for a person to believe that the Hand of God is dolling out rewards and success to you when your neighbor, who could also be a Christian, has a wife dying of cancer, an autistic child, just lost his job, the house is being foreclosed upon, and he's going to lose his medical insurance that pays for his wife's treatment.
How can anyone stand around feeling good about themselves thinking that there is no luck - that all of the good and bad things that happen to us are exactly what we deserve. Worse still it's what we think -others- deserve.
Yet bewilderingly, there is no correlation AT ALL between someone's religious piety and their successes. A lot of successful people got that way by being dishonest and yet I don't see God toppling their house of cards.
There were over 42 serious assassination attempts on Hitler's life, most of which he escaped through "luck" of the draw. For instance, Hitler's train was always routed first, even if other trains had to wait. But this one time ... just this ONE time ... Hitler's train was delayed and a normal passenger train went ahead of it. Which also happened to be the ONE time assassins put a bomb on the tracks. The passenger train hit it and killed 140+ innocent civilians.
The point I'm making here is that if you don't believe in any kind of luck, what you're saying is that God protected Hitler not once, not twice, not ten times - but 42 times. And that doesn't even count the numerouls times Hitler -should- have died on the battlefields of WWI but 'miraculously' escaped harm.
I dunno ... you can either believe in luck or believe that God was actively saving Hitler again and again while letting Hitler's Holocaust victims die by the millions.
"Luck" and "blessed" are different. Stop censoring yourself - and others,
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