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I do not believe in predestination. I however do believe in God. God tries to lead us in a certain direction. He knows what we should do. But, it's up to all of us to do it. God did not plan for those people to die. It was the result of evil and twisted minds.
It's a failure to follow God's will and instead to follow our own lust for power.
Ah... I think it's intensely disrespectful to try to shift the blame on this horrific incident away from the sick, twisted individuals who did it to our own selves for not 'following the will.' Get real.
Ah... I think it's intensely disrespectful to try to shift the blame on this horrific incident away from the sick, twisted individuals who did it to our own selves for not 'following the will.' Get real.
Yes, unfortunately some American Christians are arrogant enough to blame the "lack of family values" in our country for the attacks.
Sick and twisted indeed.
I think one of the more interesting aspects of this whole debate pertaining to religious belief or lack thereof in the aftermath of any huge tragedy is the perspective(s) one brings to it.
I have been to Ground Zero. The vastness of it seemed to mirror the emptiness that it instilled in me. I remember those buildings well, having worked a few blocks from there in a previous sort of life, and having been in them very often...I also remember visiting the Vietnam Memorial in D.C. and experiencing something very similiar, if not as profound as what I felt at Ground Zero. I remember being utterly overwhelmed by what seemed like the never ending length of that wall, and thoroughly overwhelmed by the endless, endless, endless anonymous names held on it. It was the very experience of standing there, seeing my own image reflected back at me from that shiny, black wall; my image hauntingly superimposed upon all those anonymous names...And I questioned my "anonymitiy" in respect to all those anonymous names.
Of the thousands who died in the World Trade Centers, there was one individual who was not anonymous to me. Even though I brought my atheist mindset to Ground Zero, and even in being aware of what I projected outward in terms of that mindset, I was once again struck by what I in turn, internalized, as well. Because even given my awareness of what I was projecting, I was equally aware of being struck by the notion that this was somehow "sacred" ground...And in that moment where that very thought simply "popped" into my head, I was reminded of that one day from long ago, when I stood at the foot of those very buildings, gazing upwards, and being in such awe at their very height. Because I can still see the image in my mind of being unable to see the tops of those buildings, as they were so, so, so very tall as to be encased within clouds. And while in fact those clouds obscured their peak, it also seemed to imply in that moment that their peak in fact reached as high as heaven itself.
Which is where, even for this atheist, she hopes in her heart those souls reside.
While I can understand why someone would look at ground zero and claim there to be no God, God had nothing to do with it.
Those 3,000 lives were ripped away by evil, not God's glory. Those terrorists stripped the lives away of all those innocent people in the name of their leader...Osama Bin Laden...Not in the name of God, contrary to one's belief.
The United States is a very much hated nation. Why? Because of everything our great country stands for. We stand for freedom and diversity. We stand for all the things that the middle eastern countries so radically despise.
While it's true that 9/11 was a very dark time in the lives of the American people, it also brought the strongest country in the world to it's knees and humbled us. Even if for only a brief time, 9/11 brought our country together...stronger than ever before. I don't care if you lived IN NYC or the coast of California...it was as if it happened right next door to us ALL!
I don't know about the rest of you, but I can remember that day as vividly today as I did the day it started. I can remember that my daughter and her friend thought the attacks were THEIR fault because just a week prior they refused to say the Pledge of Allegiance at school because they felt they shouldn't be forced into saying something they didn't want to. However, I also remember those two girls standing in school and saying the pledge louder and stronger than ever in the following days. I remember comforting and consoling them...convincing them these terrorist attacks was NOT their fault (they were 6th graders at the time and prior to us being Christians).
We will never forget 9/11 and those many innocent lives that were lost so senselessly! NEVER! But we can't go around blaming God for things that mere mortals are responsible for. It was muslim EXTREMISTS that took so many lives, not God!
But that rings completely opposite to the personalistic God of the Christian viewpoint.
No. Quite the reverse. The Judeo-Christian understanding of God is one of absolute infinity. God has no beginning or end, and our tiny human understanding can only begin to understand the vast eternalness of Deity.
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Originally Posted by jabogitlu
to the jealous, vengeful God of the Old Testament and the compassionate, involved manifestation in the New.
Another basic misunderstanding. God did not change in between Old and New Testaments, but humanity did and therefore humanity's relationship to deity. It's really the whole point of the Incarnation, crucifixion, and resurrection.
in being absorbed in the intesity of things we go through in life, I hope we will not let the mountains in front of us obscure what this life is all about.
What are you talking about? Those people did not fly those planes into the towers in the name of God. They may have done it in the name of Allah but not God. The God of the Christian Bible is not Allah.
I think you were already poised to reject God before you saw pictures of anyones beaming faces. It wasn't God that caused those plans to hit the towers it was man. You should be mad at the men and woman that drove those plans into the tower. You should be mad at the people who supported these acts of terrorism. I guess that is why we have the war on terrror. You should be an advocate for the war on terror. You now have looked into the faces of the victims remember them, but don't blame God for something evil men and woman did.
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"God" and Ground Zero
