Convince me.

That's the thing, right?

He's either the Son of God, or some poor carpenter's son, living 2,000 years ago, under Roman rule, who was a stark, mad, raving lunatic, founded a religion, that changed history.

And, his followers, simple fishermen and shepherds, went to the mats for his cause.

 

Offensive is probably the wrong word. He offended the rich and powerful.

What I mean is that he didn't have racial, ethnic, anti-woman, etc. teachings that we would now find abhorrent.

He also didn't make kooky scientific claims that could be easily debunked by modern science.

 

If I believed everything your faith claims about him, that would be true.

I told you what I believed about a person around whose memory others may have created a religion. Or maybe they just made him up. Either is possible.

 

You are acting on the assumption that things happened as described in the Bible. I am making no such assumption because I have no such belief.

Maybe there was just a simple good man who inspired others, but did not make any claims of divinity. That part came from others telling the story later.

 

The thing is, if the Bible was just a "story," well, then, it was some story.

Because Christ's followers were nothing if not persecuted, and many of the early ones died horribly -- by crucifixions, getting stoned, beheaded, stabbed, boiled or otherwise tortured -- but willingly rather than disown that "story."

And they didn't usually die in some mass Christian wars. Their deaths were purposeful, and personal.

Why would they do that for some story that you're contending they might have made up?

 

And where is it you are getting their stories from?

Again, you are assuming things are facts that may not be.

 

The question still stands: Why would they do -- and die -- as they did for the story you're contending that they may have made up?

How/why do you believe anything historical insofar as you can do so?

There has been enough study and research done into these people's lives and times, and there is enough historical evidence -- artifacts and tombs found, and history recorded even outside of the Bible -- to lend credence to these people's existence, and their writings, and to give reason to believe they died when, where and how they did.

Would they do it for a simple itinerant preacher -- one they apparently knew personally or knew of as a very real person because he lived in their own times -- if that was all they believed he was?

And would a movement of the scope, depth and staying power of Christianity have ever become such without some real truth to it?

I doubt it.

 

Those of you who insist Jesus Christ existed and his worldly acts are well chronicled by men centuries later, I present this counter argument:

http://www.britannia.com/history/arthur/kamyth.html

 

That is because your faith is blinding you to the point I'm making. And that is probably a good thing for you, but it doesn't make you right.

 

IJAG, I feel for you for your grief over your friend and her illness, and I hope you find strength and comfort in the days ahead. I've lost several friends and family members to cancer and try hard to remember that while their passing is painful for us, it releases them from their unbearable discomfort.

To answer your question, I don't believe that G-d has anything to do with who is afflicted by illness and who is not. I don't think your question can be answered.

 

Rather than "cannot be explained ..." I should have used "does not fit with current human understanding." Maybe we're a species of dumbasses. That doesn't verify the existence of a higher power. Doesn't disprove it either, but still.

 

The presence of God does not equal the absence of sorrow, evil or injustice.

If it did, there would never have been religious wars, genocide, famine, disease and all man's inhumanity to man.

If it did, no child would ever go hungry, or get molested or die before his or her parents did. The lives of all children would be like Sesame Street.

If the presence of God meant only good things could happen, this would be a much different — and, dare I say, a much happier — world.

As Samuel Jackson said in Pulp Fiction, "And I'd like that. But that shit ain't the truth."

The truth is, in many respects, the Earth has always been a deeply troubled place.

In fact, religion has often been at the core of the world's problems - the Spanish Inquisition, the Holocaust, 9/11 - all those can be linked directly to religious zealots and/or intolerance.

My personal belief? God doesn't ordain how everyone's individual lives turn out.

If God did indeed do that, we would all go insane trying to figure out God's plan and the rationale behind it.

I know that's probably not much comfort for you — and I'm sorry about that — but this is one of those situations where there simply isn't a good or easy answer.

I feel horrible about your friend - who is my friend, too - and am thinking about her and praying for her family.