Dear lord, why did you inflict * on us?...and

[rumpel]

the Buddha said:

cause & effect...

[swimmernsecretsea]

1. Please! This isn't divine retribution! I no longer believe in that

Not after the fundies have been using it for the Tsunami. Actually, I've never believed that bad people or acts of nature were meant to teach or test us.

[rumpel]

3. Exactly.

[Warpy]

2. Buddha also said that we are here over and over again

plodding along, making the same mistakes until and unless we somehow learn to do better.

That's why war and killing one's enemies never works. They just come back and do it all over again.

[Wapsie B]

4. No.

God didn't cause this to happen. It is what it is. No more, no less.

[AlCzervik]

5. I'm actually having somewhat of a God crisis these days

i always believed in a higher power but I'm doubting that now, i think I'm becoming an atheist. I never thought that would happen.

[ashmanonar]

8. having a God crisis

doesn't mean you have to become an atheist. i'm a modified deist, (the clockmaker theory of the revolutionary war) and i feel perfectly certain that there is a higher power. but bc i'm a deist, i also believe that god won't help us, we have to help ourselves.

god is a spirit within all of us (or some of us, some people don't seem to accept it) that enables us to do good things in the world, to stand up against wrongs for justice, and gives us superhuman courage to find our way through all crises--not some invisible sky man who allegedly impregnated a mortal woman, which son allowed himself to die a terrible death on a cross (a most terrible death, to be sure) bc he felt we had sins that needed to be wiped clean.

sorry for the tangent, but i hate to see people losing faith in something/anything.

[rumpel]

6. what is *'s lesson of this life time, he is still blind to. and what have

we all learned...
as for me, I am happy to know all of us at DU have everyone's happiness in mind, and will fight and be vocal against the ones who abuse.

[ashmanonar]

7. while i don't believe in that god

if you do, pray with all your heart, and then go out and make your prayers happen...bc to my knowledge, it's not the prayer that gets god doing whatever it is you pray for, it's the courage and fortitude you draw from the prayer that enable you to do whatever you prayed for.

so pray with all your heart and soul, then make it happen!