I have this friend who had been through a lot of difficult times in his life. He had undergone severe trials beyond his expectation and yet he remained committed to his religion.
He asked me where do I think god is in his life.
I don't want to answer him because I'm afraid to fall into something I can't stand.
I simply told him that he should be strong and face everything with goodness and courage.
If you were asked with the same question by a friend like him, what will your answer be?
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Tell him that the only way to get out of a bad situation is to do it yourself. If this friend actually believes in god, then he probably knows that according to the bible god helps those that help themselves.
That's a very good way to look at it. I have always been under the impression that religious people would try to pray their way out of a tight situation but you reminded me that the bible does convey the idea that helping yourself first will enable God to help you. I feel that is a good concept especially to a particular religion as it would explain away why prayer doesn't work and doing it yourself does.
mattyn...
" I feel that is a good concept especially to a particular religion as it would explain away why prayer doesn't work and doing it yourself does."
you caught very good point now i came to know that why religion tells peoples first help yourself then god shall help mean if helping yourself works correctly then all credit shall automatically goto god. Wao what,s a nice trick played by religions.
In Islam this is also included that first help yourself then God shall help you. What,s a nice trick played by religions to make fool the peoples. :)
In each and every one of us, so God helps those who help themselves and others. Slightly twisted from Rob's answer. Glad to see you back here Rob!
I was about to say the same thing :)
About Rob. Welcome back!
I believe that our recent situation could be the result of our past decisions in life so better to evaluate what had been went wrong before or what things should have been done or chosen instead to have better present situation. As a believer, I think it is good that he still have faith since it could also mean that he still hopes "someone" is there for him in spite of everything.
I understand where you are coming from but I have a different way of looking at it. Whenever we go through trials in this life and they seem unbearable to us, what if instead of looking at them as punishment see them as something that makes us stronger. Anybody can agree that whenever we go through something we come out having a better understanding of how life works and in a sense can help others when they go through difficulties as well.
I think the main problem is that we have too many people relying on god to help them out of situations and this is not even something that the bible in any way promotes. You have to be too much of a couch potatoe to aks god to help you out of a situation. The placebo effect of asking for the strenght to endure is what most people use.
Thank you DarkLight! That is exactly what is happening and when God doesn't help them out, they still don't realize that they have been fooled. They just keep spinning their wheels and pray.
I forget exactly where I came across this but to effect it said, only the devil will fix your problems for you, God would rather you fix them for yourself. In other words, don't be lazy and pray for a better life, go out and make your life better. Deals are only made with the devil and nothing comes for free ect. ect. So i think your right the bible does seemingly promote asking god for strength as in the case with Samson right before he died.
That philosophy works well for everyone, not just the religious people in our midst. Getting up and making our life what we want it to be every day is the key to real happiness and success.
I can agree with that, but what about people who don't know what they want their life to be?
I think that that is the biggest cause of unhappiness in people, really.
As humans, we have the power to do whatever we want. Unless you don't want anything... because unfortunately the laws of physics don't really allow for "nothing" as an option, and living at odds with the natural order is bound to be an uncomfortable experience.
Hey Zaphod and Sammyshazaam glad to be back and talking with you intelligent people!
Why are so many comments relying on god, the devil and the bible as authorities. I'm an atheist and don't believe in any of those things. Why should any atheist rely on them?
Agreed, but I've been hearing a lot of people asking "Where is Superman?" these days too.
Or why is he dead?
I dont think they are relying on god just rather using the subject using it as its part of the discussion. One truism is concepts don't have to be real to have real effects. I don't think being ignorant to the elephant in the room or avoid even discussing the subject is helpful. Gods like the fairies in Peter Pan and Santa in a miracle on 34th st. exist because people believe they do.
I appreciate all those helpful advices. It's really hard for an atheist to include god in the picture because they can't picture it out. Anyway life is life; imperfect and sometimes very unlikely to what we want. We just have to live it, learn to be contented and find happiness in everything that we do.