Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Some questions for Christians and Atheists...

Well to night I sit in a motel room. I went home from work and heard a roaring sound coming from outside when I got out of the car. Turned out my outside water line had broke. The repairman should be there first thing in the morning to fix the line and hopefully I'll have water tomorrow. I figure I was lucky it broke now instead of the dead of winter at -35. I also figure I was lucky it broke before the weekend so it can be fixed and didn't break early in the day or one of my many weekends away from home.

Now the questions. Was it luck? Was God/Goddess looking out for me? Or as Zen would "It Happens"? I'm curious what you guys think.

Are you serious? Every breath we take is by the grace of God.

You must've done something very naughty (misogynistic?), perhaps in a previous life, to deserve this.

I have asked myself that same question many, many times. I just got through a bout with kidney stones. It happened at home just the day before I was to leave for Seattle to see my daughter. I went to the doctor, they sent me to the hospital for a CT scan and yes I had a stone. I was given some real strong pain killers and off we went to Seattle.

Now the atheist might say, "If there was a God, why would He let you suffer?"

I find it odd that God would intervene on my behalf about a seemingly trivial matter, compared to all the pain that is suffered on a global scale at this same time. I also have the faith in that same God (that I cannot prove is real) still exists and does care enough that this didn't become a much worse situation considering all the variables that could contribute to tremendous suffering, as anyone who has had kidney stones can attest.

Yes there is a God, and yes, He does care. Why different people suffer different sorrows I can't say, but I still believe. The reason we were going to Seattle in the first place was to see our daughter as she was to go through cancer related surgery. Why would he look to my comfort and not to my daughter as she deals with cancer is a mystery, and I still believe.

We cannot be so arrogant as to question things not understood. Somehow He has a better idea of how all this works out, I'm not supid, I believe. We must also recognize that the knowledge that doctors have in all the clinics, and the resulting diagnosis' with the care and pharmeceuticals that give us relief, all came from somewhere. Yes, Virginia, there is a God.

Maybe your pipe was old.

Of course, I think it was God (the Christian God, not a pagan god). God has done things like that for me a number of times... unfortunate happenings in the best of all possible circumstances.

God has His hand on me, and on you, too.

Penny

The pressure in the pipe exceeded it's ability to contain it. The rate of failure was determined by conditions that fostered or retarded the rate of corrosion or deterioration that weakened it to the point of failure.

No mystery there.

Even if I believed in God I wouldn't think tiny things like that would be on his agenda when people are starving to death in Africa, etc.

Crap (read ship) happens and then you have a leak. God did create the universe and also give some man the ability to make the pipe. Then they leak, it is the way of things. Without the natural (read god given) progression, plumbers would never get repair work. Thank goodness (read God) the plumber will not starve and his family will have food on the table.

Thank goodness (read God again) it did not happen in the winter.

Joel

Is anything that happens as a result of a process that God created any less the handiwork of God?

If I saw a board in two, is the cutting of that board my work or the saw's?

If I set fire to a pile of shavings in my yard, am I burning the shavings, or is it the fire that's doing it?

Well, I may not be the best Christian, but I do believe in the power of prayers and miracles. My son is the prime example of that. He was born well over a month premature and couldn't breathe on his own. During that whole time I don't think I ever cried and prayed that much in my whole life. I will ALWAYS believe that it was the work of God because He wanted my son to live and He knew how much I wanted him to live.

For me religion is a simple thing. It's the belief in a higher power. Don't matter whether it's God, Jesus, Allah, Buddha, Flying Spaghetti Monster, or whatever. The point is to believe in something. If you don't want someone else as a higher power then make yourself that higher power and believe in yourself. Going through life without believing in something has got to be tough. I am Christian and believe in God and accept Jesus as my Saviour, but it could be proven that there never was a God or Jesus never existed and you know what? It wouldn't bother me in the least because praying and believing helped me through the worst times of my life and if it wasn't for believing in not only my higher power, myself, and those who love me, I most likely wouldn't be sitting here today at almost 2AM showing off my insomnia.


Now as far as a broken water pipe goes, I'm not so sure. Maybe if it was lightning that struck your house that might be a sign of God from the Heavens, but water comes from underground and we all know what's down there. Certainly isn't Heaven.

Well, I'm sure not all Athiests have their water pipe burst at the worst possible time. And I'm sure some Christians have a bad time of it, a lot worse than burst water pipes even.
But Christians are lucky in a way, they always have someone to thank. . . or blame. Me? I'm still wondering what sort of Christian to be. But after what happened to the Taliban, I won't be shooting any Buddas.

Well I work with 100's of Muslims and they have flats, hoses blow up and the same ailments that effect everyone else. They pray to their God and I guess it makes them feel good but in the end it's a caveman thing believing the sun is God since without the sun we have no life on earth. So came fourth the son of God or the son from the sun. Since there are about 20 other people with the same story 1000's of years before Jesus came with the same birthday the 25 th of december, the 12 disciples, or sons, ministered at 30, born of a virgin. The first of a long line of these stories starts with Horus 3000 years BC. The 3 wisemen for instance are actually constellations. The 3 stars of Orion when in alignment with Sirius on the winter solstice exactly happens on the evening of Dec 24th and the sun rise is in perfect alignment with the birth of the sun(son)on the following day. Coincidence I don't think so. The cross, fish are all pagan symbols, even Plato speaks of the cross being used as a torture device long before. So lets not keep the binders on and open your view point. The Christian way is to ignore such things for they are the work of the devil. Yeah right.

Matthew 6:19-21, "Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where thieves break through and steal: But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where thieves do not break through nor steal: For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also."

Since the fall all things have been corrupted.
I do feel sorry for those who don't believe and then brag about their reasons for doing so. I guess some don't think they need His love or maybe something happened in their life that has put up a wall in their heart. That's as far as I'll go on the subject. Everyone makes their own choice, choose wisely.

Qtip
Soli Deo Gloria!

Of course... God doesn't "reward" Christians for believing in Him, nor does He punish those who don't. Stuff happens in life. As the saying goes, rain falls on both the believer and the non-believer.

At the Kairos Summer Conference a few weeks ago, someone was saying to me, "I'm so sorry that you had to go through all that stuff with your heart!" And I thought about it, and I said, "I'm not. Not at all. And if I could go back and change it, I wouldn't."

During that time, God intervened directly in my life. I should have died, passed out on the floor of my bedroom... but I didn't. God reached down and set my heart to beating again, something that is almost unheard of. 19 out of 20 people die when that happens to them if they're not defibrillated. God defibrillated my heart. I thought I had a close relationship with God before, but now I feel even closer to Him. I belong to Him in a way I didn't before. And that is a good thing.

So what we perceive as "bad" things often work for good. God brings good out of bad... whether they are bad things that happen through no fault of our own, or bad decisions we make. God is always working... always.

Penny

Not sure what you mean... I don't think other religions are the work of the devil. In fact, I try very hard not to ignore the devil himself. I enjoy kicking his butt every chance I get.

But I do believe that there is only one path to Heaven, and that is Christianity. Those other religions, while interesting and perhaps similar to Christianity, are lacking one thing: a Savior. The Resurrection is Christianity's unique good news.

Penny

^^^^^^^ Exactly what he said. This is no big life altering/changing event here. The pipe just reached the end of its service life.

derby dude has their been a time in your life when you have asked Jesus to be Lord of your life and forgive you of your sins? The only reason I ask is I find it hard to belive a Christian would ask this question. Jesus died on a cross to pay for our sins because we can't, and once we belive that ask Him to be our Lord and forgive us we then are filled with the Holy Spirit. Jesus put it this way in John 14:6 "I'm the way the Truth and the Life, no man comes to the Father but by Me.
One way that's a relationship with Christ.
Back to the pipe, sometimes things happen to us that don't have anything to do with us. What I mean is God may have used this busted pipe to intervein in someone else's life in a good or bad way??? Somethings are not for us to understand.
Sorry for such a long post.

DD I think the question should be addressed to the Christian and Atheist plumbers. Water pipe is their gig.

Derby Dude,

You have certainly raised a very deep question.

Why does bad plumbing happen to good people?

The great poet philosopher Charlie Daniels said in his hit song" The Legend of Bugger Woods", There are some thangs in this world you just can't explain.

Hey,he makes more sense than some people.

Britt