Other Than Finding Car Keys…What Exactly Is God Good For?

[selek1]

It might also do well to be noted that (just as blessings are predicated on obedience) consequences are the reward of disobedience.

Somehow I just can't see the prayer "Lord, I know I was doing 85 in a school zone, weaving on and off the sidewalk, and blowing my horn at the little brats dumb enough to impede my progress, but please won't you soften the hearts of the four highway patrolmen it took to stop me so that they let me go?" being answered with anything less than a ticket and an order to appear.

The Atonement of Christ serves to redeem us from the eternal consequences of our willful stupidity- it is not in any way, shape, or form a guarantee that we'll dodge the mortal/temporal consequences of our own foolishness.

Just as God will not withhold a blessing to which we are entitled, I can't see him acting (except under the most extraordinary circumstances) to hold back a consequence we have earned.

One of the primariy purposes of this mortality is to learn to reason and to take responsibility for ourselves and our actions. Some people can only learn not to touch the stove by burning their fingers.

I can't see a just or fair Heavenly Father removing the consequences of our actions if we haven't learned the lesson attached to those actions.

In other words, if you can't find your keys because you staggered in and dropped them at the end of a drunken bender, you're pretty much on your own, IMO.

Edited October 22, 2011 by selek1

[Vanguard]

I do not believe there is a god, Mormon or otherwise. The very concept of a god who can actually intercede and change naturally occurring events in our life is, I believe, a construct of man’s desire that difficult naturally occurring random events can be altered by some imaginary higher power.

For the believer, irrespective of the outcome of some difficulty, sickness or challenge in someone’s life…god always wins. I believe that those events that believers credit god with resolving are merely the believer giving god credit for a result that would have been the end outcome with or without some imaginary god’s intersession. To say it nicely…Stuff happens….and the end result is the result that would have happen irrespective of some god’s intercession.

If this were not the case…why do both non-believers, dare I say atheist, and believers, Mormon and non-Mormon have an equal distribution of both good and bad outcomes to difficult events in their lives? If there was some god who actually interceded in the lives of his believers, who actually heard and answered prayers, responded to priesthood blessings…wouldn’t you expect the believers to have a better distribution of positive outcomes when tragedies occur then when tragedy occurs in an atheist’s life who doesn’t pray or use so-called priesthood power? But you don’t see a higher distribution of positive outcomes in real life at all. Tragedy, ill-health, birth defects, catastrophes are all equally distributed irrespective of the level of belief, church membership, priesthood blessing use or non-priesthood blessing use for that matter…in fact other than providing the believer some artificial spiritual support …there is no difference in positive or negative outcomes or the distribution of “Stuff” among either believers and non-believers….none, nadda, zilch, zero…no difference at all.

For the believer, if a sick family member responds to medical treatment, God healed them; if their health disintegrates despite medical treatment…God willed it and wanted to test them or needed them in heaven. The non-believer just accepts that “Stuff” happens…and some “Stuff” is just out of our human ability to control or influence.

If I find my lost car keys…it wasn’t because I was frantically looking absolutely everywhere…it was because I prayed to God and He lead me to them. If a premature baby is born with birth defects as a result of an early birth…was it really God’s will. If that same baby then succumbs to their birth defect and dies…was that what God desired? Or if the baby lives, should God get all the credit. If the baby lives but with major life altering consequences, was it God’s desire to test and challenged those parents…were they somehow lacking in something that God wanted to test them with….such as now having to care for a disabled child for the rest of their lives. I could never worship such a being who has the power to intercede and choses not to or who is completely random in His incerceding...ummm kind of like naturally occuring events.

No matter what the result, consequence, outcome or conclusion, either good or bad, God comes out on top and wins every freaking time.

Thanks God…but I don’t see how you impact our lives one way or the other…”Stuff Just Happens” I’m not going to blame you for the bad…and I’m sure as hell not going to give you credit for the good…Oh and next time some believing family member’s prayer goes unanswered once again…I’ll just comfort them by saying…well…maybe God was busy finding someone else’s car keys.

For me, the jury is still out regards to how much I, despite my supplications, can control in this life. I do believe however that seeking out a relationship with God helps one to understand better that our lives are filled with God-breathed blessings each and every moment (i.e., I appreciate the few breaths I have taken since starting this post). I figure crap is going to happen to me as my God is certainly no respecter of persons and so I prepare myself to accept this hard reality and to join the club of fellow brothers who have trodden a much harder journey than I ever will. My only desire is that I do not lose the only thing I can ultimately control - my conviction that he lives and has a purpose for sending me through whatever I experience in this life. The rest is simply good forutne and fluff as it were...

Edited October 22, 2011 by Vanguard

[Skylla]

Craig: This seems like bomb throwing and this thread is going downhill fast. Thread closed.

Skylla