I was brought up in a Christian (Church of Scotland) family, never questioning the beliefs of my parents, teachers, Sunday School until, when I was sixteen two things happened. Firstly the darling only child of a couple who lived across the road, simply slipped on a slide at school, banged her head and died. She was a late baby, who arrived unexpectedly 20 years after her parents' marriage, an angelic child, a ray of sunshine, good as gold - truly a gift from God. She was 11 years old when she died, her funeral was on Christmas Eve.
Within a month another neighbour came to our house in great distress. Her friend, having spent most of her life caring for her disabled father and aged mother, filled the gap they left by adopting a boy who had been born severely mentally and physically disabled. It had taken her over a year to persuade the authorities that he could be cared for in a loving home rather than the special needs orphanage where he had been from birth. She became his mother and devoted herself to him working tirelessly to teach him every day skills. She was so successful that aged 6 he was able to walk, talk, feed and dress himself and started primary school just a year late - Praise be to God. As a reward for the lad's hard work and determination his Uncle bought him a brand new 3 wheeler bike and the wee boy was over the moon when he found that he could work the pedals and zoomed all round the garden, straight down the drive into the path of a car and was killed instantly.
The driver was distraught, his Mum blamed herself for leaving the gates wide open, Uncle felt it was all his fault. Our neighbour, who had become 'Auntie' and regaled us with tales of his progress, could not accept the reality of his death at all. For the second time my Father cried and hugged us tight.
Me? I learned that there was not a 'loving heavenly Father'. I realised that my own earthly Father (and Mother) would literally move heaven and earth if the could, or give their own life willingly to save me, yet this God we all worshipped could not be bothered to lift his little finger to avert these tragedies. I lost all faith & trust in God and decided that I would instead place my faith and trust in human beings and indeed throughout my life in times of trouble it has been friends, neighbours and total strangers who have helped me and brought me comfort - a debt which I strive to repay in my everyday life.
If all the good religious people in the world devoted the time, money and energy they spend on religious observances to doing some practical good the world would be a better place.
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