Kill Coronovirus with Prayer

I actually believe that when we die we will all cease to exist, but respect those who believe in an after life.
For myself I cannot envisage the type of God as portrayed in the bible, as an all powerful, all knowing, vengeful, cruel, jealous God, but at the same time expecting unconditional adoration, worship and praise from his faithful followers.
Uncomfortably like a dictator in my eyes.

Trouble is, "SirChenjin" that even if (and it is by no means conclusively proved) God is making all the decisions, it is his human sidekicks who carry them out. Every divine decree since time immemorial has been filtered through a human brain and spoken by a human voice, or written down or engraved on stone tablets, by a human hand.

Other human minds have interpreted and expounded those decrees, and yet others have explained those interpretations in different terms. When the explanations are translated into other languages, for the benefit of later civilisations or foeign missions, the translations are always only approximations of the original sentences, whose meanings even in their original laguages may have changed since they were written down.

Language is a living thing and is always changing.

Vampire queen and elegran - good posts which I completely agree with.

God helps those who help themselves.

I thought the purpose of prayer was to bring people together to work as a community to cope with a crisis. It is not an alternative to proper medical treatment.

Thank you Marydoll for your post agreeing with me .

Your god might make decisions for you endlessstrife but he or she or it doesn’t for the rest of us

Snap, VQ

" the same as any other history book" The Bible is not one single work, it is more like a whole library where assorted writings of all kinds (originally as old parchment rolls) have been gathered together. At various times, the books included in the anthology have been blitzed to remove those that didn't suit the image that the religious authorities wished to project (the NT gospel by a WOMAN wasn't included for very long)

Not long after Jesus' death, the Roman grip on the country tightened, and potential troublemakers, such as the Christians with their message of obedience to a higher power and their perceived links to nationalist terrorists, were unpopular with the authorities. This led to secret meetings, and an emphasis that persists to this day on enduring persecution from non-believers, and a serious weeding out of included accounts, so that what remains is mostly about a beleaguered organisation looking forward hopefully to God coming down in glory to take the elect up to Paradise and annihilate the ungodly.

The collection that we know today as "The Bible" contains history in the Old Testament, yes, but also a law-book, a genealogy of royalty (to prove they had a legitimate right to the throne) some biographies of famous historic figures, a second lawbook, a series of erotic poems by King David, and so on.

The second part contains accounts of the foundation and early spread of Christianity, but as history it contradicts itself and some of it is at odds with all other history written at the time. There are four conflicting accounts of the life and ministry of one of the many self-elected Messiahs who emerged when the country was at a low ebb politically and religiously, and tried to revive the ancient pride in the being God's people. These gospels were written a minimum of a hundred years AFTER his death and incorporated stories passed down by word of mouth - they must have undergone considerable editing and polishing in that time, and tales of some of other candidates for messiah-ship must have crept in.

A large proportion of the New Testament is given over to the letters of the convert Paul to satellite groups in other countries (but none of their replies seem to have been preserved). They show history, all right, but it is the history of how Paul energetically shaped the early church to his design, and imbued it with a lot of his prejudices. He comes over as a misogynistic micro-managing boss with little time for any opinions from anyone else in the organisation. Perhaps his colleagues in Central Office encouraged him to go on foreign tours so as to get on with their work in peace?

The NT ends in Revelations - with a vision of the end of days by a prophet in a trance - probably about as accurate as the psychedelic visions of a 60s flower-power guru under the influence of LSD. Would LSD dreams be regarded as literal predictions of reality by anyone today?

He loves us so much that rather than us all living happily he created something to tempt us to do awful things, just to see what we'd choose to do?

The Bible isn't a true history of anything. It's an amalgamation of oral tradition, early Jewish history, myth, legend, rules and fictional stories meant to teach a moral or other important lesson. It contradicts itself in many places e.g. 1 Samuel 17:50 tells us that David killed Goliath however 2 Samuel 21 tells us that Elhanan killed Goliath. So who killed Goliath? There is a theory that this was a error made by a scribe and it should have said that Elhanan killed the brother of Goliath but then that begs the question, if this is evidence of a scribing error then what other errors are there? The New Testament wasn't written down until well after Jesus died. The stories had been passed orally. Oral stories are rarely retold verbatim. So things will have been added/removed by the time they were written down. Also the oral traditions would have been told in Aramaic but they were written in Greek and then translated into Latin and eventually many other languages. Translation isn't an exact subject. The translator has to make decisions regarding the intended meaning of many words and phrases. Therefore the New Testament is as open to errors as the Old Testament is.

I'm not attacking the Bible as a book of faith. It contains quite a lot of good advice. Jesus's instruction regarding loving others as you love yourself is spot on as are the 10 Commandments. But you can't say it's the same now as it was in it's original form or that any of the oral traditions were totally accurate. And don't forget that over time men have decided which testaments/Gospels to leave in and which to leave out so we don't even have all the information even in a error ridden form.

I just wrote a lengthy post, but lost it. Probably just as well.

The comment, non believers will cease to exist is cruel and offensive to those of us with faith who are tolerant and accepting of all beliefs, and have children who are non-believers.
That type of comment goes against all the teachings of Christianity.
No wonder there is so much religious intolerance in the world.

curveygran, Callistemon asked, and I just answered. I don’t make the decisions, God does. There’s no need for you to worry about something in which you have no belief.

Quote taken from this work. academic.oup.com/cid/article/47/5/668/296225

Prayer didn’t help the inhabitants of Zamora during the Spanish flu. Instead, it helped kill them.

The town Zamora had one of the highest mortality rates in Spain, reaching a peak of 10.1% in October 1918 (overall influenza mortality rate in Spain in the same month, 3.8%). It ranked second to Burgos (influenza-associated mortality rate in October 1918, 12.1%). Because of a strong social influence of the Bishop, the Catholic Church authorities in Zamora stated that “the evil upon us might be a consequence of our sins and lack of gratitude, and therefore the vengeance of eternal justice felt upon us” [19, p. 149] and, subsequently, organized a series of Mass gatherings at Zamora's Cathedral. One of the likely consequences of the events was the easy spread of the virus. The attempts of civil authorities to forbid Mass gatherings were disputed by the Bishop, who accused the political and public health authorities of undue interference with the church. Daily Mass continued with even larger audiences in those times of trouble and sorrow [19]. A common prayer at that time was an ancient one named Pro tempore pestilentia (For the Times of Pestilence), which asked God that persons be spared from plague and famine and expressed the people's belief that it was God's will that they were afflicted and that God's mercy would end the affliction.

I really think that was a truly un-Christian comment, endless.
Cruel and unnecessary, it goes absolutely against Christian teachings . To say ‘ non believers will cease to exist ‘ - seriously??

As a supporter of Mary's Meals I too believe that the op has done that fine charity a disservice.
They do not set out to evangelize but many of their workers are people of faith.
This ham-fisted approach should not have "tapped into" the reputation of Mary 's Meals and if a supporter has been lost as a result of your post OP then I hope you'll redress the balance and double your Direct Debit.

Mary’s. Fat finger. Sorry.

sussexborn I didn’t take offence at it, but I did feel it was something I didn’t want to be associated with.

I started supporting Narys meals when a poster that I respect drew attention to it and my own research assured me that the money would be well used.

But this was a few years ago and extremists can infiltrate any organisation and pervert it for their own ends.

I’ll continue to give to feed the hungry but simply move to something a bit less sensational.

Don’t be sad endless - us non believers are perfectly happy

The bible clearly states that people should, love God, and your neighbour as yourself.

If we understand correctly that God commands us to love our neighbours then we can, I think, assume that He doesn't hold us to a higher standard than He does Himself. Therefore God loves all people, all the time.

I believe the Bible the same as any other history book. I am sad you don’t. This earth will be gone. God is making all things new. Non believers will cease to exist.

Sorry, that did hot post so I retyped it.

The Book of Revelations is no more valid than the beliefs of the ancient religions such as the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans.

Is it any more valid than the beliefs of ancient religions such as those of the Egyptians, the Greeks, the Romans?

Sorry, sore finger today
Revelations

Eve,ations - Written in about 96 AD, author probably known and states his personal views.

Why is that any more valid than another view?