Kill Coronovirus with Prayer

I agree with momb that seeking to find a way to help everyone around us in this situation is what we should be doing - but I do not pray for guidance about this, firstly because I would have no idea to whom I was praying, and secondly because I have no idea how this being might reply.

I do find the OP terrifying - that people can have such blind unthinking faith, picking and choosing their bits of their holy book to suit their opinions fills me with horror.

Kindness is all that matters. We are faced with an international crisis that very much relates to how ways of living have evolved amongst the human population - but rather than see it is the retribution of a cruel divine being, it is a chance to rethink how we live - hurtling round the planet and jettisoning self-reliance, polluting the planet in a myriad of ways - so much that we need to rethink.

I do not think that praying will get us out of this mess - serious reflection and new approaches to how we live is more likely to help.

Marydoll......your comment......"I'm really annoyed that the OP has damaged the reputation of Mary's Meals with their comments".

I was actually praising the work of Mary's Meals. Someone asked for an example of where something good was being done. I have actually stayed at Craigwell Lodge where this good work began. I wrote an article a few years back about a dear lady, now in her nineties, who collected items for the back packs, storing them in sacks ready for collection and shipment overseas.
Instead of buying each other presents at Christmas in our Prayer Group - we contribute a donation to Mary's Meals.

The bottom line is, that prayer is answered for those who believe in it. Jesus said "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life" and he doesn't want us to sit quietly saying nothing, but to spread His good news of Salvation, loving one another as we do so.
I arrange and do visits to the elderly and sick in Care Homes and their own homes. To see their smiles when they are able to chat to someone and thank you for visiting, is deeply humbling. We do not preach to them, we simply meet them where they are in their lives. Along with various training courses, I have had training with those with dementia who also need our love and care in their difficulties.

This is my last comment - I know many may believe or not believe, and as I said before, that is their choice, but, the most important thing is to love one another.

NannyC2, on reflection I apologised later for my choice of language, so you are a bit late with your reprimand.

However, at least one poster is considering not donating to Mary's meals after reading your OP and associating the charity with your beliefs and that is one too many.
I will stress again, Mary's Meals helps everyone, regardless of creed.

I donate to and have raised funds for Mary's Meals on a regular basis, so I do not need to be told how they operate.
However, I do not preach and broadcast what I do on a public forum to others. There is no merit in that.
We don't all need approbation and feel the need to resort to broadcasting to the world what good people we are.

I suspect your intentions were good and you were trying to raise their profile, but it has backfired.

Callistemon read about it in Revelation.

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

Why is that any more valid than another view?

Sorry, sore finger today
Revelations

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

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

Sorry, that did hot post so I retyped it.

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.

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.

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

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.

Mary’s. Fat finger. Sorry.

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.

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??

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

" 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?

Snap, VQ

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

Thank you Marydoll for your post agreeing with me .