Do you believe in guardian "angels"?

[Tgitdfvjiit345]

To be clear, I'm an atheist. Don't believe in ghosts etc. But I have always felt that something "unworldly" was looking after me, particularly when I was in my 20s. It sounds nuts I know. Can't really explain why I feel this way. Maybe I've just been lucky in certain aspects, particularly education and work.

I've been having a really tough time lately (bereavement, anxiety etc). And decided to try and tap into that feeling again

I'm currently selling a house. It's not getting any viewings (about 3 in 2 months). It's getting me down in a bad way. Whilst I was walking my dog, I asked out loud that when I returned home I would like the estate agent to email with a viewing. Got home, sat down with phone. About 30 seconds later an email notification popped up for a viewing. First one for ages. Just a coincidence I suppose.

Two days later I was driving to a car boot sale and I asked out loud that I would like to find a particular collection of vintage books. When I got to the boot sale it was really small. But there on one stall was a box of these books in mint condition (50p each). I couldn't believe it.

Again probably a coincidence but do you believe in guardian angels or something like that?

Or maybe it was their time. Who knows?

All these events are mere coincidences.

@Tgitdfvjiit345 I've read it just fine thanks 🤷‍♀️

Was it not a thread about opinions? Or did you just want people to agree with you?

I personally find the idea of guardian angels that help some people (normally white, privileged people) but not others quite unpleasant.

As an example, the poster who was "saved" from a pile up - what did the other drivers do wrong to get involved in it?

Why would a guardian angel help one person and leave so many others to suffer? It's such a distasteful idea.

Yes, exactly.

Of course nobody is saying out loud that they're more worthy of help, but how else do you explain it? Why would a guardian angel stop one person getting into an accident or help them pass an exam, but not save millions of others from suffering?

Just waiting for the standard “it was gods will” or that it was “gods plan”, or similar.

@OneDandyPoet either that or they don't have an explanation why so many other people don't seem to have these guardians!

Definitely believe. I'm into astronomy too and my favourite star, Bootes, is known for being a guardian and protecting against evil stars.

No, for me atheism means no belief in anything supernatural. Kinda wish I did in tough times though. If it helps you then why not.
I believe that we have strong intuition from our evolutionary history and our bodies are speaking to us constantly and are in dialogue with the earth because the human species evolved in close contact with the earth. And that sometimes when people have a "strong feeling" about something that is what's happening

@Strawberry4Supermoon I don't think astronomy means what you think it means....

I think it does. Ever been to the lectures at the Greenwich Royal Observatory?

Oh FFS. Stop with the white privileged bollocks. Plenty of non white people have all sorts of beliefs (supernatural or religious).

@Strawberry4Supermoon I could, of course, be wrong. But I would be very surprised if the Astronomer Royal believes that Boötes protects him from car crashes...

I don’t really have an answer, but I have been in miserable abusive DV situations, praying for help and nothing changed until I reached my limit and left. I also went through an abusive childhood and didn’t know to pray back then. And yet looking back I feel I was on a meaningful spiritual journey and those were lessons I needed to learn.
Now my faith is much stronger and Jesus seems to either change things for the better when I pray, or bring me an inner peace to accept things as they are,

You seem to be assuming that 'the faithful believers' don't also face pain, loss and death. I've never known anyone really suggest that other people suffer more because they didn't pray hard enough. People are just talking about their own experiences of particular situations where they felt that presence of someone or something helping them. It doesn't mean they're better, or impervious to all problems and suffering in life.

Indeed. Whilst I've been lucky in some aspects, I've not in others. I've had crippling anxiety since primary school due to very dysfunctional parents.

Maybe there are angels but they can only help with very minor things so can’t be relied on when the chips are down. It would be a bit shit if they are organising the perfect car boot over watching over orphans in Palestine or the Ukraine if they did have more power really.

I'm not angry with you. I just don't believe what you said was fair, it came across a little sanctimonious imo, when you said the person needed to ask out loud. Yes it is, and things change in life, it isn't because you haven't asked in the right way for a mythical being to help imo, which is what you alluded to.

I never said they didn't.

Why are you so angry with those of us who don't agree with you?

I don't think that's what people are implying. They're saying that the whole idea just doesn't make sense.

It just makes zero sense that there's some kind of "angel" who can save one person from a car accident, but can just leave all the others to die in a pile-up.

I mean, if there were such thing as angels, why would they spend their time helping people sell houses instead of stopping Russia bombing the shit out the Ukraine, or stopping babies from dying of cancer?

Ha yes, angels who can help with minor inconveniences or annoyances maybe!

Yeah. Feel better now do you for trying to belittle me?
I'm talking about MY experience. Eejit.

I'm annoyed with people trying to insult or belittle.
I've not actually said I believe in guardian angels if you had bothered to read what I'd written.

So I guess religion is also null and void then because God would have to be an evil shit to let Ukraine etc happen?

Of course, the faithful or not, everyone faces pain, no one is immune from it. It’s a very human condition. And I never specifically said that other people suffer more because they didn't pray hard enough. The point I was trying to make is why have your prayers been answered but not mine, despite the fact that we believe in the same god (I don’t)? Coming from a staunchly religious background, I’ve had many a person tell me to just trust god, to not stop praying to “him”, to keep praying “with all my heart”, because many religious people (not all) believe this is how their prayers are answered. So when something good happens, they would say to me, see my prayers have been answered, or god protected me in this and that situation, just keeping praying, and believe with all your heart.

Yep, pretty much.