What’s the craziest thing you’ve seen God do?

[bluejellybelly]

If you’re a Christian, like a miracle or breakthrough, or even maybe someone encouraged you with exactly what you needed to hear and you know it was God… all those sorts of things… I wanna hear!

We have different opinions/beliefs so I don’t know what else you want me to say really 😅 I wasn’t asking for all your issues with my beliefs - you’ve repeatedly asked me the same question over and over again and nothing I’m saying is enough for you - because of the simple fact that you have a different opinion/belief.

I used my example to highlight a significant theological paradox: if certain acts, such as healing or miracles, are indeed attributed to God's intervention, then this challenges the notion that God is both all-loving and all-caring in a universal sense. If God were truly all-loving and omnibenevolent, it would follow that God would act in the best interest of all people without exception, offering equal care and compassion to every individual. However, the selective nature of divine intervention—where some individuals receive miraculous healing or blessings while others do not—seems to suggest otherwise.

This inconsistency raises the question of whether God's love and care are truly impartial. By God's own actions, or lack thereof, it appears that divine love is not distributed equally, leading one to conclude that God may not love or care for everyone in the same way.

It's you that has a belief system which changes how you see things though, not me. That's your choice, of course, as is the choice of others to follow other belief systems or even other god figures.
I was also simply addressing/clarifying points you had put to me in the previous post.

Okay :) it’s been a ride, @zeitweilig 😂 x

No, it's sadly been as I could have predicted from the initial responses.
Tschüss.

It’s baffling to me that someone having differing beliefs from you when you repeatedly question them and don’t like the answers is “sad”. Over and out x

It's baffling to me that you ask for examples of a god doing things and then cannot definitely answer when people politely ask how you know a god has played any part. Even practising christians should be asking themselves that, and many do. It's also baffling that people are reporting polite discussion as derailing. I'll await your next last word.

Because the OP is asking for other people's experience. So if someone sees this, and believes they have had such an experience, they can answer. The OP is not policing how people perceive this, and how they interpret inexplicable events in the light of their faith. She is not mandating that anyone share that faith, but seeks examples from those that do. And honestly has been very polite and patient with challengers.

I did answer, so many times. You just weren’t satisfied with my response. I’m not trying to have the last word, I just want the conversation to close 😂

Surely part of the discussion has to include what made people convinced it was a god for it to have any actual meaning though? That's not policing, it's making it meaningful. It's interesting you chose the term 'challengers' and that you don't see how many of us questioning have been equally polite and very, very, very patient awaiting actual answers. We've also been reported and some innocent comments deleted.

The discussion should proceed by fostering an environment where personal faith experiences can be shared without fear of ridicule, while also allowing space for curious and respectful questioning. By setting clear expectations, maintaining civility, and moderating the conversation fairly, the dialogue can be both meaningful for those sharing their faith and informative for those seeking to understand how faith shapes perception.

You haven't answered how you know, you've answered how you think/feel/believe. Surely that could lead to wrongly attributing events to a god or even making decisions based on being confused? I knew lots of christians who struggled to know what was from their god, despite believing in the existence of one. I'm interested if you apply any of the strategies they did to confirm what you think you're hearing? I'm happy to shut up now, but always question, even if you employ different interpretations of the answers than I might!

Agreed.
My aim is not to ridicule but my past makes me question.

I have a story about praying to Jesus to heal my dog. We were on holiday and my dog hurt his back and couldn’t move his back legs. He wasn’t recovering after cage rest and they scheduled him in for surgery costing around 5k. I hadn’t bothered to pay my pet insurance for that year so I was kicking myself.

The night before surgery I prayed and said ‘Jesus, if you ever met my dog you’d really love him.’ I prayed not necessarily for healing because I wasn’t secure enough in my faith at that time, but I prayed the surgery would be successful. I had a really strong image in my head of Jesus walking past the cages in the vet clinic and stroking my dog.

Sure enough he recovered enough over the night to not need surgery. He wasn’t 100% cured but he had begun to heal naturally and a few months later he was fine.

Since then I have prayed over my dog when his back problems have flared up again and it has been successful. But i sometimes try to avoid praying too much about my dog because sometimes i feel like im bothering God or something. Which is silly because He tells us to ask him for things.

i have also prayed for family situations which i was struggling to cope with. God didn’t alleviate the situation overnight, but He did calm things down long enough for me to find solutions myself. I now pray to Jesus about anything I’m anxious and confused about and He always sorts things out or points me in the right direction.

To anyone here questioning I recommend praying to Jesus even if you’re just dipping your toe in the water. I had no idea what to expect by having a relationship with Jesus but it is exactly like having a wise companion walking alongside you.

Your poor dog not receiving the medical care he clearly needs if he is having repeated debilitating back pain.

Also, this is exactly what winds people up. The suggestion that God intervened and cured your dogs back but doesn't give a shit about thousands of children dying of leukemia? What an asshole he must be.

Exactly
What a ridiculous thread

ruethewhirl
I don't get why atheists have to come on to threads like these and try to spoil them. I'm not sure why atheists are even interested in the religion board, but in particular why click on a thread about God if you don't believe in God. Why can't people just live and let live?

@ruethewhirl because religious people don't live & let live do they? See Gaza / Israel. The most unimaginable suffering, caused by people because of a belief in "God"

Sounds like prayer is no different to meditation.

Also, get that poor dog to the vet. He needs science, not prayers.

‘Live and let live’ is one of the most jaw dropping things I’ve read on here, considering how many people are killed in the name of ‘God’.

I said back there about how prayer can benefit the person praying. It's essentially because it involves taking time to really think and/or speak about topics which are important to us, how we honestly feel, what we honestly want, if/how we can achieve what we want etc. Thinking we're speaking to a god figure and being listened to will bring comfort to some people.
Prayer should never be instead of proper medical care though.

The arrogance of some people on this thread is truly breathtaking. All this baying that OP must justify her beliefs before being ‘allowed’ them, high-handed proclamations on how this conversation 'should' proceed when it was never intended to be a debate on the entire premise of religion, and the amount of irrelevant rhetoric about wider problems of belief on what I’m sure OP intended to be a positive and lighthearted thread about the positive things belief can bring to those who believe. All because some people are incapable of accepting that some people think differently to how they think. And also, ironically, incapable of tolerance, when I'm sure they'd be the first to label those with any kind of religious belief as intolerant.

OP and those of us who agree with her are not attempting to convert those who don’t believe. Shame the same thing can't be said for some of those on the other side of the debate that pps have decreed should be the real purpose of the thread.

OP I admire your grace in how you’ve responded to those on this thread who aren't capable of accepting difference of opinion, especially given the attempts to brow-beat you out of your beliefs.

@bluejellybelly I'm sorry so many of you are angry at this thread

People's anger at a God they say they don't believe in is interesting. How can anyone be angry at something they say doesn't exist? 🙃

My mum’s cancer came back three times. The third time it killed her, despite a lot of prayers from a lot of people.

The implication on this thread is that God viewed providing party bags as more important.

Admittedly, Mum was no longer actively Christian, although I’m pretty sure she still believed in God. But a few weeks after she died the local evangelists were out in my very multicultural area, and I heard a man who I can only describe as a vindictive bastard shouting enthusiastically about how if people died without giving their souls to Jesus they would go to hell.

I turned and walked away as fast as I could, because I knew that if any of them approached me I wouldn’t be able to help yelling at them, and even in my fury I knew that would be unfair.

But do you see how this all slots together, and the implication is that God prioritises relatively frivolous requests from followers over helping people who are far more in need but not necessarily religious? What kind of loving parent is that?

@EmpressaurusDeiGatti - I am sorry for the loss of your Mum; those people should have never have spouted such horrible lies and I don't blame you for walking away - that must have made you so upset and angry

@WiserOlderElf & @AutumnalCosiness - believe me there is nothing true believers in most religions despair of more, than people doing terrible things and then declaring it was in God's name. It's absolute bs and takes away from so much good that others do
They are just hateful fanatics using this as an excuse, and I know they are lying. I am sure God does too!