"....And he went a little farther, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt..." "....For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men,......" We live under judgement. We live in a sin stained enviroment. The world is our whole existence, as it has been, and is, conditioned by sin...As we see it , the world is the world of time and of things, in which nature and spirit, body and soul, the ideal and the material, interact and oppose one another. It is a world in which things move towards independence, a world of things existing powerfully in their own right, a world of principalities and powers and thrones and dominations. Like men, the world is imprisoned. As their world, it unwillingly participates in the perversity of men and shares their damaged relationship with God [Barth] Through sin, death entered into the world. Death is the supreme law of this world, but it also points to a Lawgiver. Death is judgement, barrier and exit, end and beginning, the Divine 'No' and 'Yes', the visible sign of the wrath of G-D, it is the divine command Stop. Through sin, perversions such as the example you have provided occur on a daily basis, whether in the Church, or school, or sadly yet, in the home. We are infected through and through. So, what prayer shall we pray? Shall we pray that a persecution be stopped today, that an evil thrown against us should cease today? Shall we pray that we have food to eat today, or that our monetary provisions should increase today ? Or that a physical assault shall end immediately ? Absolutely YES to all, and we are commanded to bring our supplications to our Heavenly Father. But what of tomorrow ? Or the next day and the next year ? We shall still be stained by our sins and inhabiting a fallen enviroment that assaults us until we run into the Divine barrier to our sin, which is death. The ultimate answer to any and all prayer, has been given already. It is the death that ends death. It is the redemptive work of Christ. So, is G-D a liar as you have asked ? I say that He has answered all prayers from all time, for there can be no greater request of prayer than to be saved from ourselves. "..So then as by the offence of one judgement came unto all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came unto all men to justification of life. For as by one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be righteous..."
again you were afraid to answer the question. you have turned it around and blamed the victims of the rape for their plight. if god makes a specific promise in the bible with no qualifiers. did you see any qualifiers? and then refuses to keep those promises is he a liar and a sinner? when those children begged their god to stop their rape and he refused even though,if he is god, it would have been effortless to do so is he a lier and a sinner?
Obviously, Free Thinker, it depends on your view of the reason evil "is". If you feel that the concept of sin is nothing more than a moral construct from a particular religion, then you have every right to hold your position. If however, one sees evil as a consequence of Adam's fall from his first estate, then the ultimate and indeed only remedy to the horrific evil that man perpetrates is the redemptive work of Christ. This free gift of grace and mercy is the answer to all prayers.
so you make excuses for a god who would stand back and allow his represenatives on earth to rape innocent children because he uses the justification of"hey i told them not to eat that apple"?
that is sort of misleading. 2% of the population is homosexual but there estimates are that each gay molester molests on average hundreds of boys and a higher percentage of the population molests. I have read studies that figure 30 to 40 or more of the molestations are being done by homosexuals or bisexuals. The are on the net. I learned similar info from the social workers while working in juvenile hall (as an attorney) Disclaimer... these stats are all based on limited studies. And this is the stuff that seems to be highly policed by the p.c. crowd.
No one needs to believe or take in Jesusâ words seriously, or otherwise, to do what's right. Taking in Jesusâ words seriously as a Catholic however, does associate you with a worldwide pedophilia ring whether you choose it or not.
you really are a zealout. From a believer you get the statement don't believe or believe. Then you chime in with - don't believe and (an in light of what already has been written on this thread) an extra unnecessary insult. Why are you so insecure in your athiest belief that you have to go around proselytizing? There are a couple born again types here who are not even close to as zealous as you. you seem to be the only true believer wacko on elitetrader who does not seem to respect others. why?
"At the beginning I also repeatedly administered a slap in the face, but always had a bad conscience about it," Ratzinger said, adding that he was happy when corporal punishment was made illegal in 1980. --------------------------------------------------------------------- This is holy person who is "happy" the (LAW) stop him from the hitting children in the face? So his religion did not stop that, the LAW stop that. Why did he (reject) his (natural) empathy when he say he had the bad conscience, and keep hitting children? Why? Because he is brainwash from his religion. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35780663/ns/world_news-europe/?ns=world_news-europe
Why? Why have you, as usual, jumped off the deep end just because I have said something which is obviously the case, based on what you already stated? There is no way I would knowingly be a part of any organization which itself as a body , was complicit in crime, especially crimes against humanity. Why would you? Just because it is the Catholic Church who committed those offences and is still committing them for all that is known, as they have a record of not firing the culprits , and you are a Catholic who wants to continue to partake in strange deviant practices within it, does not excuse you being a member of an organization that perpetrates child abuse. It's simple really. Why attack the messenger? Default Catholic reaction maybe.