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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
bob@dr-bob.orgShown: posts 1 to 3 of 3. This is the beginning of the thread.
Posted by fayeroe on March 1, 2003, at 7:27:42
recently I have had a huge string of things happen to me that really impacted my life. pneumonia for ages, lost my job,my best friend's grandbaby died of SIDS, lost an enormous amount of weight, finanically strapped, etc. etc. i'm single and feel that i'm alone in this struggle. i told a doctor friend that if one more person says "God NGYMTYCH", i was going to smack them. he said to reply "well, i wish he didn't think so highly of me".....i'm still stressed and angry over some ofo the things but my sense of humor is coming back a bit. i'm going back to church tomorrow. i hope that i find something to hold on to.
Posted by Dinah on March 1, 2003, at 15:56:40
In reply to God never gives you more than you can handle, posted by fayeroe on March 1, 2003, at 7:27:42
I hope so too. And not all religious folk believe that. I mean, if it were true there would be no suicides, would there?
People say things that make them feel good or that help them make sense of the world. Benevolent God, rotten life experiences. It's hard to reconcile, and that statement is one way that people try.
Good luck at church. I hope you find something there to help sustain your soul.
Posted by bozeman on March 1, 2003, at 19:31:42
In reply to God never gives you more than you can handle, posted by fayeroe on March 1, 2003, at 7:27:42
I feel the same annoyance with this statement as you do.
And, I am not at all convinced that *God* is "giving" us those experiences. He might grant us peace and grace to sustain us through them (or sometimes not) but I don't believe He makes the bad stuff happen to us.
Even if you don't believe in the devil as an entity (not trying to start an existential debate about that, BTW), there is another explanation. It's called entropy, and it's how I keep from getting mad at God when bad things happen.
Source: shortened from entry at http://www.m-w.com/
Main Entry: en·tro·py
Pronunciation: 'en-tr&-pE
Function: noun
Inflected Form(s): plural -pies
Etymology: International Scientific Vocabulary 2en- + Greek tropE change, literally, turn, from trepein to turn
Date: 1875
1 : broadly : the degree of disorder or uncertainty in a system
2 a : the degradation of the matter and energy in the universe to an ultimate state of inert uniformity b : a process of degradation or running down or a trend to disorder
3 : CHAOS, DISORGANIZATION, RANDOMNESS
- en·tro·pic /en-'trO-pik, -'trä-pik/ adjective
- en·tro·pi·cal·ly /-pi-k(&-)lE/ adverbIn other words, bad stuff happens because that is the nature of things in this universe -- matter moves away from order and toward chaos. Chaotic happenings, random bad events, etc. are part of this physical law (not spiritual law.) God doesn't make them happen (not directly, anyway. An argument could be made that He created the universe and all physical laws in it, therefore He makes them happen. If that were true, then he *made* Adam and Eve be deceived by the serpent and eat the apple, which is not my interpretation of that scripture. I believe He
*allowed* it, but did not *make* it happen. Adam and Eve had free will, as do we, and one of the consequences of free will is that other physical laws are also present, ones that can allow bad things to happen. Even to good people. I'm paraphrasing Kushner again, but I credited him in an above post, so maybe Dr. Bob will let me get away with it. :-)This does not mean that one can't supplicate God to interfere to prevent an entropic event from occurring, or from having such a disastrous effect on us when they do occur.
It's just an explanation (my own explanation that keeps me from getting violently angry when senseless things happen, especially to the helpless, like children and animals) that, some days, bad stuff is going to happen, and unfortunately, you were in the place today that it happened to you. It was going to happen, to somebody, but that doesn't mean that it happening to you, made it personal.
Like when a meteor falls out of the sky. If it hits your house, that doesn't mean God is smiting you. (It *could*, but chances are it doesn't.) It just means a meteor drifting through our solar system got drawn into our planet's gravitational field and didn't completely burn up on entry. Since the earth spins, it could have landed anywhere. Random and mathematical. Not that God couldn't use randomness, or mathematics, to achieve a Miracle if He chose to. I believe He could, would, and sometimes does. But He doesn't always interfere, for whatever reason. That free will thing again, I suppose.
My two cents worth. Keeps me from getting bitter. Hope it helps.
I wish you peace
bozeman
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Dr. Bob is Robert Hsiung, MD,
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