DEAD GIRL'S FATHER: GOD PROMISES TO HEAL

[tbieter]

Here is a book on faith healing that I have just discovered.
http://www.amazon.com/When-Prayer-Fails ... pd_sim_b_2

[Non Sum]

That was a good debate between Gustav and Richard.

I believe that Gustav made the better case.
In order to see it in its proper perspective we must try to see it from the parent's perspective, especially since parental negligence is the issue. If the parents are sincere in their extreme faith, then we have to assume that they were acting for the very best outcome, as they saw it.

Given their paradigm, i.e. that they live in a world of the blind, and that they (and those few who agree with them) are the sighted, 'what the majority would do' is a negative indicator for what should be done. Ask yourself if you found yourself mistakenly in a locked ward of the insane, would you be inclined to follow the majority opinion, or your own?

To a believer, such as our example's parents, life and death are not the end all, be all, of existence. But rather, standing in the face of eternity, faith in God is All that is ever relevant, certainly not whether you spend 5 instead of 105 years stuck in sinful finitude. To think a life span to be important compared to faith is proof positive just how 'insane' the society is that these believers find themselves condemn to.

I also take issue with the prejudicial term "nut" shared by both Richard and Gustav. We should be open to differing perspectives, even if we have no wish to adopt them. Are we to take Kierkegaard as a "nut" too?

"What the natural man considers horrible, this for the Christian is like a jest. Such is the relation between the natural man and the Christian; it is like the relation between a child and a man: what the child shudders at, the man regards as nothing." (Soren Kierkegaard)

"Christianity understood death is only a little event within that which is all, an eternal life.
Christianity has taught the Christian to think dauntlessly of everything earthly and worldly, including death."

[tbieter]

Here is another "faith healing" case from Oregon

http://www.aolnews.com/crime/article/or ... 2F19389245

[tbieter]

"WAUSAU, Wis.—A central Wisconsin father charged with reckless homicide for not taking his dying daughter to a doctor told police that he believed God would heal her and that he thought she was simply sleeping when she became unconscious.
Madeline Neumann died on March 23, 2008, on the floor of the family's rural Weston home as people surrounded the 11-year-old girl and prayed. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing."

http://www.twincities.com/ci_12930884?I ... ck_check=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is a belief that God makes promises a rational belief?

In view of the daughter's death, what should the father now believe?

The parents' criminal convictions have now been upheld by the Wisconsin Supreme Court, rightly in my view.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/0 ... d%3D340137

[Kayla]

anyone who has played dungeons & dragons knows that gods usually act through moral agents rather than directly

so while it is most likely true that god wanted the girl to get better and was taking positive steps towards it, he was going to do so through mortal agents - e.g. parameds, doctors, nurses, etc.

maybe if more people took up roleplaying games this sort of thing would not happen as much

[SpheresOfBalance]

Conflict of interest. Court officials figure is he's not going to pay ridiculous inordinate amounts of money to feed their economy, their pocket books via stocks, in pharmaceuticals, ambulance and health insurance companies, then they sure the hell will see to it that they get their money one way or another, by god! Everyone knows prisons are privatized money making business's. By God indeed!!!!! Got to ensure their usefulness, their existence, lets create a law that to not breathe is punishable. How about looking cross-eyed, thinking other than what we're told, etc. That ought to keep those money hungry evil pricks going, in the money and power!

Mankind is fucked, self serving ignoramuses that they are!

[tbieter]

"WAUSAU, Wis.—A central Wisconsin father charged with reckless homicide for not taking his dying daughter to a doctor told police that he believed God would heal her and that he thought she was simply sleeping when she became unconscious.
Madeline Neumann died on March 23, 2008, on the floor of the family's rural Weston home as people surrounded the 11-year-old girl and prayed. Someone called 911 when she stopped breathing."

http://www.twincities.com/ci_12930884?I ... ck_check=1" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Is a belief that God makes promises a rational belief?

In view of the daughter's death, what should the father now believe?

I listened to a brief interview with this author the other day and remembered this thread.
http://www.amazon.com/In-Name-God-Child ... roduct_top