How can A higher Power let this happen?

[wind]

Hey guys


Okay so I have a question. I believe in a higher power called the great spirit. This spirit is light and dark, good and bad, male and female, its alot of things. However I dont get how it could let a 5 year old or a 14 year old child die? I believe we all have a time to live and we have some type of contract but when a child dies I dont think its there time. When a child dies is that from something that the divine didnt expect? And how could the childs spirit guides, spirits and highpower let that happen? I have gone through so many deaths of children dieing it is geting old and sad . What are your views on this?

[Jembru]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

A few years ago, I lost my faith entirely, and this was one of many reasons I questioned the divine. Even now, although I feel better having faith, I still question many things. I switch on the news and see images of people, religious people, being caught in cross fire, or in some cases, deliberately targeted. I have seen children crying in pain from their wounds in overcrowded 'hospitals' and I mothers crying at the side of rubble, wondering if their children are alive or dead. These people believe in a god, they pray, many times a day, and they adhere to the ascribed behaviours of their faith. So why then, do they suffer? Why are their prayers ignored, while I'm getting the trivial things I've asked for in spells?

I wish I had the answer. Suffering is part of nature, I understand that part, if this was the bottom line, then witches would never see their spells work, because the gods care only that the entire planet as a system ticks over, not that individuals are happy and healthy. It seems that, if our gods think we're taking up too much room, then we need thinning out, regardless of how much suffering this might cause.

The only logical answer, in light of the evidence I can see, is that magic has nothing to do with deity and is something different to prayer. Prayers are empty and heard by no one. That's not a reality I wish for, and I smile when I read 'scientific' reports of how a test group of patients recovered sooner, when they were prayed for, when compared with a control group without the prayers.

In the end, I just have to accept that reality is greater and more complex than I could ever comprehend. I continue to thank my divine parents and get a real comfort from standing before them at my altar. I just have to accept that, for some reason, suffering is part of nature. Humans mistreat and torture animals all the time, we're wicked like that. Then sometimes, we show the same disregard for life towards our fellow humans. Maybe then, it is not the gods we should be pointing our fingers at, but the inherently evil human race, that is, perhapse, even more powerful than the gods themselves...

[Gardenia]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

Well, I think if you accept that such a being both "light and dark, good and bad," then it would only make sense for life to be all those things as well - which would include things we would think of as bad, such as children dying.

Personally, I do not believe in a 'perfect' deity or universe, and I don't think any spirits can (or should) protect us from every danger in life. I also do not believe we have a scheduled amount of time here, or in fate, or that sort of thing... any of us could die any day, regardless of how young or old we are. If you're alive, you can (and will) die at some point. (Of course, I also do not see death as a final ending, either, just part of the cycle.) I don't mean to sound callous about it... truth is, we have made some pretty good progress in our ability to keep children alive to see adulthood - and adults alive longer, as well - and I think that's a good thing. Still, hard and tragic as it may be at times, death is just a part of being alive. I think deity and spirits with a view of the bigger picture would naturally be less worried about it than we are.

[MaskedOne]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

Why would it feel compelled to prevent a death? Death is a massive issue from a mortal perspective. A deity may just look at it as "Bob has a new address, forward mail to Elysian Fields instead of Earth." If you have a greater fondness for reincarnation than straight trips to eternal aftlife, it becomes more of <redacted> isn't in the right place to learn something as Fred, pull him out and have him restart as George."

[Ula]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

What does the higher power have to do with it? Why do kids get abused or life long conditions like Down's or autism? Nature is what it is. How we deal with life is what the gods are interested in. Why should anyone be excluded from life (which includes death)?

[DrStrange]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

To quote Cromwell, "Put your faith in God, but keep your powder dry." While I believe there there is/are a God/Gods, I certainly don't expect them to save me. Or anyone else for that matter. Not unless it serves some purpose of theirs, which I cannot begin to understand. Of course, there are no atheists in a foxhole, and I've prayed to the Norse Gods in times of great personal danger, for myself and my family.

What makes my Mind = Blown is the stupidity of people who actually believe that every person has their own Guardian Angel. I'm sorry, but innocent men, women and children die every single day. Often painful, terrifying deaths. What are all their Guardian Angels doing, having a coffee break? Jerking off? And before anyone brings up Free Will, murder victims didn't choose their fate. No one woke up on the morning of 9/11 and thought, "Today I choose to board a 'plane that has been hijacked by terrorists and will be flown into one of the Twin Towers."

God may save your Soul, but your Ass is your own responsibility.

[Gardenia]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

And before anyone brings up Free Will, murder victims didn't choose their fate. No one woke up on the morning of 9/11 and thought, "Today I choose to board a 'plane that has been hijacked by terrorists and will be flown into one of the Twin Towers."

I don't think in that case the idea of free will has to do with the person deciding to die, but the person who decides to kill. If deity gave humans free will, and if deity does not intervene with humans acting on their free will (because, then what would be the point?), then I think free will is a reasonable thing to look at for why deity doesn't stop murders and the like. Humans can control some aspects of their lives due to their own free will, but they can't control every last element due to the free will of other humans (as well as things beyond human control).

[Dumuzi]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

It depends on your religion and how you view this life and how you view death.

For people who only focus on this life, death must be the ultimate bad thing. But for others this life is just a small phase, after which you go back to where you belong. Death in itself is not bad. It's only bad if you've been a bad person. And it's the best thing to ever happen to you if you were a good person.

[wind]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

Thanks everyone for the advice... And If I view deity as balance in the universe then thats all it is. We as humans view death as a bad thing because its someone/thing we love being taken away from us. Spirit views death as a transition therefore its not going to be upset about it.

Everything in the universe has a counter part, to understand life, we must understand death, to understand birth we must understand rebirth (reincarnation) so if I view death as a transition phase then tragic events that happen are just apart of that balance and life. Its just bad cause in the human mind we see it as is. Thanks guys for helping me understand this, blessed be!

[DrStrange]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

I don't think in that case the idea of free will has to do with the person deciding to die, but the person who decides to kill. If deity gave humans free will, and if deity does not intervene with humans acting on their free will (because, then what would be the point?), then I think free will is a reasonable thing to look at for why deity doesn't stop murders and the like. Humans can control some aspects of their lives due to their own free will, but they can't control every last element due to the free will of other humans (as well as things beyond human control).

Which rather proves my point: that guardian angels are nothing more than wishful thinking. A bit like that pathetic novel/movie in which a young girl is raped and murdered but it's, "OK" because she eventually goes to Heaven. Give me strength.

To be honest, if there really is an all-powerful, Abrahamic-style God, then He is in dire need of a good, hard kick in the Holy Testicles. Give me power on that kind of level and I'll do more for the human race(and several species of animals)in one week than the Big G has manged in several thousand years.

As for Free Will, it's like Democracy: a nice theory that falls apart as soon as people try to apply it in the real world...

[Medusa]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

Some possible answers.
The kids deserved it
The Spirit hates the kids
The parents of the kids deserved it
The Spirit hates the parents of the kids
Medical conditions
There is no Spirit.



I'm shooting for the last but I'm more prone to say it's the Medical.

[Dumuzi]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

If death is a punishment for the bad then we are all bad because (spoiler alert) we all die.

[Medusa]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

If death is a punishment for the bad then we are all bad because (spoiler alert) we all die.

Wolverine don't die!

[Caelia]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

Everyone dies, and I feel like others there's only such much a higher power can do, just like there's only so much humans can do. That said, I believe this comic helps explain it: http://netjeru.comicgenesis.com/d/20070923.html . Sometimes bad things happen because no one will or can stop it. For instance, there's only so much I can do about human trafficking worldwide. However if I notice possible signs of it in a child in my neighborhood I can report it to authorities.

[Jembru]

Re: How can A higher Power let this happen?

I was talking over my thoughts on the matter with a friend of mine. I was saying that it's hard to believe in the power of prayer when such terrible things happen to people, despite their prayers. He said, 'how do you know things wouldn't be even worse without the prayers?' Although I struggle to imagine what could be worse than killing innocent families and their children, I can't argue with his logic!