FJ is a mixed crowd that appears to contain as many atheists as Christians, and occasionally that will cause misunderstandings. For example*, in a recent discussion of Josie Duggar's recovery from being born at 25 weeks, several people praised God for helping Josie. Several other people responded with "praise the doctors, god had nothing to do with it." I'm sure you can see where the discussion got heated.
I'd like to use my blog to explain why atheists get pissy when you start thanking god and prayer for someone's medical recovery. For one thing, why was Josie saved, when every day, 24,000 children around the world die? 18,000 children will die today of starvation. Count to 4. A child just died. In the time it took me to type this sentence, another child died.
So why did god save Josie, and not the 24,000 other children who died the day she was born, and every day thereafter? Did not enough people pray for the child who has died since the last time you blinked? Were their parents' anguished cries not expressed properly, so god couldn't respond? Or are the children of white Quiverfullers more important than the 3,000 children that have died since I woke up this morning?
It's those sorts of questions that really set atheists off when you praise god for saving a child. That's to say nothing of the issue of removing credit from the doctors and nurses who really did the work, from all the researchers who discovered the proper treatments, drugs and equipment, and the people who manufactured those items.
Never mind the fact that if fundys had their way, all those things necessary to saving Josie- doctors, nurses, researchers, drugs, equipment, etc.- wouldn't exist. Seriously, have you ever seen the average blog of a home schooled fundy? Those people aren't passing the MCATs.
*I'm not linking to anything specific, though you could certainly find the thread if you wanted to, because the people at FJ are quite reasonable and will work this out, if they haven't already. I don't want to add any tension that might make the process more difficult.
Fundys don't want "doctors, nurses, researchers, drugs, equipment, etc." to exist? You've got to be kidding me. Who are you talking about?
ReplyDeleteBased on what you say about "praise doctors", what do atheists say to doctors who believe God saved the life of one of their patients and that He should rightly be given the credit? Oh wait, that would make that doctor a fundy in which case they have no credibility. And they must have cheated their way through the MCAT too since fundys apparently can't pass them.