I mean for a religious person everything should be god’s plan, right?
No, no, only the good parts.
Not good, just the convenient parts.
That is logical. Practically, though, this is used for justification of selected events. If a person confronts with something he doesn’t like, e. g. bugs in his home, he will actively try to change it.
Doesn’t mean they have to be passive. They could say God did this to provoke me to do something against this.
I mean it’s similar to the question why god allows all this suffering and evil in the world. I think the common answer is to test us and to give us the opportunity to do good or something like that.
That is convenient. This way you can explain anything you like. I think, Sam Harris said “it’s like playing table tennis without a net”.
That’s the point of religion. Providing some kind of psychological comfort by giving answers to questions we can’t answer.
But we can answer the question of why god allows bad things to happen: god isn’t real.
Pathetic fake fucking Christians
Pathetic fucking Christians is more like it.
Its a fucking death cult.
A blood death cult that got its start with child sacrifices…
But god is good…lol
Its insane to me that people can’t see this. Sure, it has over a thousand years of good PR, but the evil shit isn’t hidden. Its all in the bible.
The Allegory of the Cave suites nicely with religious beliefs.
“Keep watching the shadows. There is nothing but the shadows. If someone says anything different they are wrong and you are correct. Feels good to be correct. Be correct with us.”
Being incorrect about things on a consistent and constant basis can be disheartening if you’re insecure. They are wrong about so many things all the time that it’s a nice change of pace to be right. Even if that means accepting “Noble Lies”.
MAGA or Christianity?
Christianity. Its all about the end of the world.
Would be nice. But it’s more like a pedo cult.
God’s plan also includes deadly plagues, global floods, and turning people into pillars of salt.
That’s why we must conquer heaven and kill god before his cancerous existence spreads any further.
Also hell too, but they are not the main enemy. Heaven and God are. They are the real monsters.
Have these people read the part in the Bible that talks about the Antichrist??
Most of them can’t read.
If those people could read they would be very upset.
TIL one in three Americans suffer severe mental health disorders.
Unfun fact! Carter tried to establish community mental health care centers across America, but Reagan immediately undid it.
Same thing for solar panels. When carter left, he installed the first solar panel on the white house and said ‘this will either mark a new beginning or a path untaken’. Reagan took it down.
Now China is kicking everyone’s ass in solar panels. And Trump hates renewables so much that he wants to shut down a windfarm in New England that is almost finished, had already cost a lot of money, would employ thousands, and provide a fuckload of cheap electricity to a lot of people.
Sounds about right.
I’ve heard that some people believe trump is indeed god’s plan, to bring an end to the US
Unhappy, simple-minded people cling to prophecy of change, children’s fairy tales of a day when everything will be better and some paternal figure will protect them and give them all the presents they ever wanted.
It’s not a coincidence that education and exposure to diverse cultures and beliefs tends to make for a less religious population and why religion is shrinking in larger cities and more connected locations around the world.
The problem is that these people are basically armed serfs, in indentured servitude to their ideological leaders, they are pure political capital if you can harness them and holy shit have we seen that plan bear fruit.
America has a Christian Nationalist problem.
America has an individualism problem and well fuck me running if Christians just happen to be the absolute worst when it comes to the rights of others being of no consequence.
This is something that hit me like a ton of bricks after living abroad for a bit. It definitely made me think a lot about how much more pleasant things are when people are at least marginally considerate of others, and just how little some people seem to do it in the US.
🌎 🧑🚀🔫🧑🚀
Oh I’m aware it always has. I remember learning in grade school, about the Puritans coming to America and being told it was a good thing….
(Spoiler: it wasn’t)
But it’s getting worse every day.
Puritans coming to America and being told it was a good thing….
I mean, there’s a world in which protestant refugees of the Thirty Years War don’t just show up and start slaughtering native peoples.
In fact, quite a few early settler colonies ended up “Going Native” and integrating with local tribes, rather than clinging to European identity and loyalty.
But the promise of a New World Gold Rush invited all the wrong kinds of migrants. Add in the Transatlantic slave trade, and you had a thoughtfully toxic stew of feudal politics layered atop capitalist expansion.
It’s part of a concept of a plan. Great flood, plagues of Egypt, …
A third of Americans are delusional
So…God wants to punish America?
finally a rational decision
Imagine how stupid the average person is and now realize that half of them are dumber than that.
That’s a global percentage. I’m pretty sure that the United States is exclusively populated by the lower 15%
I’m a simple man. I see a Carlin quote, I upvote.
But that’s not how averages work. We’d really be imagining the median person.
About one third of Americans are bringing the average stupidity way, way down.
And imagine a law allowing them to buy as many weapons as they want.
Now imagine each one of them is constantly plugged into a 24/7 propaganda machine designed to be entertaining and foster a sense of community and emotional validation while pushing the will of corporations and authoritarian leaders.
They wouldn’t know “gods plan” if it smacked them in the ass. They’re literally worshipping the closest analogue to the Antichrist. These people are violently clueless.
“God’s plan” is literally whatever is happening right now. Got in a car crash? God’s plan. Narrowly missed a car crash? God’s plan. Cat wakes you at 6am for breakfast? God’s plan. This whole comment? God’s plan.
His plan sucks because he made Pedos billionaires. Wait, god might he a pedo. It’s his plan afterall. Always watching you like a creep. Dude fits pedo logic 100%. Worshiping pedos, sounds on track for religious nutts.
Mary was only around 14, too
Source?
Wikipedia lists her birth year as 18 BCE, whereas Jesus’ is between 6-4 BCE
Wikipedia is using the pseudepigraphal gospel attributed to James as a source. This had been identified by Origen as a forgery and it doesn’t constitute Christian doctrine. Although it does influence Christian tradition a lot. It also cites Jewish custom, where girls are eligible to marry at age 13 (which actually contradicts the infancy gospel of James, which states she was 12)
It’s not really reliable and definitely not Christian doctrine.
Do you think there’s a more accurate determination of a teenager’s exact age two thousand years ago?
Lol, like that billion actually matters when they stand in judgement.
My thoughts exactly. It’s a clickbait headline targeted at anyone who doesn’t realize that a third of people believe literally everything is “god’s plan.”
deleted by creator
This god guy sucks at making plans for something that is omnipotent
I’m reminded of the praying hands emoji people always post in response to an announcement of a vehicle crash on Facebook. If that shit worked, why don’t they pray for God to keep the crash from happening at all?
I get it… I believe in God as being chaos and to trust “God” is having faith in the present.
But it’s clear they aren’t actually about that, otherwise 2020 would have rolled along smoothly and they would have had the same “gods plan” mindset during the 2020 social protests.
This is social and psychological manipulation on a large scale. 5th generation warfare. This is war.
Most humans are pawns used by devils and proud that we created this lifestyle of ignorance and arrogance. Regardless of politics and parties.
Stop buying things that aren’t keeping you alive. Most people are funding and paying for this fucked up world to become less human and pretend they don’t have blood on their hands.
people are proud to be half human and made by mass media. They don’t want to know real reality because it’s difficult.
This is war
Class war?
But it’s clear they aren’t actually about that, otherwise 2020 would have rolled along smoothly and they would have had the same “gods plan” mindset during the 2020 social protests.
Obviously that was Joe Biden interfering in gods plan, so they were just doing the right thing in trying to undo it.
This. Trump literally fits the description of an “antichrist” (lowercase; one of a type) and many of the traits of the definite article (the specific Antichrist) described in the Bible.
But then they’re not expecting to be the ones deceived by an antichrist.
Even if he’s the antichrist, it’s still God’s plan by definition of the term “God” literally. The only question is if God exists or not. Or for me the question rather is if God’s existence matters or not.
I’d suggest it depends on whether one assumes we have free will or not.
My understanding of the Bible is that humanity has free will and so there are lots of things that happen that technically aren’t God’s will or plan (e.g. John 3:16 is pretty well known as mentioning God not wanting anyone to perish but for everyone to have eternal life, but then there’s also the Great White Throne Judgement in Revelation where there are definitely some who are cast into the Lake of Fire - the second death). There’s a good argument to be made as well for the prophetic parts of the Bible not being “God’s will” but simply the result of Him being outside time and space and hence knowing what the result of humanity’s free will will be.
So no, I don’t think the Antichrist is part of God’s plan per se; rather, God knows there will be an Antichrist and that’s given as a warning so people 1) aren’t deceived by him and 2) know that God can handle him (in Revelation it ends badly for the Antichrist).
Makes sense somehow but then God isn’t omnipotent and/or all loving so looks like a contradiction to me. Or maybe he just gave up on humanity?
I guess that depends on how you define those terms - being omnipotent wouldn’t necessarily require the exercise of that power, whilst “all-loving” would depend on whether you consider allowing people free will and hence the ability to reject God to be loving or not.
Romans 9 would like a word:
13 As it is written, Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I hated.
14 What shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness with God? God forbid.
15 For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion.
16 So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy.
17 For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth.
18 Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth.
19 Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will?
20 Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus?
21 Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour?
Ah yes, the issue of predestination vs. free will in the Bible. There are definitely some that believe in predestination, or a deterministic/pre-determined outcome. Personally I don’t think this is an accurate reading.
Some of the answers to the same question posed here - https://christianity.stackexchange.com/a/77861 - I think cover it well. https://reknew.org/2015/08/paul-teaches-free-will-not-determinism-romans-9-part-3/ also touches on why this passage is not suggesting God predestines some for salvation and some for damnation. Again, I think this comes back to the argument that the God of the Bible knows what people’s choices will be and acts accordingly.
Obligatory Ben Corey
I remember reading that in Trump’s first term.
It’s even more unsettling now.
Yeah you’re right, there is an actual “god’s plan,” but this isn’t it.
Give me a fucking break. Grow up and stop believing in fairy tales.
In some ways, isn’t the Antichrist God’s plan?
So is punishment, and republicans have been using his name in vain.
Daily reminfer that 33% of the US is crazy, and the majority hate Trump.
Aparently they didnt hate him enough to vote against him.
They did.
The US is not a democracy
The winning candidate in the 2024 election was “none”
“Didn’t Vote” could as easily be “Any/All” as “None”. Also discounts the voters who were legally disenfranchised or otherwise discouraged from participating.
Hence “not a democracy”. Voters don’t pick their politicians. Politicians pick their voters.
No it was “I don’t care, just take whoever the others want”.
A Christian (or, really, anyone who believes in predestination) thinking “X is Part of God’s Plan” is perfectly consistent with their understanding of the world.
It’s the Christians who don’t believe this who are being irrational
Those Christians would be inconsistent, but all Christians are irrational by definition.
Rationality is predicated on inputs and outputs. If you’re surrounded by second and third hand accounts of divine mysteries, it isn’t irrational to accept them as true absent some more compelling data. At least, no more irrational than believing in dinosaurs or the Big Bang Theory, without ever actually having seen a fossil or learned about the significance of background radiation.
Religion is the most destructive human invention.
But also the most successful. That is why it exists. I am pretty sure without religion we wouldn’t have been able to live together in sedentary groups larger than a few hundred people.
…more than slavery? how tonedeaf can you be
Religion can be used to rationalize slavery. So there.
Religion was used to justify it, and it was used to make the slaves more docile as well. Double edged sword. But then it turned to a source of strength as they emancipated.
It’s complex. Humans are not going to give up religion, they’re just not. We should work to make the religions better if we want things to get better, and that means supporting the good religious people so they can affect change.
I disagree. I think humans are going to give up religion. They just are.
Slavery was justified in large part for religious reasons.
…but it was the slavery that was the worst outcome, right?
I think you could just say control of the masses as the worst thing that has happened. Slavery is part of that control.
There’s a bunch of torture, murder and human sacrifice that stemmed from religion too. Those are pretty bad IMO.
You’re not wrong, but it’s bad form to say “slavery isn’t worse than X”
Why? Do you think slavery is worse than cannibalistic child rape and murder?
It’s like saying “all lives matter” in the context of “black lives matter”
it’s not wrong. but that’s not the right time to say it.
you should read up on how heliocentrists were treated!
Unironically, those people shouldn’t get to vote. If it’s all a part of gods plan then they should let Jesus take the wheel with the votes too.
They seem OK to be in a theocracy as long as it’s the flavor of “Christianity” they claim to belong to.
Be assured that THIS Christian who actually read the Bible knows that all of these people will rot in Hell when they die. A lot of repenting will be required to side step that one truth.
