Divine Protection

Again, on FB or YouTube “divine protection” is touted with Covid-19 and some found their Savior through “personal experience” of sometimes a physical “saving” (ie cancer remission or accident they should have died in or NDE)

Anyway … who’s “protecting” these guys (based on theist reasoning)

Fidel Castro (600 assassination attempts)
Charles de Gaulle (over 30 assassination attempts)
Adolf Hitler (over 30 a.a. AND some youthful near misses that saved his life)
King Hussein (a dozen or so attempts)
Zog I (roughly 50 assassination attempts)

There are shitloads more, obviously…

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@Whitefire13

A reasonable rationale, sadly I fear theists will play the god moves in mysterious ways card to all facts and evidence that doesn’t mesh with their beliefs. Or the it’s not our place to question god’s plan, god can’t be tested etc etc. That kind of selection bias is impervious to all evidece of course.

Two things occur, firstly you can’t dent a belief system that sees only successes, and ignores all failures, secondly no matter what deity anyone believes is real, there are more people in the world that disbelieve that deity is real. How exactly is their deity allowing them all to thrive? Especially if prayer has any validity at all.

As far as Covid goes, they will as always vacillate their view to match the results. For example all perceived successes will be asserted as god’s will, whereas all failures are a result of god’s anger / displeasure. And you get bet the rent that the latter will be used to insist our societies are not religious enough. Religion is a self fulfilling prophesy that moulds all facts to the core belief, rather than moulding their beliefs to the facts. It’s an intuitive rationale as well, once religious indoctrination has done its work.

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Lol…if I was a JW the talk would be that Jehovah was blessing me - but I’m an apostate and it’s Satan who has me in “his” trap… you know, to keep me there :hugs:

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@Whitefire13

I don’t think theists give the devil enough credit, in their rationale after all he is at least as handy a delusion as their imaginary deity in deflecting facts that are perceived as contradicting their core belief’s doctrinal teachings.

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@Whitefire13

Hmmmm, makes me wonder how many assassination attempts 21 has had.

@dogalmighty

That depends, are we talking real or perceived?

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@Sheldon

LOL

Perceived, followed closely by real.

Is there a slight chance … say sssoooooo ssooooo small that when we die, we get to the pearly gates, get escorted in and sit before “god”. There’s a beer :beer: in one hand and smoke/toke in the other and heaven is a ‘rockn.
The transgendered Being says “welcome”. And you’re like “huh” ( a bit confused because after all you’re dead) AND the being says -“ I know what you’re thinking - and yes, I inspired and “wrote” every one of the holy books from Scientology to Mormons to Koran, from Old to New AND included the biggest, shittiest stories with exaggerated untruths possible to see who actually used the one organ you were “gifted” with - YOU passed- have a blast”

Uhhhhh - where are the “others” ??? You ask, sniffing for smells of sulfar…

“LOL” Being replies…their own private “hell” -
church, gold benches, virgins and such (points to cloudy area with robot harp players) thanking “me” that they got “there”…

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@Whitefire13

I like it, a variation of the awful Pascal’s wager, that reality is as likely to be a test to weed out the gullible, irrational and downright unpleasant, as it is anything religions have imagined.

@Whitefire13 Re: “Anyway … who’s “protecting” these guys (based on theist reasoning)”

Funny you brought this up. It reminds me of back when my mind was still all cluttered and at war with my religious teachings. Generally speaking, I led a rather… :thinking: uhhh… well, a rather “adventurous” life, to say the least… (chuckle)… Adrenaline junkie daredevil from the earliest days I can remember. Spent my entire childhood dreaming of being a Hollywood stuntman, and demolished many a bicycle in pursuit of that dream.

Moving on into the adult world, my activities and the inherent risks therein became more extreme and more real. As such, there were an untold number of times I probably should have been killed (or, at least horribly injured). And THOSE were just the incidents that would have been accidental and/or caused by my own stupidity. Once I started my careers with the police and military, THEN I had the extra-added bonus of other people INTENTIONALLY trying to hurt/kill me. And a few of them damn-near succeeded. Yep! Good times were had by all! :smile: And the crazy part was that I LIVED for those moments. Those close-encounters with danger/death. It was always a rush for me.

Interestingly enough, though, because of my religious upbringing, I would sometimes wonder how/why I wasn’t injured/killed after a particularly close call. After all, I had many times seen friends/coworkers get injured/killed during far less dangerous events. And many of them were FAR MORE “religiously faithful” than I was. So what made ME so special that I was spared? I actually pondered that rather often. And typically I would just shrug my shoulders and think to myself, “Well, maybe God (or whatever is “up there”) has some sort of plan to use me and I’m not meant to know what it is.” As you might imagine, that thought just encouraged me to be more reckless and take bigger chances. In my mind, I was invincible. And although I was very uncertain about which direction I would be sent in the “afterlife”, I don’t recall ever having a fear of death.

So, was some type of “divine” spirit/entity watching over me and protecting me all those years? Well, if it was, it certainly had its hands full trying to keep up with all the stupid shit I did. :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: :sweat_smile: Looking back and knowing what I now know, however, I was just one very lucky son-of-a-bitch. :relaxed:

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I like that one…

What most people do not realize (or, maybe, simply prefer not to acknowledge) is that every single day of our lives is FILLED with incidents that put us just a heartbeat away from potential death or serious injury. For example, simply driving or riding in a vehicle on a public highway is putting your safety/life in the hands of dozens/hundreds of total strangers. Let that sink in a moment. Yet, very rarely does anybody even remotely consider that, because automotive transportation is such a common and mundane activity. In actuality, though, it is also one of the most dangerous things billions of people do on a daily basis.

Aside from being Army Airborne, I also was an avid recreational skydiver for many years. When friends/family/strangers would tell me I was crazy for wanting to do such a dangerous and risky activity, I would usually reply, “Yes, I agree. Skydiving can be very dangerous. You want to know what the most dangerous part of skydiving is?” Naturally, their usual reply would be, “Jumping out of a perfectly good airplane… Duh!” At which point I would answer, “Nope. The most dangerous part of skydiving is having to drive to and from the drop zone.” Then I would walk away leaving them with a confused look on their face.

(Oh, and by the way, there is NO SUCH THING as a “perfectly good aircraft”. Just a bit of info to help you sleep better at night. :clown_face:)

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@Whitefire13

Yair.

I bought my first car after I got out of the army. It was large by Australian standards, royal blue and it was beautiful.

Damn car kept hitting things. Posts, sides of buildings, other cars. The final straw came when it maliciously rolled itself. I was left sat sitting upside down in the car, only two bruised ribs. I could easily have died.

I didn’t die, nor did god save me.I saved me by having the wit and habit of always wearing my seat belt.

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Trivia re miracles;: The Catholic church and its flock believe in miracles at Lourdes, where Bernadette Soubirous saw her Lady in 1858.

I worked out that there have been in excess of 200 million pilgrims to Lourdes seeking a cure. To date the catholic church has recognised 65 cures. None have included the regrowth of missing body parts, or nose jobs.

A quick search revealed that the rate of spontaneous remission of disease is1:30,000. Spontaneous remission is far more reliable than ‘miracles’. Who’d have thunk.

Another angle to consider on the whole “divine protection”

The US bible belt along the south, is seeing massive new counts in covid-19, and is currently the worst hit area in the US. Where is this divine protection for the most “devout” concentration of followers in the US? It was easy for them to say divine protection when it started out in NYC, seattle, chicago, etc. But now it has left those places mostly behind (due to hard work and sacrifice of the people living in those areas at the time.) and is hitting the bible belt super hard, where most people were taking little to any effort and actively following their great savior tRump in the whole “no masks” thing. Worsening their fortunes.

Try and explain that to a southern religiously devout, and they will probably just shout “fake news!” even as their medically vulnerable family members drop dead around them.

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Logic … there are some studies looking into neurological issues related (???) to Covid 19 BUT it’s early, lots of variables and the test subjects being asked for are a variety worldwide of about 50k for a year …
Ugh there is still so much not known - but I will be pleasantly surprised if a vaccine is found (sure fucking hope so) within Th e next few years - again we’re entering human studies.

Your country unfortunately had an un-empathetic narcissist steering the boat, so to speak, and he’s heading strait for the rocks while “he’s in charge”.

Fact is the US “powers that be” , in common with their circle jerk buddies in Tory Engerland have noted where the Covid 19 strikes hardest. i.e the unskilled, ethnic minorities and of course the vulnerable and aged. The Prime Ministerial advisor at the start of the outbreak voiced their feelings before being summarily silenced by his masters: “Whats it matter if a few old people die then?” or similar words I can’t recall exactly. But it caused a minor kerfuffle that he should be so honest.

The point is there has been a cynical decision to remove protection from the aged in care, their carers, low income and welfare recipients. These are not “Economically Productive Units” and can be discarded. We are seeing that in stark relief. That the ill educated also happen to be the largest class of religionistas in the US is just coincidence and they are the collateral damage that the rightful owners of the economy will accept with joy and satisfaction.

Note that their (The owner class) behaviour is a direct result of creating an “economy” as opposed to a society. All very logical and sensible when perused from that point of view.

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Yep. From a purely economic viewpoint, long term, having the most medically vulnerable and generally least productive members of society die enmasse is an economic boost. Care of the elderly and other medically vulnerable is a net drag on the economy.

This is Ayn Rand kind of thinking. And ofcourse it is incredibly short sighted thinking.

If the virus is left to play out, the medical front line system will be destroyed. And fear that keeps everyone home and many parts of the economy on freeze will only worsen. Medical professionals cannot be easily replaced, and even before covid-19 was a major issue. (Outside of wealthy cities, there are “medical deserts” where the nearest major well equipped hospital can be hours away.

I think the US is on the verge of collapsing a bit like USSR did. Headed down that path for sometime now, with covid-19 poised to push it off “the cliff.”

I remember reading long ago, empires, (like the US,) do not get conquered, they rot from within.

Toss in massive climate change and the entire world is headed towards a dark age.

Science, innovation, ingenuity may save the day. (A working cheap/fast to build fusion plant would do it) But the people of US are to fractured right now to save themselves.

Maybe we can last until November and have a landslide victory for Biden, allowing for a peaceful transfer of power to a slightly less corrupt individual.

The rumour mill has tRump contemplating not running for 2nd term (taking his name off the ballot.) He does not like to lose, and even he sees his chances slipping day by day.

The rumour mill also has it that he is likely to face prosecution and jail time for indiscretions during his presidency, once he steps down and loses the protections of his office.
So, will he contest the election with the aim of avoiding prosecution for a few years more or will he offer to step down in exchange for immunity? He doesn’t seem to have much else to bargain with.
I think he’s likely to play it like a wisdom tooth and wait to be extracted with effort, then he will have an “illegally removed from office after a fake election” protest for history to salve his ego. He will then sue the entire United States of America for damages. And then move Mar-a-Lago to Russia.

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@Grinseed

…or he has health issues that will come to light after his present presidency.

@ doG, yep, there’s his health physical and mental. Trump is just an old man and as another old man I could feel pity for him suffering, uncomprehendingly, the stress of the hardest job on the planet, if it weren’t for his cruel, stupid, wilful ignorance and insatiable vanity.
Could he last another four years? In the background is Pence.
Roll on November.