Holy Spirit where art thou?

[LimitedGrip]

Aaron Hernandez's Murder Victim's Family Reacts to His Suicide: 'This Is God's Will'

 

I realize that people deal with grief, anger, and vengeance in different ways, but this is an epic example of Christians having no clue what their god wants.

 

The parent of one of Hernandez's victims says, “Any loss of life is a shame. I believe in leaving things in God’s hands.”

 

Another parent of a victim, says, "“Only God has the right to take somebody’s life.” and "It’s very painful to me when somebody takes their own life"

 

However, the lawyer for a third parent says, "“She believes - as she is an extremely religious woman - that this is God’s will,”

[Ellinas]

God's will is whatever we tell him it is.

[Loopylou]

I think @Elllinas has it right. The will of god is whatever we decide it is. 

There was a rather neat (but not rigorous) experiment done on this subject over at religioustolerance.org. Their study design was:

"We published a notice on our web site encouraging visitors to take part in our study to assess the will of God. We E-mailed a form to each visitor to our web site who had asked to be included in the study. Subjects were thus self-selected. The form asked the recipient:

• Whether they were currently in favor of or opposed to same-sex marriages. 
• Some personal data -- their sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and which "wing" of that religion that they followed.
• To seek God's will for same-sex marriages through prayer.
• To continue praying until they received a response from God or felt that they could not assess the will of God.

If they were successful in assessing God's position on SSM, then we asked:

• what God's will is, and 
• how certain are they that they correctly assessed God's will."

The summary of the results is here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/god_pra6.htm#sum

 

Basically, those who approved of same sex marriage before the experiment found through prayer that their god certainly agreed with them.
Those who disapproved of same sex marriage before the experiment found through prayer that god certainly agreed with them.

So, your god wants what you want, and god agrees with you, regardless of what you think. If it helps to think that god is forgiving, and that any death is the will of god, then of course god agrees with that too. Personally, I think leaving matters in the hands of god instead of being torn apart by anger, bitterness and grief can be a healthy idea. (God agrees with me on this.)

It would be good to see a large scale and more rigorous experiment.

[★ Citsonga ★]

Not to change the subject, but every time I see the title of this thread, I can't help but think that it should have the word "wherefore."

[LimitedGrip]

7 hours ago, Citsonga said:

Not to change the subject, but every time I see the title of this thread, I can't help but think that it should have the word "wherefore."

 

I didn't want to make it too hymnal. 

[LimitedGrip]

8 hours ago, Loopylou said:

I think @Elllinas has it right. The will of god is whatever we decide it is. 

There was a rather neat (but not rigorous) experiment done on this subject over at religioustolerance.org. Their study design was:

"We published a notice on our web site encouraging visitors to take part in our study to assess the will of God. We E-mailed a form to each visitor to our web site who had asked to be included in the study. Subjects were thus self-selected. The form asked the recipient:

• Whether they were currently in favor of or opposed to same-sex marriages. 
• Some personal data -- their sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and which "wing" of that religion that they followed.
• To seek God's will for same-sex marriages through prayer.
• To continue praying until they received a response from God or felt that they could not assess the will of God.

If they were successful in assessing God's position on SSM, then we asked:

• what God's will is, and 
• how certain are they that they correctly assessed God's will."

The summary of the results is here: http://www.religioustolerance.org/god_pra6.htm#sum

 

Basically, those who approved of same sex marriage before the experiment found through prayer that their god certainly agreed with them.
Those who disapproved of same sex marriage before the experiment found through prayer that god certainly agreed with them.

So, your god wants what you want, and god agrees with you, regardless of what you think. If it helps to think that god is forgiving, and that any death is the will of god, then of course god agrees with that too. Personally, I think leaving matters in the hands of god instead of being torn apart by anger, bitterness and grief can be a healthy idea. (God agrees with me on this.)

It would be good to see a large scale and more rigorous experiment.

 

Thanks for that interesting study. I, too, would like to see a similar study done with better control. 

[★ Citsonga ★]

14 minutes ago, LimitedGrip said:

 

I didn't want to make it too hymnal. 

 

It's Shakespeare, man.  

 

[Ellinas]

And of course, the Shakespearean "wherefore" actually means "why".

 

Even more appropriate.