Mar 21, 2007

Death, Marriage and Christianity


I have a couple of questions regarding religion,
perhaps you can help me out with a few things.

As you all well know I am not religious, though I have been in and around many religious environments all my life. One question i have had since i was a child was in regard to marriage and death. Having known many religious people who have lost a spouse, and then remarried. This behaviour has always struck me as a selfish act.

Isn't this kind of a contradiction of beliefs? On one hand you believe that you will be reunited with loved ones in heaven, yet some can not wait for death to find a new lover. I always envisioned this reunion in heaven as being very awkward. One husband sits at the pearly gates anxiously awaiting his wife's arrival to heaven, only to find her walking with some other dude. I imagine the original husband is just like: "Who the hell is this guy? Ohh that's just great honey, you couldn't wait ten years, and now we have to spend eternity as a menage a trios." I just don't understand the logic of someone who believes in the afterlife, and remarries after a lover dies.

On another totally different note, I have read a interesting point that someone has made about Christian beliefs. I say someone, but it is really a website, other than the point I'm about to mention, the site was just a bunch of atheist propaganda, so i don't feel it deserves a link. Anyway.....

Many of you have heard about the wondrous healing powers of faith, thousands claim that prayer has healed their illness, cancers, heart condition, financial situation, etc. There are many who would point to these miracles as the source of proof that God heals. Mark 11:24 Jesus says, "Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours." So the point i was referring to is directed at those who believe that God does heal through prayer:

The obvious question to ask is: What cured you? Was it the surgery/chemotherapy, or was it God? Is there any way to know whether God is playing a role or not when we pray?
Unless you take the time to intelligently analyze this situation, it looks ambiguous. God might have miraculously cured your disease, as many Christians believe. But God might also be imaginary, and the chemotherapy drugs and surgery are the things that cured you. Or your body's immune system might have cured the cancer itself.

Suppose that your arm or leg was amputated.
We know that drugs, science, treatments, nothing man made could bring your arm back, yet God could, he is Omnipotent.

Why doesn't God heal amputees?

Perhaps God chooses only to intervene and provide healing in ambiguous situations, where the source of cure could be interpretive. If an arm was returned however there would be no denying a miracle. It is an interesting point to consider.

3 comments:

TABOR said...

When you first alluded to remarrying after a spouse is dead as being selfish I was wondering what you were smoking. However, by the next paragraph I understood. We both know that it's more important to be happy in this lifetime than it is to leave your happiness up to the chance that there is an afterlife. What if you're wrong about Heaven and it turns out that you squandered God's most precious gift which is life. I'd rather risk living it up on earth and having a menage a trios in Heaven than having a wasted lifetime with no afterlife to look forward to.
As for your next topic, well I don't beleive in "miracles" in the dogmatic sense. I don't think the hand of God comes down and sways events of this planet one way or the other. This planet has rules and physics, and there is nothing that happened that can't be explained by science. Very improbable "miracles" happen all the time but I'm like you with the waiting for the regrown arm. That would truly be a "divine hand" --Pun intended.

Rev. said...

Nice pun :), I agree that one should live life to the fullest. Just to clarify, that first topic wasn't referring to a belief that i hold on to. I only mentioned it because it seems like an inconstistancy in Christian belief when compared to their behavior.

TABOR said...

I know, I realize that you were just exploiting a contradiction.