> -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of Erik Reuter
... > On Tue, Nov 26, 2002 at 07:13:21AM -0800, Nick Arnett wrote: > > No parent should have to bury a child. > > What do you mean by this? It's not a perfect world, by far. Lots of bad things happen; burying a child is one of the very worst. Do you have children? Been close to anyone who lost a child? > Obviously, throughout human history, some > parents have unfortunately had their children die. In the past hundred > years, medical progress has happily brought this down quite a bit, > although not to zero. But denying children dying or wishing it away > won't do any good. Grieve, learn to deal with it, work on making it > better. But why make such statements? It's not a zero-sum game -- we can and should do all those things to prevent childhood death. I didn't think I was promoting the notion of "denying children dying or wishing it away." I was talking about the great good that religion has brought to one family, and many others like it, when a terrible thing happened. It sounds as though you're projecting an attitude onto me that neither I nor most every other Christian I know has. None of us sit around simply wishing that children didn't die. Eugene's parents, like my best friend and his wife, were deeply involved in finding every possible option for their children. They are people who really impressed their kids' medical caregivers with the degree to which they got involved, learned the medicine and searched for answers. There's a story we tell at church about the attitude that I think you may be projecting onto me. Perhaps you've heard it. It's about a man who hears there's a flood coming. The police drive through the city, warning people to evacuate. But he stays put, saying "God will save me." The flood waters rise. A National Guard truck comes through and they urge him to jump on. Nope, he says, God will save me. The water rises to his second floor. A boat comes by and again he refuses the help, saying, "God will save me." Soon, he's on top of his roof and the water is lapping at his feet. A helicopter shows up, but he still won't leave. "God will save me." The water rises even higher. He starts treading water. After a while, he drowns, then comes face-to-face with God. "You promised to save me!" the man complains. God's reply? "I sent you the police, the National Guard, a boat, a helicopter..." > I would suggest something like, "unfortunately, in this world, parents > sometimes lose children, but it is getting rarer as humanity puts more > effort into understanding and curing diseases, and if we continue doing > our utmost to advance medical science, fewer parents in the future will > have to endure losing a child". That has nothing to do with what I'm talking about. All the science in the world is not going to prevent bad things from happening. Everything we invent, we figure out how to use to hurt each other. Nothing in this world is purely good. > > This universe seems less than perfect, which certainly is one reason > > that we hope that it is not the world for which we were created. > > Why not hope for something more practical, like a cure for the disease > that killed the child? Better yet, why not spend much of the time and > resources used in church on doing whatever is possible to work on a cure > for the disease? It's really not fair of you to imagine that I haven't hoped -- and pray -- for cures for Eugene, Kevin, etc. In fact, it angers me a bit that you'd suggest such foolishness. As for the resources of the church, there are plenty of innovators who report that they are empowered and inspired by their faith. I believe that without it, we'd see far less success, not more. Working *more* very often is not the path to a breakthrough. Finally, I have to say that there's something ironic about people expressing anti-religious ideas in a discussion forum that centers on science fiction! If you believe that the story of Christ is fiction and thus should be dismissed as a giant trick played on humanity, then what do you believe about David Brin's fiction? What's the distinction, since Brin's works clearly have some kind of impact on the world? Or have I created a straw man there? Nick _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
