Recently I was approached by a young lady who informed me that she was impressed by my nearness to God. She was convinced that I talked to God on a regular basis. Naturally I inquired as to how she knew this. At first she thought I was an angel. I corrected her this one time but she said that I was the answer to her father's prayers because I had showed up to fix an ongoing problem he could not. IOW God had consulted with me to get my ass over to her place and solve a dilemma.
I'm not going to get into specifics, I have my reasons, but isn't it interesting how impressionable a young mind is. Obviously her father's words have a tremendous influence on her life. I can't tell you how much I wanted to say something counter to her father's words, but I held my tongue. I don't know why, perhaps out of respect for her family. So I went from fixing, for me what amounted to an impersonal problem only to have a personal one pop up.
Amazing how when someone glorifies you that you're more than willing to push aside personal feelings. In fact after that episode I am convinced that the people in charge of the various religions of the world are actually hiding their true feelings with respect to their beliefs just to bask in the celebrity of being God's spokesperson. Anyway that's another subject.
Was I the answer to a prayer? Did God manipulate me into being there? I can assure you that God did not talk to me and I'm also quite convinced that God, if he exists, probably knows I'm an atheist. Would God use an atheist to assist a believer in Him? If He did then does God have a moral responsibility to safeguard that atheist's afterlife?
(don't think for a moment that this is what I'm hoping for). If God uses me to help a believer then perhaps all atheist commentary is meant to assist believers. How does a theist know an atheist is not doing God's work?
I'm not going to get into specifics, I have my reasons, but isn't it interesting how impressionable a young mind is. Obviously her father's words have a tremendous influence on her life. I can't tell you how much I wanted to say something counter to her father's words, but I held my tongue. I don't know why, perhaps out of respect for her family. So I went from fixing, for me what amounted to an impersonal problem only to have a personal one pop up.
Amazing how when someone glorifies you that you're more than willing to push aside personal feelings. In fact after that episode I am convinced that the people in charge of the various religions of the world are actually hiding their true feelings with respect to their beliefs just to bask in the celebrity of being God's spokesperson. Anyway that's another subject.
Was I the answer to a prayer? Did God manipulate me into being there? I can assure you that God did not talk to me and I'm also quite convinced that God, if he exists, probably knows I'm an atheist. Would God use an atheist to assist a believer in Him? If He did then does God have a moral responsibility to safeguard that atheist's afterlife?
(don't think for a moment that this is what I'm hoping for). If God uses me to help a believer then perhaps all atheist commentary is meant to assist believers. How does a theist know an atheist is not doing God's work?
