Posted on 12/06/2019 12:33:09 PM PST by DeweyCA
The alternative is to tell them they’re simply going to die and turn to dust.
As a therapist, I’m often asked to explain why depression and anxiety are so common among children and adolescents. One of the most important explanations—and perhaps the most neglected—is declining interest in religion. This cultural shift already has proved disastrous for millions of vulnerable young people.
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The result? Children or teens who reported attending a religious service at least once per week scored higher on psychological well-being measurements and had lower risks of mental illness. Weekly attendance was associated with higher rates of volunteering, a sense of mission, forgiveness, and lower probabilities of drug use and early sexual initiation. Pity then that the U.S. has seen a 20% decrease in attendance at formal religious services in the past 20 years, according to a Gallup report earlier this year. In 2018 the American Family Survey showed that nearly half of adults under 30 do not identify with any religion.
Nihilism is fertilizer for anxiety and depression, and being “realistic” is overrated. The belief in God—in a protective and guiding figure to rely on when times are tough—is one of the best kinds of support for kids in an increasingly pessimistic world. That’s only one reason, from a purely mental-health perspective, to pass down a faith tradition.
I am often asked by parents, “How do I talk to my child about death if I don’t believe in God or heaven?” My answer is always the same: “Lie.” The idea that you simply die and turn to dust may work for some adults, but it doesn’t help children.
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(Excerpt) Read more at wsj.com ...
God created Satan, but with free will. If I, a person of free will, decide to shoot an innocent person in the back, the person is dead because of my free will, not God’s. So why doesn’t God just eliminate everyone who makes evil decisions? He almost did in Noah’s flood. We’ve all done wrong things that somehow affected someone else who was innocent of it. He lets us live because he has a plan of redemption for some of us. God will do something, but not according to our timeframe.
The choice of abortion, or any kind of homicide, is one made by the perp, not the victim. “TI” didn’t say otherwise.
Yes, but our free will to do good or evil doesn’t only affect ourselves. That’s what makes it evil.
I don’t know of any religion that teaches that God is “self-created.” Uncreated, and outside of the time-space-cause-effect system, would be closer, at least for the monotheists.
God is not unknowable.
As Alexander Solzhenitsyn might say, "Good luck with that."
True that.
Knowable yet unfathomable. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts”.
The saddest thing to me is someone(s) wrong. And since most religions are mutually exclusive that means a whole lotta people are going to hell.
In fact most denominations are mutually exclusive. I believe that the catholic church teaches they are the body of Christ on the planet and if you aren’t a member of the Catholic Church your soul is in mortal danger. (Not singling our the Catholic Church many denominations teach they are the only way.)
Or we are all wrong and we all just die and there is no afterlife. Or as the Unitarian Universalist teach God loves us all so much that we all go to heaven.
I’m quickly approaching 50 and I’ve had an interesting spiritual journey. I envy those people that are so convinced their religious beliefs are correct, even the Muslims. (Though I abhor everything else about that religion.)
I’m not taking any chances though so I’m going to join them all before I die.
Well put.
Well put!
Free will....
Amen!
That's exactly the verse I chose last night to open my class. It --- and the 3 or 4 verses following --- is one of my all-time favorites!
2. So let me make it clear for you. Satan and his followers corrupted this world, not God. Evil occurs because this corruption affects all of us. God wants to save us from it; But if you blame him instead, who's going to save you.
When God created the world He did NOT create hell.
That came later with Lucifer/Satan.
My wife says that too.
Whether you believe in God or not, lying to children is a poor decision. Being wrong is different from being dishonest. If they later find out that you weren’t expressing your sincere beliefs to them, it will undermine everything else you’ve ever instilled in them.
Good -— we are of one mind on that.
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