God Exist

[hoope]

[SIZE="4"]This was emailed to me , thought of sharing it with you :-)


This is one of the best explanations of why God allows pain and suffering that I have seen

A man went to a barbershop to have his hair cut and his beard trimmed.
As the barber began to work, they began to have a good conversation.
They talked about so many things and various subjects.
When they eventually touched on the subject of God, the barber said:
"I don't believe that God exists."



"Why do you say that?" asked the customer. "Well, you just have to go out in the street to realize that God doesn't exist.
Tell me, if God exists, would there be so many sick people?
Would there be abandoned children?

If God existed, there would be neither suffering nor pain.
I can't imagine a loving God who would allow all of these things."
The customer thought for a moment, but didn't respond because he didn't want to start an argument.
The barber finished his job and the customer left the shop.

Just after he left the barbershop, he saw a man in the street with long, stringy, dirty hair and an untrimmed beard.
He looked dirty and unkempt. The customer turned back and entered the barber shop again and he said to the barber:
"You know what? Barbers do not exist."
"How can you say that?" asked the surprised barber.
"I am here, and I am a barber. And I just worked on you!"
"No!" the customer exclaimed. "Barbers don't exist because
if they did, there would be no people with dirty long hair and untrimmed beards, like that man outside."


"Ah, but barbers DO exist! That's what happens when people do not come to me."
"Exactly!" affirmed the customer. "That's the point! God, too, DOES exist!
That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help.
That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."


If you think God exists, send this to other people---
If you think God does not exist, delete it!


BE BLESSED & BE A BLESSING TO OTHERS!

[NikolaiI]

That was really beautiful, thank you!

[Bancini]

Flawed logic....but a great story

[oopsycandy]

Im sure there are lots of people praying everyday to god to be relieved of their suffering, hunger and misery.

Perhaps there not trying hard enough eh?

[Neo_Sephiroth]

Nice.

[hoope]

Im sure there are lots of people praying everyday to god to be relieved of their suffering, hunger and misery.

Perhaps there not trying hard enough eh?

i dnt think its about trying hard ... i would rather say its about being honest
and not only remembering God when you need but we should always do remember Him.

[billyjack]

cute story. i've been seeing a lot of these appeal to simplicity god stories of late. their fallacious content doesnt seem to bother believers...which bothers me

[Lust Hogg]

If there is a god , then there can be no suffering. unless, an acknowledged assent towards god eliminates suffering. If there are barbers, there can be no unkempt men. but an awareness of the barber and his services eliminates the utter hopelessness of being an unkempt man. The logic is for the most part consistent. Valid argument, but the soundness of the premises are definitely in question. Gods are supposed to eliminate suffering, while barbers are supposed to prevent men from being unkempt. The point of debate is the relation between being unkempt, and human suffering.

[Wintermute]

cute story. i've been seeing a lot of these appeal to simplicity god stories of late. their fallacious content doesnt seem to bother believers...which bothers me

Hi Billy,

Agreed. Its also nonsense. My grandmother believed in the Christian god with all her heart. Apparently god didn't trust her or something because she was smitten with a particularly nasty cancer in her late sixties and suffered tremendously for almost a decade before passing.

So: "That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

...is pure crap. I'm sorry, and I mean no disrespect to anyone, but this statement is simply not true. Folks that 'go to Him' still suffer as much as those who choose another path.

Blessings,
Doug

[hoope]

Hi Billy,

Agreed. Its also nonsense. My grandmother believed in the Christian god with all her heart. Apparently god didn't trust her or something because she was smitten with a particularly nasty cancer in her late sixties and suffered tremendously for almost a decade before passing.

So: "That's what happens when people do not go to Him and don't look to Him for help. That's why there's so much pain and suffering in the world."

...is pure crap. I'm sorry, and I mean no disrespect to anyone, but this statement is simply not true. Folks that 'go to Him' still suffer as much as those who choose another path.

Blessings,
Doug

You can't say that she got cancer coz God didn't trust her .. that's silly.. !
Why can't we say that when a person gets sick , or even when anything bad happened, its to see how human being can be patient & know that this is all written for him , Be patient & accepting whateva that happens to us.
Why can't we do that instead of say that GOD IS BAD , God ALLOW ALL THE SUFFERING OF PEOPLE...

Nothing happens to us but we have been a reason or part in that.

[SirRaustusBear]

Chain email philosophy is about a step below bathroom graffiti philosophy.

And the point of this earth shatteringly beautiful treatise on human unhappiness seems to be that if you ask God to get rid of your suffering, he will do it (though if we follow the barber analogy you might have to pay him).

So following this logic, all those who suffer haven't asked God to alleviate said suffering. Therefore those who both suffer and pray must be doing so insincerely. That's a pretty broad statement, all unhappy people are bad at praying, or are secret atheists.

[oopsycandy]

Hoope I think your missing the point of my post and I think Wintermute was alluding to a similar point

Your OP states quite clearly *That's what happens when people do not go to him, and don't look to him for help. Thats why there so much pain and sufffering in the world*

I actually find the suggestion in the OP that the people I loved who have died horribly, or that the millions of people on this planet who are starving and suffering everyday, are doing so because they have failed to subscribe to this idea of a deity offensive.

If I had to choose between being poked in the eye by my barber with a pair of scissors or having my head pulled off by the god this is supposed to prove the truth of, I'd take my chances with the god.

[1n50mn14]

Hoope I think your missing the point of my post and I think Wintermute was alluding to a similar point

Your OP states quite clearly *That's what happens when people do not go to him, and don't look to him for help. Thats why there so much pain and sufffering in the world*

I actually find the suggestion in the OP that the people I loved who have died horribly, or that the millions of people on this planet who are starving and suffering everyday, are doing so because they have failed to subscribe to this idea of a deity offensive.

If I had to choose between being poked in the eye by my barber with a pair of scissors or having my head pulled off by the god this is supposed to prove the truth of, I'd take my chances with the god.

Agreed. 100%.

There are a great deal of people who appeal to God, who fervently believe in Him, and who ask for his help- not in petty issues, either. And they still die horrible deaths, lead tragic lives and suffer.

[JBI]

Another one? Read before posting, geez. This isn't a cut and paste forum - it's for discussion of literary texts. Why don't people stop forwarding their emails here?

As far as I'm concerned, this has nothing to do with the bible, or any other text, and instead insults my beliefs as an atheist.

These boards are not for converting - if I'm not posting topics like "why religious people are idiots", and not copying and pasting from Dawkins or whomever, why should religious people be allowed the same freedom?

Basically I find this insulting. It says that because I am not Christian, or whatever monotheistic religion this seems to follow (though I think it is Christian, because I know Jewish Dogma would consider this ridiculous) I deserve all the suffering and whatnot that comes to me. It says I am not entitled to good unless I believe in god. It says people suffer because they do not accept God. It basically says, tough luck Atheist, rot in hell.

It says more than that. It says those people who don't have food in poor countries deserve it, because they don't believe in "God". It says many worse things than that, and it is not the least bit unoffensive.

I think of it eventually leads to this argument - "Jews got what they deserved during the Sho'ah because they did not accept the teaching of Jesus Christ." Or any other form of justification. Bigoted, and, ironically, not even justified within scripture.

It seems like whoever wrote that needs to read the book of Job. Either way, I don't think copy and pasting goes with the forum rules, and I don't think the content does either - how could it not offend. I'm surprised this isn't locked - I don't want to say there is a double standard, so I guess I'll just say it hasn't been gotten around to yet.

[Neo_Sephiroth]

Ouch! A little tough there, yo.