• ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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    10 months ago

    While I don’t believe in any religion, there is a relevant story in the christian bible. I’ll be writing from memory, because I cannot be bothered to search for it:

    There where two coachman travelling on an old bumpy road. Both of them broke their axle an could not continue to the next market. One of them was a firm believer, so he sunk to his knees and started to pray to god to fix his axle so he could reach the market in time. The other coachman jumped of his cart while cursing like a sailor. He copped down a small tree from the nearby woods and made an improvised axle, all while shouting and yelling indiscriminately about his bad luck. Who do you think received more help from god?

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      “The moral is that god helps those who help themselves!”

      “Or that he takes credit for other people’s work. Basically, he’s middle management.”

      • madcaesar@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The mysterious thing about God is that he can do anything humans can’t (create worlds, stars, animals), but he can’t do anything humans can (create ships, fixing axles)

        • Notyou@sopuli.xyz
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          10 months ago

          Does that mean the more humans learn to do the less God can do? Like God used to be able to make fire until we figured out how to start one. Since humans figured out flight and communicating great distances, God can’t fly around or hear and send messages anymore?

      • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        Haha I definitely like the middle management comparison here!

        I don’t remember the context of the story. But I think it was supposed to be “god helps those who help themselves” - basically discouraging people from being the ones described in the picture above.

    • Ignotum@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      That first man is a fool!

      Prayer only works if there are two or more people doing it!

      Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

      Matthew 18:19

      This implies that there has never been two christians gathered together and praying for world peace or to end world hunger

      • uis@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        This implies that there has never been two christians gathered together and praying for world peace or to end world hunger

        Or that there are two christians that want wars and starve people.

        Looks more likely.

    • RGB3x3@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Okay, I’ll bite. Which one received more help? I’m guessing the one who got off his knees and did something about his situation?

      But then what help was actually provided if the guy did it himself?

      • ToxicWaste@lemm.ee
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        10 months ago

        I don’t really want to argue for religion here. The way I comprehended the story was basically telling people to not be the ones described by OP.

        But if you really want to go into the interpretation stuff: I guess if you wanted to argue for a god, god made sure the cart broke down next to a wood with a tree roughly the right dimensions? Here we are with the part where religion can’t really be proven or disproven. Was it luck, was the whole road just forest…?

        • nyctre@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          You’re not arguing for religion, don’t worry. I don’t believe in gods but I was raised by religious people and the whole point of most faiths, the way I was thought, was to pray for help, for strength, inspiration, etc. not for the problem to magically go away.