Prayer & being between a rock and a hard place

@pb1022 said
You think the world revolves around you, don’t you? Quite an ego you have.

I don't think the world revolves around me at all. But my relationship with each member of this community with whom I debate and discuss beliefs DOES revolve around the beliefs each has espoused to me and the beliefs I have espoused to each of them.

@pb1022 said
And it’s very obvious.you’re being blatantly dishonest.

Then maybe you ought not to be talking to me about the personal information I have revealed regarding that recent near-death experience in my family.

@fmf said
sonship has brandished the “There are no atheists in foxholes” adage frequently, often as a go-to debating point when he found my lack of belief an affront. Sometimes he’d claim that I really wasn't an atheist but that I just claimed to not be a believer because I was "angry" at Jesus for making me accountable for my "wickedness".

Having said that, I think there are atheists ...[text shortened]... Have any of the agnostics or atheists on this forum ever had their lack [or loss] of belief tested?

Well, I hope it went well for them. I've been there in the hospital watching loved ones too, did pray, and it didn't go as I would have liked. This year I spent a large portion of in the hospital myself, did pray, I'm here still. Does that mean God likes me better than those that didn't live? No, things that happen to us are common to all people when we all experience good and bad things in life? Believing in God or not will not change any of that; I think disbelieving or rejecting God only does one thing in that equation: remove the hope we can have in this life because none of us are promised tomorrow.

@kellyjay said
Well, I hope it went well for them. I've been there in the hospital watching loved ones too, did pray, and it didn't go as I would have liked. This year I spent a large portion of in the hospital myself, did pray, I'm here still. Does that mean God likes me better than those that didn't live? No, things that happen to us are common to all people when we all experience good a ...[text shortened]... in that equation: remove the hope we can have in this life because none of us are promised tomorrow.

Thank you for sharing, but my personal testimony in the OP was in no shape or form intended to be about my thoughts on the efficacy of prayer. Your response makes me think that you think it was.

@fmf said
Thank you for sharing, but my personal testimony in the OP was in no shape or form intended to be about my thoughts on the efficacy of prayer. Your response makes me think that you think it was.

I took your sharing to be sort of a victory lap of sorts for not yielding to the need for prayer, nothing more than that. Since hospitals have been huge for me this year, and my past in them, I just gave my two cents, nothing more than that.

@pb1022 said
The obvious difference is the atheist in the foxhole has *his life* in jeopardy. You did not. One of your relative’s lives was in jeopardy - yours wasn’t.

It doesn’t matter how close you are to your relative, it’s not an apples-to-apples comparison.

And I hope your relative is Ok.

From this post one can conclude that you don't have children, a loving life partner, or a very good relationship with your family. Hands up everyone who's surprised...

@kellyjay said
I took your sharing to be sort of a victory lap of sorts for not yielding to the need for prayer, nothing more than that.

No. Not "a victory lap". Not at all.

Whoosh

@kellyjay said
Since hospitals have been huge for me this year, and my past in them, I just gave my two cents, nothing more than that.

Your two cents' worth was about as trite an interpretation of what my OP meant as you could have mustered. Oh well. And I am sorry that hospitals have been huge for you this year.

@fmf said
No. Not "a victory lap". Not at all.

Whoosh

Okay, remind me that just attempting to have a normal conversation with will always be judged.