TOO MUCH AM CIV

[keme_magnolia]

12:30 at night and at least three more hours of studying to go...and I'm updating lj. How productive of me. How do you guys feel about hitting your kids when their bad? Boys, specifically. Also how do you feel about over population? I get weird looks about both these issues. I really wasn't planning on ever spanking my kids, but there were no boys

Comments

[vayaequipovaya]

A main idea about believing in God is that he will provide for us even if it is in ways that we don't necessarily see or in ways that don't quite fit into our human terms. That's what faith is. It is true that children are sick and hungry and dying, but you can't pass it off as proof that God isn't providing. Just because it isn't the way we want or expect it doesn't mean that it doesn't happen. I am aware that it is easy for me to say considering my situation, but hopefully my experience will broaden in the future and I can expand my knowledge on the subject. It's hard to argue, though, if you don't believe in God (I'm not saying you don't - I don't know your opinion but it seems that you at least have a different opinion in Him than me) because basically, all my answers lie in God and faith, and we both know that would take at least 500 LJ entries :)

The only thing that confuses me is that you think some children are better off never having been born. Isn't that totally discrediting anything they could possibly offer to the world? Sometimes their offering is only to call others to come to their help in service (as many people do), but if people/the world is improved by their presense in any way, how can you say their life was undesirable?

Don't worry, you make sense. It's a tough issue and I honestly can't explain it without faith.

[fountainhead687]

I don't beleive in god, you were right. But I do understand what faith, and although I can understand it I still can't beleive in god. I would rather put my faith in something that has proven itself worthy beforehand. So, I don't think that we could ever agree about whether or not god provides for everyone. To me its obvious that he doesnt, but to you I'm just not looking deep enough and I'm being flippant. And thats fine. Really.

Its not that I think that some people would be better off not being born, its just that to me, if a person isnt born he/she never existed. when there are so many people in this world I honestly don't think that using a condom and not having a kid that maybe you would have had had you not used a condom would have a huge impact on the world. what about choosing not to have sex? so, instead of penis to vagina sex, say someone has oral sex, but had they would have had a child that god would have wanted in this world had they gone all the way. If he had come in her vagina instead of her mouth. so isnt it just as bad to deny the world of a child because you used a different hole as using a condom or birth control? In any three of these ways the sperm just never makes it. Or even if some girl has a bf and she only kisses him, never goes further, but the guy jacks off all the time. still, there is sperm, but it doesnt fertilize an egg. so is it just how close the sperm gets to the egg? and if thats so, where do you draw the line? how close is too close? how far is far enough to still be considered moral? Wow, stream of conciousness, sorry. Anyway, the point that I started off trying to make is that I am discrediting any contribution that each individual can make, because I dont think that the contribution they make is worth it to the children. I don't think that children starving to death is worth the feeling that people get by helping others. To me its just feeding a messiah complex at the expense of the suffering multitudes and that is immoral.

and seriously. I understand the tough issue even without faith.

[osian]

Why is God a he? God is not human. So Yaweh, or what ever we want to call "him" cannot really be viewed in such terms.
I know Yaweh is a Jewish thing, but that is really what christianity is based off of. Anyways.
The question of whether or not some children are better off haveing never been born is interesting. What about a child who is born retarded?( i have little expertise in this field, forgive my ignorance if any) if a child is born and cannot move, talk, look around, respond, and even understand that they are drooling, should they have been born? was good would them being born do for them or for God?
Religion is a very touchy subject for me in general. It really just doesnt make sense.
When exactly is a soul created? by soul i mean a person, because we all know that when someone dies, by religious beliefs their soul goes to heaven. the body is burried in the ground or put in a Earn(?)
So do we, or our souls exist before our bodies are created? and also, where are "we" this whole time while "our" bodies, and "our" souls are created?
I am not against religion, i just dont agree with the beliefs.

special needs

[vayaequipovaya]

Just responding to the question you raised about special needs children. I'm a camp counselor at a summer camp for special needs children and teens, I've coached various sports teams (soccer, basketball, softball) with special needs kids, I've worked at after-school care for mentally retarded children, and one of my best friends has down syndrome. In all my experience with them, I can honestly assure you that every single one of them (100s, maybe 1000s that I have met) have contributed most wonderfully to society. During a physically handicapped session of my summer camp this past year, I was blessed enough to work with a little boy who had 40 minute long seizures. He was, of course, wheel chair bound (like many of our campers are). He could not speak, could not control his body, or react to his environment. He had a terrible form of epilepsy that gave him seizures almost all day long, although most of them small, and they made his eyelids twitch constantly so that he could hardly see. Let me tell you that this little boy (his name is Spencer) made his mother happier than you could ever imagine. She loved him with her whole heart, not because of his grades or his sense of humor or what he did for her. She loved him simply because. Because he was there, because he was Spencer. Because he is such a severe case, he, more than any other camper, shows the world that beauty comes from ANYTHING if you know how to look hard enough. We can't always explain what happens to us but we CAN explain how we react to it.

It's true that not all mothers are as amazing as Spencer's is, and a lot of the mothers that I talk to still struggle with their child (as all mothers also struggle with typical children). This is a reflection on the mother or on the people around the child, not on the child himself. The child is beautiful if we could only discard our typical conceptions of "successful" and "beautiful" and "worthy of living" and we look hard enough. These children challenge me (and society) to see goodness where you don't necessarily expect to find it.

Most mothers of special needs children accept it as life, and live with it, and grow from it, and love their children based solely on the fact of their existence. If that's not true love, I don't know what is.

Sorry to talk so long, but it's a deep subject in my heart. These kids are awesome, every last one of them. I really am obsessed.

Re: special needs

[osian]

Oh i was in no way meaning that these children dont make their parents happy. The joy of having children is amazing to me.

I was just wondering what Gods plan was for a child like the boy you described. Maybe it is to bring his mom happiness, and change her for the better. Im not really sure what this does exactly for the boy.
But youre right, that kind of love, i think in the bible it is talked about as "charity", but not like donating to charities. but more like loving and caring without expecting anything at all in return. that is true love.