Faith

I have a friend who seems to have made it his goal to become the patron saint of atheism. Well, I suppose atheism doesn’t really have saints, but he is very vocal about his beliefs, or belief in non-belief.

I digress.

I don’t know that I agree with his stand, although I’m not sure I always disagree either. He’s a smart guy and generally provides food for thought.

Although, recently, a Wisconsin man, a father, was convicted of killing his daughter. He killed her by denying her treatment for her undiagnosed diabetes until it killed her. He and his wife and their friends attempted to heal her by praying for her and said that by taking her to a doctor would essentially be placing the doctor before god.

But what this comes down to isn’t about belief. People quite often use belief in rational ways. My father has been having some health problems and my mom is helping him. I know it’s a lot for my mom to deal with and I’m pretty sure she uses her faith in god to help her to cope with things when they get to be a lot to deal with. That’s a good way to use faith to help you in day-to-day life.

The problem with the man that thought prayer would heal his daughter isn’t about faith.

It’s about egotism.

This man felt that his god would stop everything he’s doing to heal his daughter. This guy didn’t believe that possibly by creating a person that could go to medical school and learning how to heal people and become a doctor that god was helping to heal this man’s daughter. He felt that god needed to come down and personally heal his daughter.

I believe in god. But it’s people like this that make me believe that religion is seriously flawed. I realize that a lot of people would strongly disagree with me, and that’s okay. We all have to have our own beliefs. But when people use faith to say that this way or that way is the way that god acts, then they’re putting themselves before god.