The Power of Prayer, Part 1

"Is anyone among you sick? Call the elders of the church and have them lay hands on the sick individual and they WILL recover." James 5

One man took God's Word to heart in total faith.

He joins an exclusive group in the process.

Category:

People & Blogs

Tags:

• Prayer
• Christianity
• Atheism
• Belief
• Sickness
• Faith

[getdjman]

The Crusades were started by greedy men who wanted more power. The Bible did not call for the Crusades so if you would like to blame the Bible (which is the Christian faith) then your argument is obviously volatile. It was men who called for the crusades. And they began because of Muslim attack on Constantinople. It was more of a defense than an offense.

[rationalmuscle]

// The Crusades were started by greedy men who wanted more power. //

No, they were started as a political AND spiritual retaliation, fully sanctioned by the POPE (so you must toss the Pope into your "greedy men" category if you wish to believe this) and supported by DOZENS of Popes and bishops for centuries.

Oh, and God? Never lifted a finger to stop it. Nifty.

// more of a defense than an offense. //

Sure... torture of heretics is always 'defensive'. Man, what are you smoking?

[getdjman]

Torture of heretics has nothing to do with the Crusades. The church wrongfully did that years before and years after the Crusades. And yes, I would definitely throw the pope into the category of greedy men and every other pope who supported the wars. And yes, it was a political retaliation, as I pointed out by the mentioning of Constantinople. And God will not violate free will, he didn't stop Adam from cursing mankind and he won't stop men from killing men. If he did, he'd be a rapist.

[rationalmuscle]

// Torture of heretics has nothing to do with the Crusades. //

Let's correct your history:

"The various methods of torture did not change all that much until reports of how prisoners of war and criminals were being treated began to flood back to Western Europe from the Middle East during the Crusades. These methods of torture had in turn been inherited by the Middle East from the Far East. From the crusades, much of this knowledge on how to inflict pain was passed on to Europe." (cont)

[rationalmuscle]

(cont)

"Rather than use the sparse, labor-intensive methods which were common in the Middle East, many of the European countries developed machinery to do the work for them. These implements of torture were used for many purposes by many official Crusade agencies until the end of the Victorian era."

-- John Albers, "History of Torture"

"[Concerning the] First Crusade, the techniques used by Philip IV's henchmen to torture the Templars, and the murder of King Peter of Cyprus... " (cont)

[rationalmuscle]

(cont)

... whose killers 'smashed his skull, cut his throat open, dressed him in tramp's clothes and left the corpse in the palace hall'. The Crusaders and their enemies liked their violence to be spectacular."

-- "Holy Warriors: A Modern History of the Crusaes"; Dr. Jonathan Phillip; London University

Oh, I could keep going.

Free will... yeah, like hardening Pharaoh's heart? You confuse God not STOPPING men from killing others and your god ORDERING them to do so as well.

Dream well...

[javaunited]

And a million children a year are killed by abortion by people just like you who fight to uphold a woman's right to choose. Where is the child's right to choose in abortion cases? You hypocrite! Be consistent in your argument! 2500 vs. 1,000,000... you do the math!

[ORANGES99]

why are these deluded parents not charged with manslaughter? Makes me so angry that these idiots can put faith before their own childrens lives.

[Cootabux]

#2

We had been doing intercessory prayer truly believing that god would save her, but as I saw her get worse I changed my prayer. Now I was praying for her to have a quick, painless death. It changed nothing.

This incident started me on my way to being a non-believer. What bothered me so much about her ordeal wasn't just that she died so young & that god let it happen, but why would he let her suffer so much, so young & innocent, if he had the power not to! That's what I couldn't get past.

[Cootabux]

#1

I never realized so many children per year become victim to this mental illness. Those kids are the most vulnerable in our society. They actually have a better chance at surviving by being lift on a park bench in some city, than to be under the roof of their parent's homes.

In 1970 had become born again. I was in a small church. My 2 friends had a 7 yr old daughter who was dying of a particularly nasty form of Bone Cancer. The whole church prayed for her, yet she died an agonizing death.

[christinepeace]

I hope they go yo jail.

Cheers Christine

[Xerock]

@rationalmuscle

Well said, sir.

[groovyengineer]

oh right it was Darryl W Ray

[groovyengineer]

Amazing , hard to believe somone would try to heal a sick child with magic, religion is poison for the mind, cant remember who most eloquently compared it to a virus, that people must be exposed to at a young age, the younger the better, to keep it spreading, the older a person is the more likely they have an immunity.