Ann Coulter on Missionary Work

[San Juan Sun]

So you think that anyone who believes God answers prayers is nutty?

You are starting with the premise that God answered his prayers, while ignoring the multitude of prayers for the 1,000+ dead Ebola victims. Would God really save the white, rich, American doctor, but not the poor Africans?

Maybe it wasn't God at all, maybe it was just modern medicine. (For the religiously inclined among us, I am open to the idea that God works through imperfect humans to deliver modern medicine.)

[imanihonjin]

You are starting with the premise that God answered his prayers, while ignoring the multitude of prayers for the 1,000+ dead Ebola victims. Would God really save the white, rich, American doctor, but not the poor Africans?

Maybe it wasn't God at all, maybe it was just modern medicine. (For the religiously inclined among us, I am open to the idea that God works through imperfect humans to deliver modern medicine.)

I don't believe I have started from that premise. I am simply trying to understand where Cardiac is coming from. He has used terms like whacko and nutty to describe a person who simply believes that God hears and answers prayers. I have no opinion on whether this particular doctor was blessed by God to be spared and if pressed I would have to believe that this likely was not the case, but I don't believe he is "nutty" or a "religious whacko" for believing so.

[Maximus]

Looks like Dr. Kent Brantly has recovered and is being released today. Just saw the news conference.

He took a Tim Tebow approach, thanked God repeatedly for answering prayers and healing him, mentioned that thousands have prayed for him, implying I guess that volume of prayers makes a big difference to God.

On the one had it strikes me as so stupid and illogical to think God cured his Ebola because so many people were praying for him -- but at the same time religious wackos like him do a lot of great things. I guess it's just a trade-off. Liberal atheists are self-centered assholes for the most part. Stupid illogical religionists are selfless and nice.

*doctor helps ebola patients, gets sick and recovers* how do you find the need to whine about how he talks about God? Getting to the important stuff.

[byu71]

I personally have no problem with someone who claims God heard their prayer. I would have a problem if they went on to somehow indicate if others had prayed they would have been saved to, that would be a problem.

This God thing is not something we can't totally comprehend. Why then do some people have a problem with someone praying and being cured and someone praying and not being cured. For that matter how about someone not praying and being cured and a prayer not getting cured.

Come to your own conclusions, but to have a problem with someone who comes to another conclusion seems a bit much.

[CardiacCoug]

I personally have no problem with someone who claims God heard their prayer. I would have a problem if they went on to somehow indicate if others had prayed they would have been saved to, that would be a problem.

This God thing is not something we can't totally comprehend. Why then do some people have a problem with someone praying and being cured and someone praying and not being cured. For that matter how about someone not praying and being cured and a prayer not getting cured.

Come to your own conclusions, but to have a problem with someone who comes to another conclusion seems a bit much.

I'm just saying that when you say God Saved Me in Answer to Prayer there is no other reasonable and logical conclusion other than He Also Ignored the Prayers of Thousands of Others.

If I'm missing something feel free to explain.

[Jeff Lebowski]

I'm just saying that when you say God Saved Me in Answer to Prayer there is no other reasonable and logical conclusion other than He Also Ignored the Prayers of Thousands of Others.

If I'm missing something feel free to explain.

In fairness to God, he does seem to be awfully busy helping Mormons find their car keys.

[Pheidippides]

In fairness to God, he does seem to be awfully busy helping Mormons find their car keys.

You sound an awful like an exmormon these days.....

[Jeff Lebowski]

You sound an awful like an exmormon these days.....

Super mean post.

[Bo Diddley]

In fairness to God, he does seem to be awfully busy helping Mormons find their car keys.

A few years back, my supervisor at work had dropped his work keys while hunting pot guts in the foothills somewhere west of Salem the day before. He retraced his steps, prayed, and could not find them. He was very concerned, because it had a master key to all the doors in the Spanish Fork Armory, and it would be very expensive to re-key. It snowed at least nine inches that night. In the morning, as he related all this to me, I was overcome by the Spirit, and said that we needed to take a couple of our mine detectors with us, and we'd find them. We drove a Humvee to the foothills where he had parked the night before, and headed up the path with our mine detectors in hand. After 45 minutes of false hits on expended brass and shotgun shells, we finally found his keys.

I think this whole episode was arranged by God so that I could testify at this time to CougarStadium.

[imanihonjin]

I'm just saying that when you say God Saved Me in Answer to Prayer there is no other reasonable and logical conclusion other than He Also Ignored the Prayers of Thousands of Others.

If I'm missing something feel free to explain.

So do you believe that it is nutty for someone to believe that God answers prayers? It could almost always be said that if one person said that God gave a person an answer to prayer concerning X, that He also ignored the prayers of thousands of others who prayed about X and received no answers. I guess there could be some unique prayers, but generally speaking, for those who believe in God, prayers for relief are not often very unique from one another.

[TripletDaddy]

So your qualification of a religious wacko is someone who believes that God hears and answers prayers?

So you appear to be taking this a step further....anyone who prays is a whacko?

So you think that anyone who believes God answers prayers is nutty?

So do you believe that it is nutty for someone to believe that God answers prayers?

Hey, Mr. Pro-Prayer, enough with the vain repetitions.

[Jeff Lebowski]

Hey, Mr. Pro-Prayer, enough with the vain repetitions.

I wonder how many of angry-japanese-dude's posts start out with "So you..."? Perhaps p-lag can write a script to figure that out.

[CardiacCoug]

So do you believe that it is nutty for someone to believe that God answers prayers? It could almost always be said that if one person said that God gave a person an answer to prayer concerning X, that He also ignored the prayers of thousands of others who prayed about X and received no answers. I guess there could be some unique prayers, but generally speaking, for those who believe in God, prayers for relief are not often very unique from one another.

There are people fighting for their lives all the time. People who imagine that God is up there micromanaging this, picking winners and losers based on volume and sincerity of prayers, letting some people die, saving others, those people believe that God is a sick bastard, essentially a criminal, no?

If you were watching a baby die (say drown in a swimming pool) and could easily save him and chose not to save him you would rightly go to prison. And yet people picture a supposedly loving and great God that answers prayers as doing just that. I don't see how people believe in a God like that.

[SeattleUte]

I agree with Coulter that missionary work per se is a waste of time. Helping sick poor people per se is grand.

[imanihonjin]

I wonder how many of angry-japanese-dude's posts start out with "So you..."? Perhaps p-lag can write a script to figure that out.

Ohhhhh....burn.