Those starving children in cobalt mines just don’t pray enough

[ferrisramiro]

My mother is a highly educated person but a practicing catholic. I recently started having some personal and health problems and my mother approached me with a cross sign on my head as a blessing. I asked her - if you really think god would help me with this voodoo, why don’t he focus on all these slave children working in cobalt factories?

Her answer was… drumroll… because these children don’t pray enough.

[Irrev-Black]

Welcome,
@ferrisramiro. We'll take it as understood you have read the forum rules.

Perhaps you'd like to head over to the "Introduce Yourself" section and we can get to know more about each other.

I see you have marked yourself down as a believer in your profile. What's your take on your mother's attitude?

[Irrev-Black]

Perhaps we'll look at some aspects of this post.

My mother is a highly educated person but a practicing catholic. I recently started having some personal and health problems and my mother approached me with a cross sign on my head as a blessing. I asked her - if you really think god would help me with this voodoo, why don’t he focus on all these slave children working in cobalt factories?

Her answer was… drumroll… because these children don’t pray enough.

My mother is a highly educated person but a practicing catholic.

Ah, compartmentalisation. It's the inner agreement some make with themselves that knowledge acquired in the real world won't be allowed to interfere with their inner fantasy-land.

Given the particular way Catholicism handles things, with popes, saints, and other assignments of the alleged holy powers, it would be tough to support that flavour of belief at the same time as any scientific competence.

I recently started having some personal and health problems and my mother approached me with a cross sign on my head as a blessing.

So, your mother assigned herself a role as Doer Of Magic, too? I hope she didn't put too much credence in the mumbo-jumbo, and got you to a competent health professional.

I asked her - if you really think god would help me with this voodoo, why don’t he focus on all these slave children working in cobalt factories?

That would just be part of that paradoxical problem attributed to Epicurus, who lived a few hundred years before the supposed time of Christ.

* If a god knows everything and has unlimited power, then they have knowledge of all evil and have the power to put an end to it. But if they do not end it, they are not completely benevolent.
* If a god has unlimited power and is completely good, then they have the power to extinguish evil and want to extinguish it. But if they do not do it, their knowledge of evil is limited, so they are not all-knowing.
* If a god is all-knowing and totally good, then they know of all the evil that exists and wants to change it. But if they do not, which must be because they are not capable of changing it, so they are not omnipotent.

Obviously, it's not working out.

Her answer was… drumroll… because these children don’t pray enough.

Blaming the victim? That's a cheap shot.

I hope you're managing to keep a safe distance.

[Irrev-Black]

cowgull_question.jpg (111.65 KiB) Viewed 605 times

The OP doesn't seem to be coming along with us.