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Started by Dreamer, January 19, 2023, 11:20:41 PM

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Dreamer

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 26, 2023, 01:19:58 AMYeah, or homeopathy... 🙄

True story:

God cured my autoimmune disease, Graves disease, that attacks your thyroid and makes it go into overdrive, desperate to prove to your immune system that it does, in fact, have a super important purpose (your cells have receptors for thyroid hormones in all or nearly all parts of your body), so maybe stop attacking it...

I felt led to say it when I was diagnosed. I felt it, and I immediately shared it... With my endocrinologist. Who I had to quickly reassure that I intended to be treated because God also blessed us with intelligence and tools and wonderful doctors to help us heal. She told me nicely that remission may never happen, I may need lifelong medication, even surgery and then lifelong medication.


I asked for the lowest dose of the two medications she started me on. I did have to increase one of them later on, since my labs weren't looking so good. That's what I did, based on good science.

But I knew this was deeper. My body was literally rejecting itself. It was from the suffering, the discord, within me. The thyroid is also over the throat chakra. This has to do with communication.

So, I worked on it (and still do)! I gave myself love, accepting all parts of me, even the dark parts I like to deny. I made sure to say the things that needed to be said, even when I was scared or uncomfortable or didn't know how exactly to say it. And worked also to stop negative talk--both towards myself, gossiping, and that ever delightful so-American pastime of schadenfreude..

I was in remission in a little over a year. She warned that it could be a "false" remission, and I had labs drawn every few weeks, then monthly, now yearly. She told me at the last appointment that if I were to get pregnant again, that would probably cause it to start again. Any big stress like that could.

So, I continue to work on my healing, dealing with stress as it comes, loving and forgiving myself and others.

Btw, I also credit the doctor, pharmacists, etc. with aiding in my healing.

Maybe I would have been just as blessed if I just took the medications and continued in my brokenness. That's conjecture, and you're as free to arrive at your own conclusions as mine.


Tl, dr: God healed me of Graves Disease, using both physical healing at the hands of medical professionals and spiritual healing on our shared journey. God and science are compatible; the problems arise when people limit God and ignore science. Also, peppermint oil really does help headaches.

Yuuup.
<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />

Dreamer

Quote from: Hydra009 on January 26, 2023, 05:48:27 PMI mean...earthquakes are happening and we can go with tectonic plates, fault lines, etc or we can go with sin (i.e. disobedience towards some cosmic lord).  One explanation is a just a tiny bit more testable and logical and reasonable than the other, lol.

Mind-wandering is okay I guess, as long as you remember where you put it.  Cheers.

I meant more the idea that sin could have been the impetus for these things, not actually causing them now.

All that adultery is not to blame for hurricanes. That's antithesis' fault.
<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />

Dreamer

I want to find a cartoon that was something like... God or Religion saying early man sinned and then Brain or Science suggesting that maybe it was because early man hadn't evolved to understand, and then they hug.

Sound familiar to anyone? It's always made me chuckle.

Anyway, here's this. Water bears are even more awesome...:

<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />

Mike Cl

Quote from: Dreamer on January 26, 2023, 05:11:01 PMI'm okay with having some things wrong in my understanding of the spiritual world, as long as I have the big things right and continue to work towards love and healing, bearing ever in mind that I just might be wrong. :)
That's interesting.  I guess some need to believe in a spiritual world--  A world that has not been proven and never will be. but if that helps one cope with the real world, then so be it.  Just do not expect me to support that, for far too often those 'spiritual' people demand that I believe as they do--they call it freedom of religion; I call it the lack of freedom.  Anyway, I have explored the possibility of such a spiritual world and failed on all levels.  Clearly, (for me anyway) it is an emotional crutch that is not necessary for me to work towards love and healing.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

Dreamer

Quote from: Mike Cl on January 26, 2023, 07:10:35 PMThat's interesting.  I guess some need to believe in a spiritual world--  A world that has not been proven and never will be. but if that helps one cope with the real world, then so be it.  Just do not expect me to support that, for far too often those 'spiritual' people demand that I believe as they do--they call it freedom of religion; I call it the lack of freedom.  Anyway, I have explored the possibility of such a spiritual world and failed on all levels.  Clearly, (for me anyway) it is an emotional crutch that is not necessary for me to work towards love and healing.

Surely belief in God is not necessary to work towards love and healing. However, acts of love and healing will always draw you closer to God.

Much as scientific forces impose into life without any distinction between who believes or doesn't, so it is like with God.

I cannot answer for spiritual people demanding that you belief as they do, except to answer for myself. Because as I was about to write how that's not me, it certainly was in my younger life.

For a variety of laughable and heartbreaking reasons, I was deeply distressed and convicted by the regular hell-and-damnation sermons from my backwoods Appalachian pastor. In particular, I remember him pacing and snapping his fingers as he bemoaned each person, going to hell with each snap of his fingers, every day. Describing the torture of eternal agony and separation as flames burn you and you thirst for water that you'll never get. That shit bore into and strangled little obedient, sweet 9-year-old me. That panic gripped me, and the stakes were too high for me to allow anyone to believe anything different. DON'T DIE IN THE BURNING BLACK FLAMES OF HELL!! So, it was love that stirred me to share. And that mixed in with pride and sanctimony as I became a teen. Such piety and fierceness burned quick, and I was sickened by this god I'd been taught about and the way the followers treated each other, and I was tired of having my questions silenced and admonished. Sick of the pain I saw Christians causing, both far away and all around me. Especially the justification of how my biological father acted as the head of the household, imbued with godlike impunity and able to do and demand whatever he wanted... I was also unable to understand how accepting that dinosaurs lived long before humans, meant that I rejected the Bible. I had many questions, and many injuries, from the Christian faith.

I ranged between atheist, pagan, Wiccan, agnostic, and devout Discordian for many years. As I shed more of that warped Christian programming, the more curious I became and set out on a varied and strange path through the lands of philosophy, psychology, and pharmaceuticals.

It's amazing the echoes that repeat in the world, the interconnections. When I say I see God everywhere, it is most often those connections that I am taking note of, especially if it's ugly or uncomfortable.

So, on behalf of this reformed believe-this-or-else Christian, I'm sorry that your questions and journey were met with pat and meaningless answers. God is not so simple.
<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />

Dreamer

Quote from: Unbeliever on January 23, 2023, 04:22:28 PMWhatever faults you might have, Dreamer, at least you write grammatically correct English. That's better than many of the theists who visit us. We often have to translate their gobbledygook into sensible, meaningful language, and it gets tiresome.
lol

I missed seeing this. Thanks, I think. I think I overuse commas, but they're the most whimsical of all the punctuation, aren't they? Excepting, of course, for the inverted exclamation mark, maybe.
<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />

Unbeliever

Don't worry, almost everyone uses too many commas. Or not enough.
God Not Found
"There is a sucker born-again every minute." - C. Spellman

Gawdzilla Sama

Quote from: Blackleaf on January 24, 2023, 12:11:29 PMNature is only beautiful from a distance.
"Life close to Nature is hard, cruel, and short."
We 'new atheists' have a reputation for being militant, but make no mistake  we didn't start this war. If you want to place blame put it on the the religious zealots who have been poisoning the minds of the  young for a long long time."
PZ Myers

aitm

God to the world:  I give to you this world, of wonder and peace....though you will have to kill each other and eat each other to survive....have a nice day. That's some kinda fucked up god there.
A humans desire to live is exceeded only by their willingness to die for another. Even god cannot equal this magnificent sacrifice. No god has the right to judge them.-first tenant of the Panotheust

Mike Cl

Quote from: aitm on January 27, 2023, 08:01:43 PMGod to the world:  I give to you this world, of wonder and peace....though you will have to kill each other and eat each other to survive....have a nice day. That's some kinda fucked up god there.
I should be able to give you at least 2 more 'likes' for that one!
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

M

Being healed by God must make you feel very special.

Welcome to the forums.

Mike Cl

Quote from: ManUfan on January 28, 2023, 11:12:33 AMBeing healed by God must make you feel very special.

Welcome to the forums.
I don't know why your statement reminds me of this phrase that theists love to utter--'There but for the grace of God, go I.'  What I did not realize when I said it myself, is that I was saying that God loves me, but apparently not you.
Hubris and religious people go hand-in-hand.
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able?<br />Then he is not omnipotent,<br />Is he able but not willing?<br />Then whence cometh evil?<br />Is he neither able or willing?<br />Then why call him god?

M

Quote from: Mike Cl on January 28, 2023, 12:35:48 PMI don't know why your statement reminds me of this phrase that theists love to utter--'There but for the grace of God, go I.'  What I did not realize when I said it myself, is that I was saying that God loves me, but apparently not you.
Hubris and religious people go hand-in-hand.

My wife used to say that. I pointed out that she must be very special and it made her think (I think)

She doesn't say that anymore.

Dreamer

Quote from: ManUfan on January 28, 2023, 11:12:33 AMBeing healed by God must make you feel very special.

Welcome to the forums.

I feel grateful.

Special? Not from that. Nothing I've done has made me more worthy or deserving; I just was healed. And I'm grateful to have my hair stop falling out, among other unpleasantness that stopped when Graves ceased.

<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />

Dreamer

Quote from: Mike Cl on January 28, 2023, 12:35:48 PMI don't know why your statement reminds me of this phrase that theists love to utter--'There but for the grace of God, go I.'  What I did not realize when I said it myself, is that I was saying that God loves me, but apparently not you.
Hubris and religious people go hand-in-hand.

Oh, wow, I've said that before but never meant that God loves me, not the other. I took it as a way of finding myself in the other's shoes. That could easily be me. I don't think God chose to save me and not another.

Interesting the varied messages we get from the same words.
<br /><br />Individually, we are one drop.  Together, we are an ocean.<br /><br />