Okay, I did a search for GOD and came up with 200 pages of 5492 threads. Perhaps what I am looking for was somewhere in there, but WOW! The closest I have come were these posts which clearly show than an abundance of people DO believe in God:
I am curious about the number of people who do NOT believe in a traditional Higher Power.
What brought me to this was a recent theological discussion with my Jewish girlfriend. We are basically on the same wavelength (so I suppose thats good for us), where she believes in the God who created everything but doesnt care about what happens in the world, only about the outcome, (sort of like a science experiment), and I believe only in the POSSIBILITY of such an entity but not in the context of any organized religion which I have come across thus far. (Satanism is the closest I have found to what I believe, though even that seems to not be all encompassing. I do not prescribe to any religion so please don't get hung up on a particular reference or lack of here and miss the point of my question.)
I DO BELIEVE RELIGION IS NECESSARY TO MAINTAIN CIVILIZED SOCIETIES!!! I just have no faith in the whole omnipotent, omniscient, loving God thing to whom we should devote our lives, depriving ourselves of certain experiences that seem to be the very nature of our existence, spending time on our knees seeking guidance from and worshiping. I AM NOT CRITICIZING ANYONE FOR PRACTICING RELIGION!!!
My question is this: do you all feel it is necessary for a care provider to believe in and/or have faith in God or does it matter if he/she believes there might not be a second chance in "Heaven" and have only one FINITE life to live so therefore it is mandatory to ensure everyone gets the best possible chance to be happy and make our marks (so to speak) the only time around?
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Originally posted by 3rdShiftGuy
Now that's deep. And so true.
BTW, my pro-life stance ..... is a matter of biology to me. After studying anatomy and phisiology I'm of the opinion the life is separate from the parent and not a part of the female body. It has nothing to do with morality and religion. DON'T ANYONE EVEN THINK OF DISCUSSING THIS WITH ME! I WILL NOT PARTICIPATE!
Remember, I'm right and you're wrong. Got it! :chair:
okay...okay..."I am right and you are wrong"......."I am right and you are wrong"......."I am right and you are wrong"....
Specializes in LTC,Hospice/palliative care,acute care.
Originally posted by 3rdShiftGuy
ummm....I think you have it backwards but that's o.k. As long as you know who is Queen here. LOL
Actually, that's the way it has to be on certain issues because we each believe so strongly we are right. Best to leave them alone. :)
THat's exactly right-until you have your epiphany and come crawling to me I'll agree to disagree with ya,Sport....(I am right and you are wrong...I am right and you are wrong.....Your Majesty...:kiss
I am new on the board, as a matter of fact, I was motivated to register by reading through this thread. I was raised by basically non religious parents but I was exposed to religion by many friends and relatives. I have studied religion intently and have come to my own conclusions, based on rational study and logical and scientific thinking, rather than depending on the "given" standard opinion. I refused to be dictated to, or what in my mind I refer to as brainwashing. I believe the world has it's own natural force and that it is responsible for what some people call supernatural powers, and that it can work with us when we concentrate on it hard enough. Therefore even non-religious people have a form of prayer, that is completely non-denominational and can be used with any client that asks. This is the basic belief of most Pagans... such as Wiccans. To be a good, moral, ethical, and caring nurse you do not have to believe in the concept of God or the Bible. I do not want anyone to take this as a flame, slam or whatever, but the bible has been extensively studied for a very long time and there is concrete evidence showing that most of it is identical to epic tales from religions long before Christianity. It is a well established piece of fiction that has some good points, and some contradictory, mean, and downright judgemental aspects also. Ok, my basic point here is that everyone has their own opinions and beliefs and unfortunately some are more tolerant of others' point of view than other's. Christian bashing is relatively common because people have gotten tired of being talked down to and judged as inferior human beings because they don't believe in the mass produced version of the world and God. Pagans, some of the most misunderstood people on earth, are consistently slandered and mislabeled as Satanists, ALL of it from Christian bigots. One of the basic tenets of Paganism is tolerance for all others, regardless of their religious beliefs. It is a shame that Christianity can not follow this trend, as it is expressly forbidden by their own bible. I am not saying that Christians are bad, just that there is some justification over the last few hundred years of mistreatment of the Pagan community, for the defensive comments. :kiss
For me personally, I do believe it is necessary because I equate much of my career to service...which is precisely what it has been for me. I do view it as a calling. Now, as far as other nurses believing in God, I would not say that they must believe to be effective, but I am curious how they cope with certain clinical situations like a painful death or suffering or tragedy without believing too.
Naw...an upstate New Yorker who loves corned beef on Jewish rye with saurkraut, alpine lace and dressing....fried in a mess of butter. Chase it all with an ice cold milk.
I was with you on the sandwich till you said milk. Saurkraut and milk, eyeeeew lol. Gimme a beer :roll
but I am curious how they cope with certain clinical situations like a painful death or suffering or tragedy without believing too.
Barbara
Barbara, a lot of people have problems with precisely this issue. If there is a God from whom all blessings flow, what about the suffering or tragedies? Where do these flow from and why? Kind of tests the faith doesn't it.
By painful death, I'm sure you mean emotionally painful because, no one should die in pain. But there is indeed a lot of suffering sometimes associated with death. Especially in the chronically ill, or with cancer. To me it's not something I need faith to get me through. It's more of a physical and biological experience, all part of life. I'm probably not making sense because I'm tired. But to be alive is to suffer and experience tragedy. To be alive is to experience death.
Can you give some sources on the concrete evidence that shows that most of the Bible is based on epic tales from religions before Christianity?
I'm just curious about that and I might be interested in reading them for myself......
Hi Shiva. a friend of mine has her bachelors in religious studies and she is the one who told me about the stories, especially the creation story being almost exactly the same as creation stories from older religions. It has been awhile since my humanities class but I think The Epic of Gilgamesh is related to the Moses story, I could be mistaken. If you are really curious try doing a search for ancient religions, stories and texts and try reading them with a critical eye to similarities to the bible. If I ever get a free moment, (I am a first semester nursing student!) I can ask my friend for some specific examples for you.
To Barb, to address what a non-believer does in the face of tragedy.....we do the same thing that believers do. We grieve and feel awful for the victim and the family. You do not have to be christian to be compassionate. I grieve for the children who were killed in the Oklahoma federal building, I grieve for the children who are brutally murdered by unfeeling monsters (some of whom claim to be believers). I grieve for the thousands of people killed on September 11th. I grieve for all the servicemen and women who die in war all over the world whose families don't get 2 million dollars compensation for their deaths like the Sept 11th families do.
Posted by 3rd shift guy:
Barbara, a lot of people have problems with precisely this issue. If there is a God from whom all blessings flow, what about the suffering or tragedies? Where do these flow from and why? Kind of tests the faith doesn't it.
To be logical you have to figure they come from him too. In Deuteronomy 18 and in several other books of the bible as well it is written that God told the Jews they were his only chosen people. He said that they had better follow his every command or be thrown out on their butts, (I am paraphrasing). Does not sound like the all good God everyone talks about now huh? These types of inconsistencies are just one of my problems with the bible. Anyway, point is people live, people die, it sucks and sometimes it does not make sense. To pawn it off by saying "oh at least they are with God in heaven" is kind of a cop out in my thinking.
I have a question...if a person doesn't believe in God, then where do they believe we came from? Our bodies are so intricately made; they didn't just "happen." Any thoughts?
ktwlpn, LPN
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