Brian. YOU HEATHEN! No, just kidding ha ha.

I am not so sure that the pain and suffering, that many randomly seem to get, is from God. The scriptures state that all God wants to do is to "prosper us and give us the desires of our heart". I sure didn't desire cancer. I do believe that God allows things to happen to refine us and/or make us dependent on Him. There are many books written about why God allows bad things to happen to good people, but I don't believe that he is responsible for the bad things. The creation is less than perfect, as we are also, so earthquakes, asteroids, volcanoes, meteors, famine, tsunamis, drought, floods, unaccountable TARP, irresponsibly crafted nationalized healthcare, 12 trillion dollar debt, little kids getting cancer and just plain evil (both individual and institutionalized), etc., are part and parcel of it. We're quite capable of screwing things up much worse than God, in many respects.

When I was going through AA, many years ago, my sponsor who in atheist I might add, told me to take a piece of paper and write down all of the things I thought God should be - and that would become my God or "higher power". So, "my" God is merciful, compassionate, forgiving, my counselor and my strength. He was also balanced and in the middle - not radical left or right - a tougher act to follow than being radical actually. That was easy to do and I didn't have to have some other yahoo define to me what THEIR conception of God is. A major problems with many religions today.

And no, you won't hear me say often about "God never giving us yada yada", but Sone started the subject and since she mentioned prayer then it ocurred to me that she is a Christian or person of faith that they would understand that saying. It is, after all, a leap of faith to get through treatment.

The rules are that no religious dicussion unless the original poster brings it up in their topic first have been observed.

I understand why many people are skeptical - I was an agnostic for decades. I can thoroughly understand why many would be pissed off at God for getting cancer and having to go through this hell.

It is a component of my personal story that my faith helped me immensely to get through this.

I don't wish for further discussion, on my personal worldview to hijack Sone's thread so if any of you are interested in "slings and arrows" pm me instead or start a new topic in the blogs or something.

Sone deserves to have a place where she feels safe.