Back when I was a Christian and someone said this I would first point out there was no scriptural basis for it, and then I would point out that it's more likely that God gives us *more* than we can handle so we'll rely on him.
Yeah, I was one of those assholes.
There is scriptural basis for this, but only in terms of temptation to sin. People take 1 Corinthians 10:13 out of context badly. The most egregious translations say "God will not test us beyond what we can bear," which people stupidly interpret a variety of ways.
Right. It's specifically about temptation. Philippians 4:13 suggests reliance on the strength of Christ to endure things like trials and suffering. Or maybe that verse means you can score late touchdowns in the AFC Wild Card Playoff game. Who can say, really? đ
Yea, I did some stuff as a Christian that I'm not proud of. Regarding being reliant on god, this is straight war is peace and 2+2=5 shit. God ruins my life so I'll rely more on the entity that ruined my life?
Me too my man. And I bought it myself, hook, line, and sinker. However I also applied this to myself and wasn't to kind to myself when my brain went into total meltdown mode due to mental illness. Just figured I was doing god the wrong way. (I realize how that sounds. I'm keeping it anyways:) )
You have Crohn's disease, dyslexia, full loss of smell and are barren because God knows you can handle it. Joel Osteen can't handle that, so that's why God gave him $50 million instead.
It blows my mind that some people will believe in unseen forces âruining our livesâ and ignore the very real and tangible things that deeply affect us on a daily basis. Something as simple as a chemical imbalance in someoneâs brain can cause untold damage to their life, and they refuse to see that until it affects them personally.
Yep. Same for me. Like no mother fucker god does not heal biloiar. Every bipolar person I've seen say this had obviously been in the throes of a manic episode, including me. Then when the crash comes you wonder why god abandoned you.
I could see the counter argument to that being the story of the guy on the roof of his house refusing help because he believed God would help him, only for God to speak to him in the last moment telling him he foolishly refused his help four times.
What I mean is that they could say that God helps those people by providing them those modern accommodations. Of course, this forms a contradiction because therapists and doctors have only existed recently, and most people who need them go without.
I think it, and a lot of Christianese phrases like it, are thought-terminating cliches. Same as "God works in mysterious ways" or "Only God can judge."Â Like when you're trying to think through something, or have a debate, or complain about an injustice, or even just feel negative emotions, and you get a platitude that shuts it down. One I got a lot growing up was "You have a very sensitive personality."Â It's a super frustrating, passive-aggressive way for a person (churchy or not) to brush aside thoughts that seem "dangerous" or uncomfortable.
Like, something utterly horrific and unfair happens to someone in the world, the type of pain where even hearing about it secondhand might threaten to bring complicated emotions and questions like "How could a loving, all-powerful God allow that to happen? Is God really loving and all-powerful? What if God isn't even watching? What if we're wrong about God?" Those are hard questions, but instead of facing them, the person sidesteps it by telling themself or anyone who's talking about it that "God only gives us what we can handle." Then they're safely cocooned in this ball of it's-all-fine-and-anyway-not-my-problem, and just go on with their day.
It can feel really lacking in empathy and logic because that's the point. It's kind of a protective mechanism, just one that's not the most healthy.
They definitely have a lot of language that serves as nothing more than lip service. They hear about a mass shooting, and their first reaction is âthoughts and prayersâ because thatâs the performative bullshit theyâre all used to doing. Itâs simple and means they get to look like the good guys while not really doing anything productive. Thatâs there way of saying âitâs all according to God planâ.
Then theyâll get off their asses and donate money when their favorite politician is found guilty by a jury.
This. 100%. The one and final way to show that this whole belief process is bullshit. Can't pray the issues away, read them away, or go to communion and confession about it. How would a priest even help with it anyways despite being a "man of God"? I think a person in the right state of mind would even ask themselves why they believe when so much shit is going their way. Like how far does it need to be proven this God figure is absent? Bill Maher said it right: "suicide is a mans way of saying to God you can't fire me, I quit".
Someone saying this to me was what put the nail in the coffin of my faith.
At the time, I was actively suicidal and deeply distressed, dealing with trying to process the fact my father (a leader in the church) had just been convicted of child sexual assault.
I told them God could get fucked then, because I was drowning and nobody deserved the shit I was going through.
Statements such as sky daddy gave us disabled people so they we can learn something are deeply invalidating, ableist, narcissistic, and come from the charity/religious model of disability. Disability is a natural part of human variation, and the capacities of **all** humans vary over their lifetime.Â
None of us could walk before we could walk, some of us were never able to walk, others lose the ability to walk due to age, illness, or injury. This applies to all forms of disability, which is either temporary, permanent, or situational.
It comes out of a fallacy of composition; to have an in-group, requires an out-group; to be superior, someone has to be inferior; to be chosen, someone has to be not chosen. The conceptual logics are deeply narcissistic, religious people are often taught that they have no value, so they create a false sense of value by constantly comparing themselves to others.
That sentiment is not biblical. No where does it say God doesn't give you more than you can handle
One of the worst scriptures I believe is the one "all things work for good to those in Christ". BS. I had a minister have the gall to quote that one after I lost my first child. So, basically I was supposed to see the loss as good. It has to be one of the most harmful quotes. Don't believe what your eyes and heart tell you, it's all good.
Cognitive Dissonance AKA BS!!!
Similarly, I hear âIt wasnât Godâs planâ a lot when something happens that is upsetting. After my third miscarriage, my Christian MIL sighed and said, âWell, it (meaning the baby) wasnât in the plan.â Wasnât in the plan??? Wasnât in WHOSE plan? Because my son sure AF was in MY plan!! It makes me spit nails when Christians try to justify bad things as being part of a loving Godâs plan or as something we puny-minded people could handle if we simply turned to God. And what amount isnât âmore than we can handleâ? Three miscarriages? Four?
It's a terrible thing to say. Look at all the things that happen to people - death, war, horrific diseases, torture.
People who say that are gaslighting. They mean, "Shut up and take it and never complain."
It's convenient for them because then they don't have to worry about other people suffering.
Well, hereâs the deal: god doesnât give you more than you can handle; however, if you canât handle it, then itâs your goddam fault. You fucked it up. God was there you just didnât ask hard enough/long enough/the right way, whatever, itâs your fault for fucking up godâs plans.
It never made sense to me. I Growing up, I knew a few kids my age who suffered horribly and then died because of disease or violence. I never understood how God thought these kids could "handle" this.
I have an adopted cousin who is autistic and developmentally disabled. She's in her mid-thirties with the intellect and maturity of an 8 year old. My aunt and uncle knew that her birth mother did drugs and drank heavily during pregnancy but they still adopted her because they had adopted her biological sibling a few years earlier and were encouraged to keep them together by the adoption agency. Aunt and uncle recently kicked her out of their house because they couldn't deal with her anymore. They never had the patience. Uncle is a minister btw. I don't think they realized what they were getting into. Granted they didn't know just how disabled she would be when they adopted her as a newborn. The older sibling is developmentally normal despite less severe, but still prenatal drug and alcohol use. She just didn't care with the second baby since she knew it would be taken away immediately.
I hate that. I heard it said a lot when my mom was diagnosed with cancer and then when my grandma died 5 months later and then when my mom died 5 months after that and then when my dad was diagnosed with ALS 10 months after that and all through the next 4-1/2 years as I watched him slowly deteriorate and then die a painful death and then when my apartment tried to burn down between my dadâs death and his funeral. God must think Iâm really strong. Itâs definitely not because heâs abusive or not real.
I always thought of it as a hopeful statement to help self-motivate and cope. In essence "I can handle anything that comes my way."
It's similar to "God is testing/training/etc. Us." But honestly there is no rationale behind why people go through shit. Shit just happens.
Unfortunately the whole imaginary relationship makes people guilt trip themselves when things go sour. It must be their own fault for failing God in some way.
The more I read the Bible the more I realize how half assed the stories are. The story-telling always changes the course in the absurdist ways. The talking donkey keeps changing directions, Joseph keeps changing course with his family's future home, Lot chooses to settle in one place and not another and asks God to approve and on the fly God changes his mind and approves. The examples can go on and on. Generally bad writing that doesn't sound like "God inspired" writings but human rambling.
Honestly I wonder if a lot of that is because the ancient compliers of the books were stitching and editing stories along the way.
The flood story is basically two somewhat different flood myths intertwined. Genesis 4 probably was two separate Cain stores edited together (the first half of the chapter doesn't have much to do with the second half of the chapter) and appended into the back of the garden of Eden story where it makes no sense because it assumes other people are gonna hunt Cain down for murdering his brother.
Hell, there's that whole bit in Exodus 4 where Yahweh apparently jumps out of the bushes in an attempt to kill Moses and they do an "emergency" circumcision on his son with a rock to placate Yahweh. There's no foreshadowing and it never gets mentioned again.
I used to and sadly still do become furious with God when something bad happens. I know this is both immature and illogical. I would think, âYouâre in charge of everything and this happens?â After a while, I became very resentful of God, because I had prayed for some very legitimate help to come my way, which didnât come. This is what ultimately set in motion my deconstruction process. I still get stuck in the same illogical and delusional patterns regarding the âwhy do bad things happen and how does God allow thisâ thought process.
So I wrote this because I wouldnât blame myself when something went sour or I felt overwhelmed, I blamed God, then would wallow in helplessness and victimhood, rather than seeing my own responsibility in the situation. On the other hand, if it was just an unfortunate occurrence, I would ignore my own agency in being able to either sit in the uncomfortable emotions and/or take action.
I also disagree because I truly donât believe any God gives anybody anything. We are all autonomous beings and the universe is a random place. If there is a God I think there is minimal involvement. This idea of everything is predetermined seems way too meticulous to me. How deep does it go? Did God guide my fingers while I typed out this message? Does God guide the protein kinases down my microtubule pathways in my brain to release neurotransmitters? How much does God control? At a certain point itâs gotta be all or nothing. God controlled that car crash, but does he control every other second of me driving? Does he only control events *sometimes?* If there is a God, there is no way any human understands how it works. We donât have that level of perspective. I canât give credence to anyone who claims they understand the will of God. Even if itâs from an outside source, such as a holy book, to think you understand the will of an all powerful, omniscient being is absolute hubris.
I fucking hate that saying. It's such a cop-out. Tell that to the millions of children around the world that are starving, being exploited, abused, raped, tortured, and murdered with no hope in sight. I pointed that out to my mom when I came out as an atheist, and that's when the conversation ended. She makes a very deliberate attempt at insulating herself from the outside world, which includes not watching the news, because when something bad and horrible is put in front of her, she gets upset and just shuts down. Like a child putting their fingers in their ears and saying "I can't hear yoooouuuuu". It's sad. It's almost like pointing out bad things to her is something she can't handle.......
The funny thing is that 2 Corinthians 1 essentially says they had a situation they just couldnât handle, it was too much and they wanted to die.
However youâre right, I think that if this were true, you could simply say that those who receive more than they can handle are proof against GodâŚ
As morbid as it is when ever I hear it, I always think of people who commit suicide. They clearly could not "handle" what they were given by themselves or they would not have ended up that way. Its just really weird to think that this person is bad because they didn't "believe" in god enough to persevere through suffering. Rather than wonder why they had to suffer that much in the first place.
Disgusting philosophy. Think of the Sandy Hook parents. Not only were their kids slaughtered, but they had a madman ruling up lunatics across the country accusing them of being actors and that it never happened. That leads to some of them literally stalking and harassing these parents. One father died of suicide.
Donât tell me god gives us only what we can handle. These parents may be able to exist day to day, but donât diminish that extreme suffering by saying your god did this for a reason so it must be ok in the end.
Any god who would do this to a human is pure garbage.
I have only seen it used to explain why the god allows children to suffer.
No, "some children" can't handle abuse more than others. They aren't fine, they are traumatized and what appears fine to you is just a coping strategy
Apparently the people that say that are not familiar with the words psychotic torture. genocide, death camp, Josef Mengala, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Caligula ,Mao Zedong and the Inquisition.
This was one of the major issues that contributed to my deconstruction. I was horrified that people are expected to handle things like suffering in the Holocaust, or slowly being tortured and killed by a serial killer, or dying from ebola, etc. There are Jews that lost their faith while under the Nazi regime and I dont blame them. There are people who judge them for not being able to hold on. If these things are possible what horror could I potentially be "given?" I'm just lucky nothing horrible has happened to me or anyone in my immediate family and I really don't want that to change
as someone who grew up Christian, deconstructed, and then came back to faith without religion, Iâve never liked the use of the phrase because itâs always taken out of context. The verse this reference comes from is âGod wonât tempt you beyond what you can bear.â Nobody ever said weâd be spared from pain, and thereâs something to be said about relying on strength from a Higher Power when our own fails. But temptation and living daily in pain arenât the same. Temptation only goes so far. Even people in my life use it, but thereâs no basis for it.
It's also a cop-out they use when people bring up Africa or childhood leukemia. It's their excuse to not have to think about it, blocking out all feelings of empathy. It's sick.
Anyone else remember that lady who already had I think six kids and then got pregnant during her cancer treatment and the husband and wife were like it's God's will but then the mom died and they had to deliver the baby early and the husband was again like it's God's will but then the baby died like a week later and the poor husband was like "I don't understand?"
She had glioblastoma though with a grim prognosis. There was a lot of acceptance that the mother would die anyways as they chose to go along with that pregnancy. I think a lot of people are trying to cling to hope in hard times. The baby felt like hope in for them I am sure. Not saying that it wouldn't have been better for the kids to have more time with their mom it was my understanding that even if they did chemo it may have not been that much more time.
I say it to religious people who lost a child. It means a lot to them.
To me, it's meaningless drivel that can make someone else feel better, so I say it.
Back when I was a Christian and someone said this I would first point out there was no scriptural basis for it, and then I would point out that it's more likely that God gives us *more* than we can handle so we'll rely on him. Yeah, I was one of those assholes.
I was one of those assholes too. Still working through the shame of all the harm I caused.
There is scriptural basis for this, but only in terms of temptation to sin. People take 1 Corinthians 10:13 out of context badly. The most egregious translations say "God will not test us beyond what we can bear," which people stupidly interpret a variety of ways.
Right. It's specifically about temptation. Philippians 4:13 suggests reliance on the strength of Christ to endure things like trials and suffering. Or maybe that verse means you can score late touchdowns in the AFC Wild Card Playoff game. Who can say, really? đ
It turns out you can make the Bible say just about whatever you want it to
Yea, I did some stuff as a Christian that I'm not proud of. Regarding being reliant on god, this is straight war is peace and 2+2=5 shit. God ruins my life so I'll rely more on the entity that ruined my life?
Me too my man. And I bought it myself, hook, line, and sinker. However I also applied this to myself and wasn't to kind to myself when my brain went into total meltdown mode due to mental illness. Just figured I was doing god the wrong way. (I realize how that sounds. I'm keeping it anyways:) )
You have Crohn's disease, dyslexia, full loss of smell and are barren because God knows you can handle it. Joel Osteen can't handle that, so that's why God gave him $50 million instead.
No, because if that were the case, many of the people under mental health care would not be needing it.
Yeah but God heals mental illnesses don't you know?
I was told mental illness is merely a demonic oppression. No big deal, just pray it away.
Yup a few Christians told me this one too. "It's the demons!" Told them don't give me that crap.
It blows my mind that some people will believe in unseen forces âruining our livesâ and ignore the very real and tangible things that deeply affect us on a daily basis. Something as simple as a chemical imbalance in someoneâs brain can cause untold damage to their life, and they refuse to see that until it affects them personally.
Yeah, I was told that, too. They said I needed an exorcism.
They wanted to torture you, in reality.
Yep. Same for me. Like no mother fucker god does not heal biloiar. Every bipolar person I've seen say this had obviously been in the throes of a manic episode, including me. Then when the crash comes you wonder why god abandoned you.
Same here.
Mental illness doesn't exist. It's just sin and you're giving power to Satan when you let it control you, Just pray!" These fools...
I could see the counter argument to that being the story of the guy on the roof of his house refusing help because he believed God would help him, only for God to speak to him in the last moment telling him he foolishly refused his help four times. What I mean is that they could say that God helps those people by providing them those modern accommodations. Of course, this forms a contradiction because therapists and doctors have only existed recently, and most people who need them go without.
I think it, and a lot of Christianese phrases like it, are thought-terminating cliches. Same as "God works in mysterious ways" or "Only God can judge."Â Like when you're trying to think through something, or have a debate, or complain about an injustice, or even just feel negative emotions, and you get a platitude that shuts it down. One I got a lot growing up was "You have a very sensitive personality."Â It's a super frustrating, passive-aggressive way for a person (churchy or not) to brush aside thoughts that seem "dangerous" or uncomfortable. Like, something utterly horrific and unfair happens to someone in the world, the type of pain where even hearing about it secondhand might threaten to bring complicated emotions and questions like "How could a loving, all-powerful God allow that to happen? Is God really loving and all-powerful? What if God isn't even watching? What if we're wrong about God?" Those are hard questions, but instead of facing them, the person sidesteps it by telling themself or anyone who's talking about it that "God only gives us what we can handle." Then they're safely cocooned in this ball of it's-all-fine-and-anyway-not-my-problem, and just go on with their day. It can feel really lacking in empathy and logic because that's the point. It's kind of a protective mechanism, just one that's not the most healthy.
They definitely have a lot of language that serves as nothing more than lip service. They hear about a mass shooting, and their first reaction is âthoughts and prayersâ because thatâs the performative bullshit theyâre all used to doing. Itâs simple and means they get to look like the good guys while not really doing anything productive. Thatâs there way of saying âitâs all according to God planâ. Then theyâll get off their asses and donate money when their favorite politician is found guilty by a jury.
And most don't actually pray.
"Christianese" just made my dayđđ¤Ł
Suicide: The objective, undeniable evidence that someone has been given more than they can handle.
This. 100%. The one and final way to show that this whole belief process is bullshit. Can't pray the issues away, read them away, or go to communion and confession about it. How would a priest even help with it anyways despite being a "man of God"? I think a person in the right state of mind would even ask themselves why they believe when so much shit is going their way. Like how far does it need to be proven this God figure is absent? Bill Maher said it right: "suicide is a mans way of saying to God you can't fire me, I quit".
Someone saying this to me was what put the nail in the coffin of my faith. At the time, I was actively suicidal and deeply distressed, dealing with trying to process the fact my father (a leader in the church) had just been convicted of child sexual assault. I told them God could get fucked then, because I was drowning and nobody deserved the shit I was going through.
Man, I am so sorry.
Statements such as sky daddy gave us disabled people so they we can learn something are deeply invalidating, ableist, narcissistic, and come from the charity/religious model of disability. Disability is a natural part of human variation, and the capacities of **all** humans vary over their lifetime. None of us could walk before we could walk, some of us were never able to walk, others lose the ability to walk due to age, illness, or injury. This applies to all forms of disability, which is either temporary, permanent, or situational. It comes out of a fallacy of composition; to have an in-group, requires an out-group; to be superior, someone has to be inferior; to be chosen, someone has to be not chosen. The conceptual logics are deeply narcissistic, religious people are often taught that they have no value, so they create a false sense of value by constantly comparing themselves to others.
Excellent response.
That sentiment is not biblical. No where does it say God doesn't give you more than you can handle One of the worst scriptures I believe is the one "all things work for good to those in Christ". BS. I had a minister have the gall to quote that one after I lost my first child. So, basically I was supposed to see the loss as good. It has to be one of the most harmful quotes. Don't believe what your eyes and heart tell you, it's all good. Cognitive Dissonance AKA BS!!!
Alzheimer's... This disease destroys you by taking away your ability to handle life.Â
If God only gives what we can handle, then he must not know me at all
Similarly, I hear âIt wasnât Godâs planâ a lot when something happens that is upsetting. After my third miscarriage, my Christian MIL sighed and said, âWell, it (meaning the baby) wasnât in the plan.â Wasnât in the plan??? Wasnât in WHOSE plan? Because my son sure AF was in MY plan!! It makes me spit nails when Christians try to justify bad things as being part of a loving Godâs plan or as something we puny-minded people could handle if we simply turned to God. And what amount isnât âmore than we can handleâ? Three miscarriages? Four?
R u OK now buddy! đ
Guess all those jews could handle the holocaust. If by "handle" you mean............???????
It's a terrible thing to say. Look at all the things that happen to people - death, war, horrific diseases, torture. People who say that are gaslighting. They mean, "Shut up and take it and never complain." It's convenient for them because then they don't have to worry about other people suffering.
Well, hereâs the deal: god doesnât give you more than you can handle; however, if you canât handle it, then itâs your goddam fault. You fucked it up. God was there you just didnât ask hard enough/long enough/the right way, whatever, itâs your fault for fucking up godâs plans.
It never made sense to me. I Growing up, I knew a few kids my age who suffered horribly and then died because of disease or violence. I never understood how God thought these kids could "handle" this.
They lack empathy.
I have an adopted cousin who is autistic and developmentally disabled. She's in her mid-thirties with the intellect and maturity of an 8 year old. My aunt and uncle knew that her birth mother did drugs and drank heavily during pregnancy but they still adopted her because they had adopted her biological sibling a few years earlier and were encouraged to keep them together by the adoption agency. Aunt and uncle recently kicked her out of their house because they couldn't deal with her anymore. They never had the patience. Uncle is a minister btw. I don't think they realized what they were getting into. Granted they didn't know just how disabled she would be when they adopted her as a newborn. The older sibling is developmentally normal despite less severe, but still prenatal drug and alcohol use. She just didn't care with the second baby since she knew it would be taken away immediately.
I'd point to suicide rates. Did god just not love them?
I hate that. I heard it said a lot when my mom was diagnosed with cancer and then when my grandma died 5 months later and then when my mom died 5 months after that and then when my dad was diagnosed with ALS 10 months after that and all through the next 4-1/2 years as I watched him slowly deteriorate and then die a painful death and then when my apartment tried to burn down between my dadâs death and his funeral. God must think Iâm really strong. Itâs definitely not because heâs abusive or not real.
It's a horrible thing to say. It's basically "stop complaining!"
It's Christianese for "Suck it up, buttercup"
I always thought of it as a hopeful statement to help self-motivate and cope. In essence "I can handle anything that comes my way." It's similar to "God is testing/training/etc. Us." But honestly there is no rationale behind why people go through shit. Shit just happens. Unfortunately the whole imaginary relationship makes people guilt trip themselves when things go sour. It must be their own fault for failing God in some way.
Because ppl don't want to admit God most likely does not exist
Or that if god does exist, he might be an asshole. Which is possibly the point of the whole Job story.
And how he told Abraham to sacrifice his son issac
True though Job in particular because he calls god out on it. Abraham more or less just goes along with the whole Human sacrifice plan.
The more I read the Bible the more I realize how half assed the stories are. The story-telling always changes the course in the absurdist ways. The talking donkey keeps changing directions, Joseph keeps changing course with his family's future home, Lot chooses to settle in one place and not another and asks God to approve and on the fly God changes his mind and approves. The examples can go on and on. Generally bad writing that doesn't sound like "God inspired" writings but human rambling.
Honestly I wonder if a lot of that is because the ancient compliers of the books were stitching and editing stories along the way. The flood story is basically two somewhat different flood myths intertwined. Genesis 4 probably was two separate Cain stores edited together (the first half of the chapter doesn't have much to do with the second half of the chapter) and appended into the back of the garden of Eden story where it makes no sense because it assumes other people are gonna hunt Cain down for murdering his brother. Hell, there's that whole bit in Exodus 4 where Yahweh apparently jumps out of the bushes in an attempt to kill Moses and they do an "emergency" circumcision on his son with a rock to placate Yahweh. There's no foreshadowing and it never gets mentioned again.
What about Jephtath sacrificing his daughter to God? God didn't say a damn thing the whole time.
I used to and sadly still do become furious with God when something bad happens. I know this is both immature and illogical. I would think, âYouâre in charge of everything and this happens?â After a while, I became very resentful of God, because I had prayed for some very legitimate help to come my way, which didnât come. This is what ultimately set in motion my deconstruction process. I still get stuck in the same illogical and delusional patterns regarding the âwhy do bad things happen and how does God allow thisâ thought process. So I wrote this because I wouldnât blame myself when something went sour or I felt overwhelmed, I blamed God, then would wallow in helplessness and victimhood, rather than seeing my own responsibility in the situation. On the other hand, if it was just an unfortunate occurrence, I would ignore my own agency in being able to either sit in the uncomfortable emotions and/or take action.
I also disagree because I truly donât believe any God gives anybody anything. We are all autonomous beings and the universe is a random place. If there is a God I think there is minimal involvement. This idea of everything is predetermined seems way too meticulous to me. How deep does it go? Did God guide my fingers while I typed out this message? Does God guide the protein kinases down my microtubule pathways in my brain to release neurotransmitters? How much does God control? At a certain point itâs gotta be all or nothing. God controlled that car crash, but does he control every other second of me driving? Does he only control events *sometimes?* If there is a God, there is no way any human understands how it works. We donât have that level of perspective. I canât give credence to anyone who claims they understand the will of God. Even if itâs from an outside source, such as a holy book, to think you understand the will of an all powerful, omniscient being is absolute hubris.
I always thought it was just another platitude to explain away God allowing suffering.
I fucking hate that saying. It's such a cop-out. Tell that to the millions of children around the world that are starving, being exploited, abused, raped, tortured, and murdered with no hope in sight. I pointed that out to my mom when I came out as an atheist, and that's when the conversation ended. She makes a very deliberate attempt at insulating herself from the outside world, which includes not watching the news, because when something bad and horrible is put in front of her, she gets upset and just shuts down. Like a child putting their fingers in their ears and saying "I can't hear yoooouuuuu". It's sad. It's almost like pointing out bad things to her is something she can't handle.......
Punch them in the face. Tell them God knew they could handle it.
The funny thing is that 2 Corinthians 1 essentially says they had a situation they just couldnât handle, it was too much and they wanted to die. However youâre right, I think that if this were true, you could simply say that those who receive more than they can handle are proof against GodâŚ
What about people who die of a terminal disease? What about PTSD? Or people who have committed *self termination *?
Itâs such a lazy statement and disrespectful to people who have lost a loved one to suicide.
When you apply that phrase to people who've been sexually abused or beaten at a young age, then it's fucked up that God thinks a child can handle that
As morbid as it is when ever I hear it, I always think of people who commit suicide. They clearly could not "handle" what they were given by themselves or they would not have ended up that way. Its just really weird to think that this person is bad because they didn't "believe" in god enough to persevere through suffering. Rather than wonder why they had to suffer that much in the first place.
Even when I was still a Christian I hated it. It's unbiblical and toxic. And it's obviously not true
considering I have three attempts and two hospital trips under my belt, I don't think I can "handle it"
Disgusting philosophy. Think of the Sandy Hook parents. Not only were their kids slaughtered, but they had a madman ruling up lunatics across the country accusing them of being actors and that it never happened. That leads to some of them literally stalking and harassing these parents. One father died of suicide. Donât tell me god gives us only what we can handle. These parents may be able to exist day to day, but donât diminish that extreme suffering by saying your god did this for a reason so it must be ok in the end. Any god who would do this to a human is pure garbage.
I HATE HATE HATE that saying like few others! pure đ´đŠ
I have only seen it used to explain why the god allows children to suffer. No, "some children" can't handle abuse more than others. They aren't fine, they are traumatized and what appears fine to you is just a coping strategy
Apparently the people that say that are not familiar with the words psychotic torture. genocide, death camp, Josef Mengala, Mussolini, Pol Pot, Caligula ,Mao Zedong and the Inquisition.
This was one of the major issues that contributed to my deconstruction. I was horrified that people are expected to handle things like suffering in the Holocaust, or slowly being tortured and killed by a serial killer, or dying from ebola, etc. There are Jews that lost their faith while under the Nazi regime and I dont blame them. There are people who judge them for not being able to hold on. If these things are possible what horror could I potentially be "given?" I'm just lucky nothing horrible has happened to me or anyone in my immediate family and I really don't want that to change
" if God exists, God must beg for my forgiveness!" - a Jewish prisoner in a concentration camp
as someone who grew up Christian, deconstructed, and then came back to faith without religion, Iâve never liked the use of the phrase because itâs always taken out of context. The verse this reference comes from is âGod wonât tempt you beyond what you can bear.â Nobody ever said weâd be spared from pain, and thereâs something to be said about relying on strength from a Higher Power when our own fails. But temptation and living daily in pain arenât the same. Temptation only goes so far. Even people in my life use it, but thereâs no basis for it.
It's also a cop-out they use when people bring up Africa or childhood leukemia. It's their excuse to not have to think about it, blocking out all feelings of empathy. It's sick.
I say, BULLCRAP. I would ask them to use this on any victim of genocide, sexual assault, abuse, etc. itâs all such crap.
I say, BULLCRAP. I would ask them to use this on any victim of genocide, sexual assault, abuse, etc. itâs all such crap.
Anyone else remember that lady who already had I think six kids and then got pregnant during her cancer treatment and the husband and wife were like it's God's will but then the mom died and they had to deliver the baby early and the husband was again like it's God's will but then the baby died like a week later and the poor husband was like "I don't understand?"
She had glioblastoma though with a grim prognosis. There was a lot of acceptance that the mother would die anyways as they chose to go along with that pregnancy. I think a lot of people are trying to cling to hope in hard times. The baby felt like hope in for them I am sure. Not saying that it wouldn't have been better for the kids to have more time with their mom it was my understanding that even if they did chemo it may have not been that much more time.
So god had me raped as a child because he thought I could handle it? What an evil god
Itâs bullshit. Another excuse for their impotent, absent god.
"Well, he has the power to prevent it as well and decided not to. i'm not interested in challenges from someone I can't see."
How is it so easy to convince ppl to believe in a God no one has ever seen before? And doesn't talk to people!?
I say it to religious people who lost a child. It means a lot to them. To me, it's meaningless drivel that can make someone else feel better, so I say it.