Losing one's religion, the harsh stories of 9/11

[rug]

After the 9/11 attacks many were confronted with their faith and beliefs. Some ran towards their faith by practicing religious beliefs, while others were turned away.

What causes someone to lose their religion? In the Huffington Post article, “After 9/11, Some Run Toward Faith, Some Run The Other Way”, survivors and family members recalled what it was like to experience this firsthand. Their faith was questioned in the aftermath. Asking profound questions like why would God allow this?

For some, turning inward in grief caused them to lose their religion. One woman who lost her son on that day recalls, “My faith is shaken? Earthquake is a better word,” she said. “In the end, I found myself saying, ‘What kind of God would allow this?’”

Many like Ruth Green searched to find answers but could not find any. Losing one’s religion or faith in God after such terrible tragedies is not uncommon.

http://www.examiner.com/women-s-spirituality-in-national/losing-one-s-religion-the-harsh-stories-of-9-11

[Nay]

1. I always found it perplexing that ppl will lose their faith after

experiencing something horrible (like losing a relative at the twin towers); after all, just paying attention to events and other people during even a short period of adulthood should be enough to inform even the most oblivious adult that bad things can happen willy-nilly to anyone at any time, and what could possibly make them, the believers, immune from such horrors? Do they truly think that believing in this or that god actually protects them, even as they see horrible things happen even to those in their own religious circle? I have never understood it.

[rug]

2. I think the less people think of God as a talisman, the less likeky this is to happen.

[laconicsax]

4. You mean like this?

http://www.c28.com/shopping/Christian-Jewelry-Listings.asp?category3=necklace&HeaderText=20+percent+off+necklaces&maxprice=40#ProductFilter

Or more specifically, like this: http://www.amazon.com/Christian-Religious-Spritiual-Adjustable-Necklace/dp/B003O7MRGG/ref=pd_sbs_hg_2

[rug]

5. No.

Nor do I mean this.



Or this.



Or this.

[laconicsax]

6. I see, you mean like this:

[Jim__]

3. Knowing something - the world is full of tragedy - and experiencing it - the murder of a child - ...

... are 2 very different things. When I read that a child has been kidnapped and murdered, I deliberately try not to think about that too much. It's too painful. However, if it happens in your family, then it is a part of who you are. I don't think we can predict how various potential tragedies will affect us.

[immoderate]

7. People think that god protects THEM, up until he doesn't...

Before that it's someone else. Their misfortunes are rationalized. They might have sinned, or committed some mind-crime, or act of impurity. I, or whoever, have been spared from this misery. No doubt because I have done things right, am in good favor, and enjoy the protection of The Lord!

But then if god turns around and screws you over, some people start to wonder if they ever had any protection. Then it's personal.

--imm

[trotsky]

11. This +2,000,000,000

(For the number of Christians in the world.)

[roguevalley]

8. actually, God has nothing to do with the stupid crap we do. We have

free will and can do or not the things we do. I never blame God. My parents died ten months apart. It strengthened my spirituality and admiration of the way the universe spins to feel and hear and see them still around me. I feel for these people but they are blaming the wrong one. The people who do things are to blame. We aren't babies who need a dad to whip our butts. We are our own worst enemies.

[Silent3]

10. So when people die in earthquakes and tsunamis...

...people are somehow to blame? That's somehow important for free will?

And what about when tragedy isn't neat and tidy with a quick, clean death so you can comfort yourself with the idea that victims have gone to heaven? What about when a person spends a lifetime crippled or maimed, suffers months of agonizing pain from burns, and it's all due to natural disaster, not an act of human evil?

Are you going to play the game of pretending that even saving oneself from natural disasters always comes down to being prepared? Building buildings the right way, not burning fossil fuels, the way some people try to blame even natural disasters on people, as if the world was a placid, safe place before humans came along?

Or is this where you whip out the "the Lord works in Mysterious Ways" card?

[Silent3]

9. +1

I understand, of course, that when loss becomes personal it has more impact, but if a person had really thought about their faith before a tragedy struck them personally, if they'd made an effort to put themselves in the shoes of people and to see all of the real suffering in the world, then an event like 9/11 shouldn't have made much difference.

[Odin2005]

12. 9/11 is exactly what turned me away from organized religion forever.

[rug]

13. May I ask why?

[Odin2005]

14. "Those who can make you believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities"

---Voltaire