More than 30,000 Somali children have died of starvation in the last 3 months

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

I'd find myself wishing Sharia law would be imposed on this topic.

[Bad_Daddy 2,209]

*edit

Edited August 16, 2011 by Why_Me

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

I wouldn't exactly say creating a more well thought out plan in the beginning (such as a thriving fruit and plant life in Somalia) the creation of heaven on earth.

That is a bit of a stretch, don't ya think?

Somalia is pretty much a natural modern day concentration camp.

With a little bit more family planning and better parenting skills God could have prevented such a place (did he not know it would be like this today?).

HE tests us, to some HE gives much and tests them but seeing if they remember HIM in their actions and words. To others HE gives little and tests their patience. HE knows everything.

[scandal 951]

HE tests us, to some HE gives much and tests them but seeing if they remember HIM in their actions and words. To others HE gives little and tests their patience. HE knows everything.

WHO is this HE you keep talking about?

[mawilson 2,133]

The op is not familiar with the book of Job.

Yeah 9.1 percent of Americans are not familiar with that book.

[웃 910]

I wouldn't exactly say creating a more well thought out plan in the beginning (such as a thriving fruit and plant life in Somalia) the creation of heaven on earth.

That is a bit of a stretch, don't ya think?

Somalia is pretty much a natural modern day concentration camp.

With a little bit more family planning and better parenting skills God could have prevented such a place (did he not know it would be like this today?).

HE tests us, to some HE gives much and tests them but seeing if they remember HIM in their actions and words. To others HE gives little and tests their patience. HE knows everything.

30,000 bone thin Somali children dying of starvation (one of the worst ways to go) in a mere 3 months is a test from God? That is sick. You sure God didn't reincarnate himself as Hitler?I like my idea of a thriving plant/fruit life all over the earth. It is a much better design, especially if I knew there would be 7 billion people roaming the planet. I think God liked dinosaurs more than us (and I think He made them in His image!). We've only been around for 400,000 years....The dinos got 160 million years!!!! But for a planet 4.5 billion years old, what is 400,000 or even 160 million years?

[scandal 951]

We've only been around for 400,000 years....The dinos got 160 million years!!!! But for a planet 4.5 billion years old, what is 400,000 or even 160 million years?

0.01% and 3.56%, respectively.

What's your point?

BTW, the pre-Cambrian explosion, the point at which multi-cellular life on Earth took off, was about 540M years ago. Meaning that for about 88% of Earth's existence - the first 4 billion years or so - the only life on Earth was bacteria.

I think science is fascinating too, but I fail to see what it has to do with the wretchedness ib Somalia or the existence of God.

[웃 910]

0.01% and 3.56%, respectively.

What's your point?

I was jokingly saying that I think God made dinosaurs in His image. And that He liked them more than us because we've only been "created" for 400,000 years. And they got a cool 160,000,000 years.

So that is 400,000 years 10 100 200 400 times over

In other words, I don't really have a point.

[scandal 951]

I was jokingly saying that I think God made dinosaurs in His image. And that He liked them more than us because we've only been "created" for 400,000 years. And they got a cool 160,000,000 years.

So that is 400,000 years 10 100 200 400 times over

In other words, I don't really have a point.

Yeah, I got that.

So, by your logic God made bacteria in his image too, and he loves them even more - they've been around for over 4 billion years. And they survived the dinosaurs, who went extinct after all while bacteria are still with us.

To the faithful - the answers are clear. God created all life, and has his own reasons and purposes for what he does and why he does it. He gives life, he takes it away. To dinosaurs, and Somali children alike.

To those of us who don't have Faith -the answers are also clear. We've evolved from amino acid soup, it took billions of years of single-celled creatures to lead to multi-celled, and hundreds of millions more to come to the warm blooded mammals and eventually primates and eventually us. Beyond that, it's a deep, black universe out there punctuated with hundreds of billions of galaxies, containing nearly uncountable stars and planets. Perhaps your metaphysical answers still lie some where out there. For me, I'm happy to concentrate on the physical.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

WHO is this HE you keep talking about?

It ain't Ronnie Reagan.

Yeah 9.1 percent of Americans are not familiar with that book.

The rest drive Fords.

[IR5FORMUMSIE 850]

Yeah, I got that.

So, by your logic God made bacteria in his image too, and he loves them even more - they've been around for over 4 billion years. And they survived the dinosaurs, who went extinct after all while bacteria are still with us.

To the faithful - the answers are clear. God created all life, and has his own reasons and purposes for what he does and why he does it. He gives life, he takes it away. To dinosaurs, and Somali children alike.

To those of us who don't have Faith -the answers are also clear. We've evolved from amino acid soup, it took billions of years of single-celled creatures to lead to multi-celled, and hundreds of millions more to come to the warm blooded mammals and eventually primates and eventually us. Beyond that, it's a deep, black universe out there punctuated with hundreds of billions of galaxies, containing nearly uncountable stars and planets. Perhaps your metaphysical answers still lie some where out there. For me, I'm happy to concentrate on the physical.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around yetzer tov vs.yetzer ra or how it is possible that the Bears lost to the Colts in the Super Bowl.

[keysjangle 145]

Charity has always been a double edged sword to me.

On one side of the blade: Generous, compassionate people are compelled to help those in need because they feel it is their duty to help their fellow man, believers in god or not.

The other side: the subtle line of thought- "I'm going to go build a house for these people OUR way with OUR hands and OUR materials because THEY aren't doing a very good job on their own".

Best way to help a community is to give them a way to be self sustaining. To use a wonderful quote from the bible: "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime". Give them medical aid, help them attain livestock, drill a well, and then #### off.

[slim 1,514]

Charity has always been a double edged sword to me.

On one side of the blade: Generous, compassionate people are compelled to help those in need because they feel it is their duty to help their fellow man, believers in god or not.

The other side: the subtle line of thought- "I'm going to go build a house for these people OUR way with OUR hands and OUR materials because THEY aren't doing a very good job on their own".

Best way to help a community is to give them a way to be self sustaining. To use a wonderful quote from the bible: "Give a man a fish, you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime". Give them medical aid, help them attain livestock, drill a well, and then #### off.

Part of the problem is in most of Africa, you can't do that because the man you teach to fish is shot by the man with the AK-47 who wants all the fish for himself.

Until you convince that man that it's better when everyone has lots of fish (like in the USA!) the system will continue to spiral downward.

[웃 910]

Praise God for giving us free will!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Somalis walk for days as famine pushes war-racked nation deeper into abyss

Somalia, a nation that has endured two decades of civil war, has fallen deeper into an abyss. This time the culprit is famine.

The Islamist militia al-Shabab has prevented international aid from reaching the most needy and in some areas has prohibited people from fleeing. Still, tens of thousands of Somalis are on the move. Their crops have dried up. Their farm animals are dead. Many Somalis have given up hope of remaining in their homeland.

So they walk — a slow trudge, really — for days and days. Some have spent a month on the road. Along the way they rest under leafless trees.

The journey preys on the young and elderly. Some are carried with dignity by family and friends and carefully placed in desolate graves in white desert sands. Others are discarded on the sides of roads as vultures hover overhead.

Life is still precarious for the survivors who manage to cross the border into Kenya orEthiopia. Refugee camps are swollen with the hungry and the sick. International aid agencies are having trouble raising funds to assist Somalis. In a world consumed by other natural disasters and war, donor fatigue has set in, especially in a place whose name has become a synonym for anarchy.

Whether in Somalia or in the refugee camps, a singular image is seared into the mind:

A mother caresses her malnourished baby. Skin stretched taut over bone. Lifeless eyes. The mother’s anguish unfurls her thoughts. Will my baby survive?

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/africa/somalis-walk-for-days-as-famine-pushes-war-racked-nation-deeper-into-abyss/2011/08/25/gIQATpOEgJ_story.html

[LaL 418]

Wait a minute, Soffiya said religion has nothing to do with the al shabaab ish groups.

And by the way.... my "facts" remain unchallenged, show me where Atheists are more generous.

I don't know about more generous - but I am very much an atheist and I gave as recently as the end of July to Oxfam (as posted on my facebook) specifically for Somalia relief and many others over the last few years.

I don't really know what you are trying to prove here though.