Have you ever experienced Divine Intervention?

[Thinktank]

Have you had any stories like this?

Yeah a few times.

One time I was driving a truck, five in the morning, ( couldn't see much) way too fast, near Hope and then suddenly for no reason I just quickly slowed down. I really slowed down a lot - I don't even know why. And when I rounded the corner there was a bunch of vehicles and a flag man, and if I never slowed down, I probably would have plowed into them.

And here's another one - no one will believe me. It's too insane. I don't even believe it myself. Twelve years ago I bid on a nearly new farm tractor on Ebay worth $25,000. I won for $13,000. I talked to him on the phone, a nice older guy with a Polish sounding name. He had a picture of the tractor and everything. We arranged a truck to deliver it. And I went to the bank to wire him the money.

You're probably thinking - No sane person would wire money to a stranger, just because he sounds nice. But twelve years ago I never knew how anything worked. I never knew how the internet worked. And I saw the picture of the item. And a sucker is born every minute. So when I wired him the money, I got one number on his account wrong, and that's what saved me. God saved me that time. Later I saw someone else on the internet said that guy was a scam artist.

Divine intervention happens once in twenty or thirty years. Don't screw it up when it is going to happen.

[HavenYardCare]

I've heard plenty of stories myself of people about to clearly have a head on collisions and brace for impact and suddenly they're on the other side with both people dumbfounded after.

I also recall a story long ago somewhere in bc where a kid ended up lost deep in the forest and could not be found. Eventually he made his way out and he told everyone that he heard a flute or bagpipes playing and he just followed it and ended up being where he needed to

Or when people hear a voice in their head just before something tragic happens which saves them.

The thread wasn't meant to be religious just about experiences. Just so happened that story was a christian related one.

Here's an example of someone that hears a voice before a tragic situation

[spiritualteachers]

So, let me get this straight....

A missionary wants viewers to believe she was saved by a wall of angels because she wasn't involved in a car accident, but saw bright lights.

I've driven at night before and have missed oncoming traffic, and their headlights were very bright. Must be angels.


I have no doubt that the driver hit the shoulder, (not the ditch), then over corrected into oncoming, and through her struggles, managed to straighten out before hitting the oncoming car. No guardian angel needs to be involved to explain it.

Makes me wonder how an atheist would have perceived this event? Would the atheist be convinced of divine interventions? Would the divine intervention not happen to an atheist? Would the atheist have a different, plausible, explanation?

There are plenty of stories like these. it's possible an atheist could have a different explanation. There are lots of stories like these.

Also the ones where you hear a voice just before something tragic happens and is diverted. Heres an example





Other stories too...I remember years ago there was a story about a kid that got lost in the woods for a week or more. They had a full search on and nothing came up. The kid just randomly came out at the right spot to be found later. He said while in the woods he heard a flute or bagpipes and followed it till it led him to the way out.


Weird things like that could be coincidence maybe?

[youjustcomplain]

One time I was driving a truck, five in the morning, ( couldn't see much) way too fast, near Hope and then suddenly for no reason I just quickly slowed down. I really slowed down a lot - I don't even know why. And when I rounded the corner there was a bunch of vehicles and a flag man, and if I never slowed down, I probably would have plowed into them.

Is it possible that your intuition worked to caution you without you being aware of it? Like I mean, perhaps you saw the halo of a tail light in a bit of fog from around the corner and though you didn't mean to pay attention to it, your brain did tell you to be cautious?
Doesn't need to be god or some divine intervention.

I haven't got a speeding ticket in over 20 years and everywhere I go, I speed. There have been plenty of times where I am speeding and pull up behind someone going the speed limit.... I sit there getting annoyed, then moments later we drive through a speed trap. No doubt in my mind that I'd have got a ticket had that responsible driver not just happened to be there. But it's far to egocentric for me to think that a DI event took place to spare me from the fine. Why spare me? I deserved to pay the speed tax. Why did the police lose out on my ticket? Did Satan work to sabotage their efforts? Of course not.

And here's another one - no one will believe me. It's too insane. I don't even believe it myself. Twelve years ago I bid on a nearly new farm tractor on Ebay worth $25,000. I won for $13,000. I talked to him on the phone, a nice older guy with a Polish sounding name. He had a picture of the tractor and everything. We arranged a truck to deliver it. And I went to the bank to wire him the money.

You're probably thinking - No sane person would wire money to a stranger, just because he sounds nice. But twelve years ago I never knew how anything worked. I never knew how the internet worked. And I saw the picture of the item. And a sucker is born every minute. So when I wired him the money, I got one number on his account wrong, and that's what saved me. God saved me that time. Later I saw someone else on the internet said that guy was a scam artist.

You made a mistake. Is God responsible for your mistakes? Sounds like you're judgement was suspended when you attempted to throw away your money. You were saved by your mistake. If giving your money to the guy had been as simple as saying "hi" to him on the phone, do you think your God would have made you lose your voice at the critical moment?

[youjustcomplain]

I've heard plenty of stories myself of people about to clearly have a head on collisions and brace for impact and suddenly they're on the other side with both people dumbfounded after.

I've also heard stories like that. Not from people I happen to find trustworthy or believable, but stories none the less.
I've also heard of lots of people getting anal probed by aliens who flew millions of light years just to fly their saucer through farmers fields then take a closer look at our species through a rednecks anus.

There are plenty of people who were at, in or just near the twin towers during 911 who recall a completely different sequence of events. No matter what you believe about how 911 happened, we can all agree that some of the accounts of that day from witnesses are inaccurate, but not intentionally.
It's not hard to understand that at times of very high stress, your brain processes things differently.

[youjustcomplain]

Other stories too...I remember years ago there was a story about a kid that got lost in the woods for a week or more. They had a full search on and nothing came up. The kid just randomly came out at the right spot to be found later. He said while in the woods he heard a flute or bagpipes and followed it till it led him to the way out.

Weird things like that could be coincidence maybe?

Ok, but why would the sound of a flute and bagpipes be a DI event? (I don't know this story at all). But if I was lost in the woods for a week, I'd be VERY sleep deprived, I'd have had next to nothing for food and likely just barely enough water to still be alive. Would my brain be working normally? Not a chance. I do think it's quite likely that in that 7 day period I'd have hallucinated. Who knows what I'd hear or see or how I'd react.

Also, coming out of the woods at the right spot to be found is a bit of a trick isn't it? I mean, if the kid had come out of the woods somewhere else and been found, the kid would have come out at the right spot. The kid could have been found in the 7 days he/she was missing and would have had to have been in the right place to be found by the search and rescue teams, but wasn't. This, to me, sounds like the person who says "I found the remote for the TV, but it was the last place I looked !!!".... But of course it is, you stopped looking for the remote once you found it.

[Glacier]

If an Atheist saw a ghost and found out it was a god, you wouldn't have an atheist anymore. An atheist is someone who doesn't believe in gods. If they found out god existed, they would stop being an atheist.

An atheist is one who does not believe in any god. The term does not describe how the person arrived at the position. Some may be open to belief in god if they're presented with evidence, but a large percentage of atheists would never believe in god irrespective of evidence. Michael Shermer, for one, has been on record several times as stating he would never give up his atheism no matter what happened because there are always ways of explaining away what you see. You see god, you see a ghost, etc., but you can always ask the "what if" questions. What if it's just in your head, etc.

[Poindexter]

 atheists would never believe in god irrespective of evidence.

And

because there are always ways of explaining away what you see. 

He's saying what others claim is evidence for a god can always be explained away without the use of magical thinking. To paraphrase him as saying "irregardless of evidence" is somewhat misleading. All any atheist wants is proof and we're all still waiting patiently.

[averagejoe]

Did God intervene in this battle?

Battle of Blood River Dec 16th 1838 South Africa....



This day continues to be remembered for divine deliverance in a battle which the settlers never could have won on their own. The covenant that was made on this day was renewed many times by succeeding generations. There are those who choose to dismiss the covenant, or the events which took place on that day. But there are some who still remember.

Afrikaner Covenant with God just before the battle...

“At this moment we stand before the Holy God of heaven and earth,
to make a promise if He will be with us and protect us,
and deliver the enemy into our hands so that we may triumph over him,
that we shall observe the day and the date as an anniversary in each year,
and a day of thanksgiving like the Sabbath,
in His honour,
and that we shall enjoin our children that they must take part with us in this for a remembrance even for our posterity.”

The story....http://www.labuschagne.info/the-miracle ... LTV6X8YNX8

[averagejoe]

Not in English...

Battle of Blood River Dec 16th 1838.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XugIpToHIR8&t=6s

[cliffy1]

Did God intervene in this battle?

Battle of Blood River Dec 16th 1838 South Africa....

"Thou shalt not kill." If there is a god and it made that declaration, it would not condone war let alone choose sides.
During world war 1 & 2, you would see priests and ministers blessing both sides in the name of the same god. If the absurdity of that doesn't make you scratch your head...

[Thinktank]

God intervened to save a few JWs lives in Nepal, while killing 8500 other ordinary people. That shows the JWs are God's only true religion.

ON Saturday, April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal, a largely mountainous country north of India. The quake struck about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the capital, Kathmandu. Tragically, more than 8,500 people died, making this Nepal’s deadliest natural disaster on record. More than half a million homes were destroyed. There are 2,200 of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nepal, and most lived in the affected area. Sadly, one Witness and her two children died.

“The earthquake occurred when the congregations in the most devastated area were having their Christian meetings,” said a Witness named Michelle. “Had it occurred when many were at home, there would no doubt have been more casualties.” Why were those attending meetings spared? Kingdom Hall design was a big factor.


But now big question is: In Fuku, Japan - everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. It won't be fixed for forty years. it won't ever be fixed. There are 214,173 JWs in Japan - the country with the worst nuclear accident in human history. Did God make that nuclear accident?

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/maga ... such-love/


..

[youjustcomplain]

God intervened to save a few JWs lives in Nepal, while killing 8500 other ordinary people. That shows the JWs are God's only true religion.

ON Saturday, April 25, 2015, a 7.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Nepal, a largely mountainous country north of India. The quake struck about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of the capital, Kathmandu. Tragically, more than 8,500 people died, making this Nepal’s deadliest natural disaster on record. More than half a million homes were destroyed. There are 2,200 of Jehovah’s Witnesses in Nepal, and most lived in the affected area. Sadly, one Witness and her two children died.

“The earthquake occurred when the congregations in the most devastated area were having their Christian meetings,” said a Witness named Michelle. “Had it occurred when many were at home, there would no doubt have been more casualties.” Why were those attending meetings spared? Kingdom Hall design was a big factor.


But now big question is: In Fuku, Japan - everything that could possibly go wrong did go wrong. It won't be fixed for forty years. it won't ever be fixed. There are 214,173 JWs in Japan - the country with the worst nuclear accident in human history. Did God make that nuclear accident?

https://www.jw.org/en/publications/maga ... such-love/


..

All of this is absurd. Why do you keep asking questions that don't warrant an answer?
People always struggle to find reason in the unreasonable
Why did I survive that car accident?
Why did the tornado tear up my neighborhood?
Why did the power go out right as I was about to watch the oscars?

We can keep looking for divine reasons for these things, or we can just accept that we are as powerless as the god that many people still try to justify their belief in. Either he exists and is powerless, or doesn't exist. Without any evidence to suggest he exists, I still wonder why people continue to assign responsibility to him.

[youjustcomplain]

An atheist is one who does not believe in any god. The term does not describe how the person arrived at the position.

Correct. The "how" of how an atheist arrived at a position confuses me though.
If, you have belief in a God and then decide you no longer believe, then you would have arrived at the position. If, however, you just never believed, you didn't arrive at the position; You started there.

Some may be open to belief in god if they're presented with evidence, but a large percentage of atheists would never believe in god irrespective of evidence.

Absolutely, completely false. It's true that most Atheists aren't looking for evidence of a god. Many of us don't even want to find one. However, that doesn't mean we'd prefer to be in the dark when it comes to the truth of things. Quite the opposite. I find that most Atheists I've talked to are quite reasonable. If I saw proof of gods existence, I'd have no choice but to "believe". To this day, there are Atheists because there is no proof.

Michael Shermer, for one, has been on record several times as stating he would never give up his atheism no matter what happened because there are always ways of explaining away what you see.

From what I've heard of him, I've found he's made a few foolish statements. I haven't heard him say that particular one, but I don't doubt he said something like it. I suspect he's starting from the premise that there is no god, and as such, no evidence for one will ever be found. However, I don't agree with "explaining away what you see". I think that is what people of faith do, not the other way around. If he said that, I think he should be slapped. My stance is that "I don't know" is a MUCH MUCH better answer than flailing and guessing at an explanation for what you can't understand.

You see god, you see a ghost, etc., but you can always ask the "what if" questions. What if it's just in your head, etc.

Right. If I see god, or I see a ghost, I'm going to wonder what I saw. I might continue to wonder until I die. Or, I might jump to a conclusion and decide that I "know" what I saw. This isn't how I work, but I can't speak for anyone else.

[Thinktank]

Why did God cause that ball to not go in? That's what I want to know?

Anyone know why?