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People Who Feel Their Lives Are Threatened Are More Likely to Experience Miracles

Discussion in 'News & Current Events' started by kathleenmariekg, Dec 4, 2020.

  1. kathleenmariekg

    kathleenmariekg Active Member

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    People Who Feel Their Lives Are Threatened Are More Likely to Experience Miracles

    WACO, Texas (Aug. 17, 2020) – People who experience threats to their existence — which these days may well be economic and political instability — are more likely to experience miracles, according to a Baylor University study.

    There’s a societal assumption that wealthy and educated people favor scientific, “more rational” explanations for these events. However, there is rising evidence that it has more to do with the security that being rich and educated brings: people who experience fewer existential threats do not rely on religious explanations of events. ...

    This goes against ideas discussed above that societies become less religious as science and rationality replace religion, and it supports the theory that people become more religious when their existence is under threat and less religious when their life is stable. ...

    The richest and most well educated are still more likely to experience miracles if their life becomes uncertain or is threatened. ... the only thing that distinguishes people who experience miracles or the paranormal from “normal people” is those experiences, not any particular lifestyle or habits.
     
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  2. Van

    Van Well-Known Member
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    Existential - real and existent threats, which worldly riches reduces, or so the theory holds.
     
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  3. Lodic

    Lodic Well-Known Member

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    I wonder how much of it is that people who need miracles are more likely to see God's hand when He rescues them / relieves their circumstances. You pray for God to protect you; you thank Him when you see that He does indeed do what only He can do.
     
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  4. kathleenmariekg

    kathleenmariekg Active Member

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    I saw miracles even when my faith was lowest and I did not pray and did not not know what was behind the impossible.

    Like the wind. We can see the effects and know something powerful is happening.

    I saw impossible and knew something bigger than science was not following the small rules of science that I have been taught.

    I started to believe again after impossible followed impossible and followed impossible.
     
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  5. kathleenmariekg

    kathleenmariekg Active Member

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    I read an article once that said people living in cities pray less, because the city supplies things that a rural home doesn't always provide.
     
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  6. just-want-peace

    just-want-peace Well-Known Member
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    Personally, I think that the more you realize that so much happens that you DON'T control, but is to your benefit, the more you also realize that some power greater than you is working!!!
    If Christians would just stop being "busy" for a spell, and start enumerating the things in life to be grateful for, they would find that while their efforts HAVE contributed to the "good life" far, far more was just there - with no effort on their part - and be thankful for what God does for/gives us through His goodness!!!!!!!!!!
    In times past I would start to thank Him for *********, but after naming a couple of dozen items, I just had to stop, cause for every one I mentioned, two more would pop up, & the end of the list kept moving away from me.
    MARANATHA!!!!
     
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  7. Roy

    Roy <img src=/0710.gif>
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    When I was a teenager, it was explained to our BTU (Baptist Training Union) group that answered prayer is not a miracle although it may come about in an awesome way. It is a promise made by our Lord
    " And all things, whatsoever ye shall ask in prayer, believing, ye shall receive."
    A miracle would be something out of the ordinary which was not expected. My wife and I experienced a miracle of sorts once when we were in the middle of a move. We were tired from loading the truck at our old place and still had much left to do there, so we just decided to get in the truck and head over to the new place and unload what we had so far.
    At our old place, we didn't have a washer and dryer and made frequent trips to the laundry mat to wash clothes. We were expecting to go into debt at the new place in order to buy a washer and dryer. As soon as we drove up to the new apartment, a lady from another apartment met us as we were getting out of the truck and told us that she was getting a new washer and dryer and asked if we wanted her old ones. There was nothing wrong with them, she was just upgrading her appliances. If we had not left when we did, we would have missed out. I don't believe that it was a coincidence.
     
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  8. kathleenmariekg

    kathleenmariekg Active Member

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    And there are also the times when people like me don't get crushed by things. Stuff just seems to defy the laws of gravity and somehow not crush me while all the onlookers discuss how it wasn't possible. I am not sure what they are talking about, because either I was in my own little world when it happened or I closed my eyes by reflex.

    I try to be careful, but I am a magnet for mess and trouble. People debate if the story about "Bullet proof George Washington" is true. I just know that stuff like that CAN happen, and DOES happen and happens to ME. But to have this stuff happen, you gotta be in a whole big mess of trouble. The bigger the mess, the bigger the miracle. I get bigger miracles than some because I am pretty messy. :D

    So rich and cozy people don't have it happen like us messy people do. Not because we have delusions and do not understand science, we just know the creator of science can tweak his creation any time he wants and as many times as he wants.
     
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  9. RighteousnessTemperance&

    RighteousnessTemperance& Well-Known Member

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    Yeah, how would you know you were "bulletproof" if no one ever shot at you, or you were always behind heavy armor? This isn't advocating inviting others to shoot at you, though. Churchill was also "bulletproof," and felt the exhilaration. So, too, Stonewall Jackson, until he wasn't.
     
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  10. Van

    Van Well-Known Member
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    One of the many ways my conviction that I am indwelt is reinforced is through bible study. Something will not make sense, or might be viewed in alternate ways, and I will pray for guidance. Sometimes nothing pops, but at other times, within a day or two, an insight will come to me. Are they always right? Of course not. But many of them, after further study, ring true. And one of the surest ways to know you are on the right tract is predictiveness. If this is true, then additional evidence will show up. And when it does, I praise God.
     
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  11. kathleenmariekg

    kathleenmariekg Active Member

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    I think I told the story, here, about a biography that I read as a child and am shaky on the details, but have never forgotten the message. An American soldier in Vietnam used to walk through the jungle in a sombrero and bright cape. His pet money got shot off his shoulder and died; and he was shot in the leg the last day he was there and suffered a permanent limp. I am cautious about three things in this order: getting someone else hurt, suffering a permanent injury, the day that my mission is complete and this protection is removed. I don't play with this.

    When I know something is being asked of me, I do it with the comfort that I might yet again be spared. This knowledge helps me not to panic and keep a clear a head. There is no exhilaration; just tearful humble gratefulness and awe of the one who makes this stuff happen. These episodes often result in me sobbing, because there is so much emotion. And also some anxiety about what it so important for me to do in the future.
     
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  12. kathleenmariekg

    kathleenmariekg Active Member

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    Predictiveness: people say that I am scary. I constantly do the "wrong" thing, and reap the benefits of trusting that predictive prod instead of following the crowd.
     
  13. Van

    Van Well-Known Member
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    Yes one of our realities is that our conclusions concerning reality are challenged by feedback, whereas folks can propose all sorts of intended or obscure meaning of scripture, and as long as scripture does not elsewhere preclude the view, no prod seems to be forthcoming.
     
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