Seems god is a racist, he didn't save all the black people who died form this, nor the Spanish one.One of the US aid workers who recovered from an Ebola infection is "thrilled to be alive" as he and another patient are discharged from hospital.
Dr Kent Brantly, 33, thanked supporters for their prayers at a news conference in Atlanta. Nancy Writebol, 59, was discharged on Tuesday.
The two were brought to the US for treatment three weeks ago.
The outbreak has killed more than 1,300 people in West Africa, with many of the deaths occurring in Liberia.
A Spanish missionary infected in Liberia later died of the disease
"Today is a miraculous day," said Dr Brantly, who appeared healthy if pallid as he addressed reporters on Thursday at Emory University hospital.
"I am thrilled to be alive, to be well, and to be reunited with my family. As a medical missionary, I never imagined myself in this position."
He said Ebola "was not on the radar" when he and his family moved to Liberia in October.
After his family returned to the US as the Ebola outbreak tore through West Africa, he continued to treat Ebola patients and woke up on 23 July feeling "under the weather".
Dr Brantly said he lay in bed for nine days, getting progressively sicker and weaker. On 1 August, he was flown to Atlanta for treatment at Emory.
Emory infectious disease specialist Dr Bruce Ribner said after rigorous treatment and testing officials were confident Dr Brantly had recovered "and he can return to his family, his community and his life without public health concerns".
The group for which he was working in Liberia, Samaritan's Purse, said they were celebrating his recovery.
"Today I join all of our Samaritan's Purse team around the world in giving thanks to God as we celebrate Dr Kent Brantly's recovery from Ebola and release from the hospital," Franklin Graham said in a statement.
Nancy Writebol's husband David said in a statement that she was free of the virus but was significantly weakened.
The family decided to leave the hospital privately in order to allow her to rest and recuperate.
Meanwhile, South Africa on Thursday said non-citizens arriving from Ebola-affected areas of West Africa - the countries of Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone - would not be allowed into the country.
And police in Liberia's capital, Monrovia, fired live rounds and tear gas during protests after a quarantine was imposed to contain the spread of the deadly virus.
Residents of the capital's West Point slum area said the barbed wire blockade stops them buying food and working.
There is no cure for Ebola, one of the deadliest diseases known to humans, with a fatality rate in this outbreak of 50-60%.
But both Dr Brantly and Mrs Writebol received an experimental treatment known as ZMapp.
The drug, which has only been made in extremely limited quantities, had never been tested on humans and it remains unclear if it is responsible for their recovery.
ZMapp was also given to a Spanish priest, who died, and three Liberian health workers, who are showing signs of improvement.
With god on my side
With god on my side
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
Re: With god on my side
"Spanish" is a race ?
The English British do cut those things pretty finely. "All WOGS begin at Calais", eh?"
Well, three Liberian Health Workers are improving so maybe he likes them a little too.
yrs,
rubato
The English British do cut those things pretty finely. "All WOGS begin at Calais", eh?"
Well, three Liberian Health Workers are improving so maybe he likes them a little too.
yrs,
rubato
Re: With god on my side
Oh god.....
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: With god on my side
rubato... you left out "and north of Luton, west of Staines and east of Epping" not to mention the areas around Highbury. 
Back to the subject, I think the real problem Gob's pointing to is a deficient understanding of God (not Gob) that Christians fall into in much the same way as brain-dead people fall into tattoos and piercings. Surviving or not surviving a sickness or an accident (etc.) is of equal 'value' to a Christian - or should be. It is no more a miracle that A remains alive than it would be for A to drop dead but many Christians don't seem to get that. Their trust in God is a very one-sided proposition although they seem unaware of it.
As Paul said, it would be better to be dead on earth because one is then alive in heaven... but as long as we're here then we are to do God's work. Everyone's a winner. "In all things God works for the good of those who love him and who are called, according to His purpose".
Then there is the persistent refusal of some people to stop attributing to God notions that they are fully aware are not part of the Christian understanding of His word and the reality we inhabit. The evidence is that humans do all these things - cure and kill, live and die, post insightfully as I do and rubbish as I do. The atheist and the Christian should have common ground in that understanding. We surely differ on the 'why?' of mundane matters - not on the 'what?'
The other day I saw a post on FB comparing Willie Nelson being condemned for believing that homosexuals don't go to heaven (I think he's wrong) while that Iranian goofball who actively seeks the death of homosexuals is invited to speak at liberal U.S. colleges. Somebody riposted that George Bush had killed more homosexuals by bombing and therefore was much the worst offender against those kinds of persons. In a perhaps weird and deficient way, that kind of dumb logic reminds me of the Christian "God just made a miracle to stop x from happening" (or to cause Y to happen instead) and the atheist "oh well does that mean God's a racist?" (tongue firmly in ass-cheek though it probably is
).
I want to hear a Christian say "God worked a miracle - missionary Fred just died of ebola. Isn't that great?"
Back to the subject, I think the real problem Gob's pointing to is a deficient understanding of God (not Gob) that Christians fall into in much the same way as brain-dead people fall into tattoos and piercings. Surviving or not surviving a sickness or an accident (etc.) is of equal 'value' to a Christian - or should be. It is no more a miracle that A remains alive than it would be for A to drop dead but many Christians don't seem to get that. Their trust in God is a very one-sided proposition although they seem unaware of it.
As Paul said, it would be better to be dead on earth because one is then alive in heaven... but as long as we're here then we are to do God's work. Everyone's a winner. "In all things God works for the good of those who love him and who are called, according to His purpose".
Then there is the persistent refusal of some people to stop attributing to God notions that they are fully aware are not part of the Christian understanding of His word and the reality we inhabit. The evidence is that humans do all these things - cure and kill, live and die, post insightfully as I do and rubbish as I do. The atheist and the Christian should have common ground in that understanding. We surely differ on the 'why?' of mundane matters - not on the 'what?'
The other day I saw a post on FB comparing Willie Nelson being condemned for believing that homosexuals don't go to heaven (I think he's wrong) while that Iranian goofball who actively seeks the death of homosexuals is invited to speak at liberal U.S. colleges. Somebody riposted that George Bush had killed more homosexuals by bombing and therefore was much the worst offender against those kinds of persons. In a perhaps weird and deficient way, that kind of dumb logic reminds me of the Christian "God just made a miracle to stop x from happening" (or to cause Y to happen instead) and the atheist "oh well does that mean God's a racist?" (tongue firmly in ass-cheek though it probably is
). I want to hear a Christian say "God worked a miracle - missionary Fred just died of ebola. Isn't that great?"
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
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Sue U
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Re: With god on my side
The crux of the biscuit. I'm with you on that, at least.The evidence is that humans do all these things - cure and kill, live and die, post insightfully as I do and rubbish as I do. The atheist and the Christian should have common ground in that understanding. We surely differ on the 'why?' of mundane matters - not on the 'what?'
GAH!
Re: With god on my side
Meade, do you think all these "Samaritan's purse" prayers help persuade god to let this chap live?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: With god on my side
No. Things happen whether people pray or not and there is no way at all to know what "might have" happened if there were no prayers or a billion of them.Gob wrote:Meade, do you think all these "Samaritan's purse" prayers help persuade god to let this chap live?
In any case, prayers do not "persuade" God to do anything other than what He intended all along. To me, prayer is a means used by God to focus our thoughts on Him. And it doesn't hurt any either....
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
Re: With god on my side
Fair comment Meade, nice one.
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
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Econoline
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Re: With god on my side
I was going to suggest, if Meade hadn't answered promptly, that Gob read the book of Job for an answer. "The Lord giveth, and the Lord taketh away; Blessed be the name of the Lord!" is the money quote, but the whole thing is worth reading.
(BTW, the fantasy novel of the same name, by Robert A. Heinlein, is also well worth reading.)
(BTW, the fantasy novel of the same name, by Robert A. Heinlein, is also well worth reading.)
Last edited by Econoline on Mon Aug 25, 2014 12:10 am, edited 1 time in total.
People who are wrong are just as sure they're right as people who are right. The only difference is, they're wrong.
— God @The Tweet of God
— God @The Tweet of God
Re: With god on my side
the book of job was the first thing I read. some one suggested it to me...
not exactly pleasant to feel the suffering, very powerful stuff, and wise.
not exactly pleasant to feel the suffering, very powerful stuff, and wise.
Re: With god on my side
I suppose we could debate this endlessly, but just out of curiosity, what is so offensive about thanking God for good fortune? What causes one to feel the need to make a point of being publicly contemptuous towards the concept? Whether you believe there's any validity to it or not, what harm does it do?
Re: With god on my side
Well top of my list to thank would be the doctors who treated me, and the guys who invented the meds used. Would he have got well with just prayers?
“If you trust in yourself, and believe in your dreams, and follow your star. . . you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy.”
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MajGenl.Meade
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Re: With god on my side
Nothing wrong with giving thanks to God, LJ (and Gob I'm pretty sure those people got thanked - atheists don't have a corner on manners). I'm always intrigued, as Gob appeared to be, by the notion that God worked a miracle to save one guy but left all the others twisting in the wind. It seems to me an errant understanding of doctrine.... though quite common and one can cite verses to show me I'm wrong. Perhaps
For Christianity, by identifying truth with faith, must teach-and, properly understood, does teach-that any interference with the truth is immoral. A Christian with faith has nothing to fear from the facts
Re: With god on my side
Gob wrote:Well top of my list to thank would be the doctors who treated me, and the guys who invented the meds used. Would he have got well with just prayers?
For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.
~ Carl Sagan
~ Carl Sagan
Re: With god on my side
well the sick guy was a doctor, who, inspired by his Christianity, went over to Africa to help people. he got sick and because of that, a new experimental treatment was released and tested on him, probably years earlier than normal, and that may save a lot of Africans and may even have prevented widespread contagion.
sounds like good work to me.
sounds like good work to me.
Re: With god on my side
thanks, but I slacked up on my comma use there at the end....
it was almost a nicely constructed sentence.
it was almost a nicely constructed sentence.
Re: With god on my side
It's not my place to judge your sentence construction Wes...
That's what we have Meade for...
That's what we have Meade for...