• Welcome to Religious Forums, a friendly forum to discuss all religions in a friendly surrounding.

    Your voice is missing! You will need to register to get access to the following site features:
    • Reply to discussions and create your own threads.
    • Our modern chat room. No add-ons or extensions required, just login and start chatting!
    • Access to private conversations with other members.

    We hope to see you as a part of our community soon!

Why Thank God

Secret Chief

nirvana is samsara
I would hope I show my gratitude to the appropriate people.
Me saying those words is just a habitual expression, not representative of any beliefs.
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I have just been involved in a long catch up phone call a very good friend who is a thoracic surgeon. He works in a hospital very close to one of Britain's main motorways and consequently sees the results of far to many high speed pile-ups.

Despite air bags and seat belts he is called on far to often to put people back together.

One of the topics we spoke about was, after a serious accident, following perhaps several intense hours of skilled surgery involving at least one surgeon, and up to a dozen highly trained theatre staff, when it is known the victim is likely to survive and the relatives and friends are informed that the surgery was a success. Inevitably someone will say "thank God"

My friend has got past the stage of wanting to confront the god thanker, although it's been on his mind he never has asked the question.

So?

My question is why offer thanks to a god who did nothing to prevent the accident, did nothing to guide a young hopeful, aspiring to be a surgion through college, university, internship, more university, many years of honing skills to the stage the now experienced hopeful can confidently rebuild a human being. Why thank a god who did nothing to help train the theatre staff. Did nothing to help design the equipment and facilities required. Generally did nothing. Why?

Ok, rant over.

If anyone does know why there is plenty of space below to show the reason
I share in the rant. To me, it seems such a slap in the face. Thank god? God doesn't get people through school. God didnt juggle work, school, clinical hours, and whatever else to be able to save that person. God didn't have to look at assuming massive debt to get through med school. God didnt do the surgery. God didn't even prevent the need for the surgeon to be there. If everything is gods will, then god is horrendously cruel to make us go through those things, especially here in America were so many of his most faithful risk bankruptcy if they need those surgical services.
 

Sunstone

De Diablo Del Fora
Premium Member
I think thanking a god (it's done in more than one religion) after making it through some tough event or times is for many people a way of restoring their hope. Believing their god was there all along with them, helping them get through it all, is a subtle way to reinforce their hope that they will be able to make it through the next tough event or times, too.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Hospitals are free in the UK? :eek:

Ish.

Free at the point of use, but are funded by taxes. Everyone paying tax pays a national insurance contribution that goes towards finding medical treatment and state pension.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Ish.

Free at the point of use, but are funded by taxes. Everyone paying tax pays a national insurance contribution that goes towards finding medical treatment and state pension.
Figured there's some sort of catch.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Figured there's some sort of catch.

There is always a catch. In this case you pay a small(ish) amount all your working life but there are no shocks, no need to put your family into poverty to pay medical expenses. Its a good system but is horribly underfunded.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
My question is why offer thanks to a god who did nothing to prevent the accident, did nothing to guide a young hopeful, aspiring to be a surgion through college, university, internship, more university,..

]I am interested, i would love to understand why the surgeon and staff, the emergency services don't deserve thanks but god does, after all, a thanks is free is it not?

I would thank the surgeon and staff (and I did when my wife had operations and was in the ICU).

But I can see this reasoning: God used his hands, the surgeon's hands and the hands of the staff, to heal His own wounds in the form of the person on the operating table.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
I would thank the surgeon and staff (and I did when my wife had operations and was in the ICU).

But I can see this reasoning: God used his hands, the surgeon's hands and the hands of the staff, to heal His own wounds in the form of the person on the operating table.

Sounds kind of far fetched to a non god believe, the surgeon has his own hands and many years of training, as do the staff.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Sounds kind of far fetched to a non god believe, the surgeon has his own hands and many years of training, as do the staff.
Of course it does. Which is why I, personally, am reluctant to give any direct answers on the matter. It's all about perspective. Now try explaining that perspective to someone who thinks they've never experienced that. It's like trying to explain color to a blind person.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Of course it does. Which is why I, personally, am reluctant to give any direct answers on the matter. It's all about perspective. Now try explaining that perspective to someone who thinks they've never experienced that. It's like trying to explain color to a blind person.

Or expecting thanks for hard and skilled work from some religious people.

Actually thanks is not expected but i, for one, consider it the right thing to do in the circumstances... (And a decent sized box of chocolates)
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
There is always a catch. In this case you pay a small(ish) amount all your working life but there are no shocks, no need to put your family into poverty to pay medical expenses. Its a good system but is horribly underfunded.
We need that here. Before and after the ACA private insurance has too often drained my savings and bank accounts due to my "medically frail" condition (I have four medical appointments this week alone).
 

Secret Chief

nirvana is samsara
Figured there's some sort of catch.
My friend woke up with a detached retina last week. She was taken to hospital and had immediate laser surgery to repair it and further treatment to prevent a second tear occurring. No money to find. Paid for by us all, over our working lives, there for all of us when we need it. It's civilised, progressive, humane. If nothing else covid has made the whole of the country massively appreciate our national health service, even our laissez faire buffoon prime minister whose life was saved by (foreign!) health workers.
 

Harel13

Am Yisrael Chai
Staff member
Premium Member
Or expecting thanks for hard and skilled work from some religious people.
Which is why I previously wrote this:
And later? Sometimes people get caught up in the moment. Different people experience different situations differently. You were in the hospital yourself not long ago, right (if I remember correctly)? For you and other non-believing people, your first thought may be to thank the staff. Also, maybe not. Some people are just rude cranks, or perhaps they're hurting too much, or their minds are elsewhere - whatever the reason may be. It's similar with religious people: Some may first think to thank God. Some may actually think to first thank the staff. Some may not feel thankful at all. Some may be thinking about a million other things, like how much the bills are going to cost, who's going to take care of the kids, who's going to water the plants, will their work let them keep their job, etc. Who knows?
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
We need that here. Before and after the ACA private insurance has too often drained my savings and bank accounts due to my "medically frail" condition (I have four medical appointments this week alone).


Unfortunately the right wing in America seem fiercely opposed to a similar system.

In france a hybrid system is used. The government pay a proportion of cost which is funded from tax. Each individual must take out a top up insurance which pays the balance.

There are some things not covered, example, hubbies cancer treatment cost in all, close on two hundred thousand euros, total cost to us €400 for the hire of the surgical robot. Funnily the robot is not covered but the technicians to run it are.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Hey, robots have to eat and get their oil changed. Give 'em a break...:D

unnamed.jpg
 

Shadow Wolf

Certified People sTabber
I would thank the surgeon and staff (and I did when my wife had operations and was in the ICU).

But I can see this reasoning: God used his hands, the surgeon's hands and the hands of the staff, to heal His own wounds in the form of the person on the operating table.
In my experience, hearing about god this and god that was the last thing I wanted to hear about while my brother was in ICU from a truck wreck, his hips broken and shattered and left leg broken, and all us worried about the fact he didn't have insurance. If god deserved any thanks, he wouldn't have let my brother be so broken whem he was at such a young age still (26). If god deserved thanks, my brother wouldn't have been rushed out the door. If he deserved thanks, my brother wouldn't have nearly died from his second (or third?) surgery.
I leanred then a gratefulness and appreciation for them that has no room for invisible hands that were curiously absent to prevent the need for surgeon anyways. Like when my youngest nephew was run over by a lawn mower. If god deserved thanks, my nephews guts would not have been spilled out on a yard in a horrible accident. That he and my brother survived, god was no where and deserves no thanks. It was all in the medical staff who tended to them.
 

sun rise

The world is on fire
Premium Member
Sounds kind of far fetched to a non god believe, the surgeon has his own hands and many years of training, as do the staff.
Yes it is far fetched even to believers who conceive of the Divine differently than I do.

I know you were asking a rhetorical question, but I decided to answer it anyway. :D
 

Secret Chief

nirvana is samsara
Unfortunately the right wing in America seem fiercely opposed to a similar system.

In france a hybrid system is used. The government pay a proportion of cost which is funded from tax. Each individual must take out a top up insurance which pays the balance.

There are some things not covered, example, hubbies cancer treatment cost in all, close on two hundred thousand euros, total cost to us €400 for the hire of the surgical robot. Funnily the robot is not covered but the technicians to run it are.
By comparison (probably a silly one) one of our cats needed extensive treatment and hospitalisation for hypothyroidism and hepatitus. Cost £9,000. Thankfully we had insurance that covered some of it. But then there was the melanoma treatment...
The vet service should be nationalised!
 
Top