Facebook Follies: Praying for a cancer cure

One of the downsides to Facebook, in my opinion, is that through some of my friends' Facebook posts, I've started to learn more about their religious and political views, and beliefs in woo, than I knew before. That makes me question my ability to select compatible friends. And it tends to make me like these friends less, sometimes, much less, than I did before.

I tend not to post the comments in response that I'd like to, because these mostly are people that I value as friends, and have redeeming values that cancel out our areas of disagreement, but I do respond in my head.

The latest status update from my very religious Catholic friend Jeannie ends: "Dear God, I pray for the cure of cancer." She then asked me and her other friends to copy and paste her update and post it as mine.

In my head: If God didn't want people to have cancer, he wouldn't give it to them. In fact, he wouldn't have created cancer or allow it to exist if he were a truly almighty and loving God. But he is either not almighty or not loving, or both, because he allows people to suffer terribly and die because of cancer.

Yeah, I know, "God works in mysterious ways, and his plan isn't easy for us to understand, and we suffer because of original sin (committed by two--or possibly more than two, as explained to me by a self-described 'theologically sophisticated' Catholic believer not long ago--people thousands of years ago. A sin, by the way, that the all-knowing God always knew these sinners would commit, yet let them commit it. Yeah, loving guy, that God.)"

And, if God has an eternal plan, is he going to change his plan with regard to cancer just because you and other people ask him to?

Don't you think other people have prayed before for a cancer cure? God didn't answer their prayers. What makes your prayers so special God's going to answer yours?

And as far as repeating your status update as mine: "Uh, no."

P.S. I don't believe in any God, but if I did, I wouldn't choose to believe in your sadistic one.