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There's a lot of well deserved bashing of religion and religious people here. A long boring Story of the last Christian, that gave my hope. In 1997 my bicep was almost torn off my arm in an industrial accident. The ulnar nerve was crushed and damaged badly. My right hand, was useless just dangling at the end of my arm. My wife and I were in the process of tearing each others hearts out splitting up. When I get to physical therapy. A tiny little woman is sitting at the "Hands" table. Her right hand looks like it has a scaffolding built around it. or maybe it's a miniature cell tower. We sat in silence staring at each other, for a few visits. Me trying to summon up enough mind control to flip a little wooden dowel with my index finger enough to make it roll just a few inches. I wasn't having any success. My third visit. They started dismantling the antenna array around her right hand. She was given a small foam ball like a Nerf ball. She was supposed to squeeze it as hard as she could with her thumb and index and middle fingers. i was watching her, struggle with this. It was cool in the physical therapist office, and beads of sweat were forming on her forehead. I knew it was very painful. I was really pulling fir her, but it was agony to watch her and the beads of sweat glistening on her forehead. I said "You don't have to get better in one day, take a break" She said "I ain't no quitter white boy" I laughed at that. so we continued ragging on each other during or visits. A young guy with a back injury started coming in, when we were practicing our futility. He was a great big whiny brat "I can't it hurts" was what echoed across the room when he was there and his mother prayed constantly for him when she accompanied him. it set the entire room on edge. The head physical therapist would always come to our table after he left. " I wish all my patients could be like you" I said "specially me!" and they would both just shake their heads. We continued our get together till my little lady friend had her entire hand looking normal. I kept ragging her and she me about the young guy. "You gonna pull a junior today and quit?" When I finally started to make some progress. My little friend was as happy as me. She was on one of her last visits when I was able to hug her and tell her what and inspiration to me she had been. I said it would have been so easy for you to quit and not have to endure all the pain you did. She said " My life is my witness for God, To quit wouldn't say much for me or god" i was really floored because many times when Juniors mom was praying out loud "Oh help us Jesus! heal my son's back and make him whole again!!!" Harriet my little friend would say "she needs to quit praying and stick her foot up his ass!" i got a return hug the last time she was there and i was able to give her the middle finger. "I'm so proud of you white boy!' She did make me question my disbelief for a short time. when i grow up i want to be like her. She's one of my heroes! if anyone reading this is still awake. Does anyone else have someone that perhaps cast doubt on your unbelief

Stevil 8 Dec 30
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8 comments

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Why would her misplaced belief in an imaginary friend cast doubt? Both of you worked your asses off with no help from anyone but the therapist and each other to recuperate. No doubt should be cast.

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If I read this post correctly, the proximate cause of your recovery was your friend's inspirational dedication to persistence, not divine intervention. She made a personal decision to help another person, the same way a Humanist would. Did religion actually have anything to do with it?

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She was a good person and sincere in her beliefs. She is the kind of Christian I give a capital C to. The other woman gets a lower case c. All show and no depth.

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That's a great story. Faith can be really inspirational and can do a lot of good for some people.

I'll share one of mine that's similar but kinda opposite.
So when I was 15 I had to have my second open heart surgery. It didn't go very well and a few days after, they had to open me up again and fix some things they didn't get right the first time. It was pretty devastating physically to go through two right in a row and when I came around I realized that much of my right hand was really numb and useless because they had damaged nerves while putting IVs in my arm. So I spent a long while in the hospital and almost as soon as I got home my grandmother decided to have me write thank you letters to a bunch of strangers who prayed for me at her church. Obviously, I really didn't want to do this because I was still feeling very weak and shitty and my hand was still in bad shape. They gave me one of those squishy balls but it would take a couple of years for it to get back to normal. My grandmother insisted it would be a good exercise for my hand though and of course we can't have those nice christians go without thank yous after they had acted sooo selflessly.

Now at this point, I didn't know what I was because I didn't really think about it but I was ticked off that I had to write these letters for prayers that did no good, I mean if they had worked, I wouldn't have needed that second surgery. Hell I shouldn't have to deal with any of it, nor should anyone else if we actually do have a loving god and all that. Moral of the story, this little indecent did much to teach me that prayer is superstition and religion is false.

My suspicion is that the letter writing was good therapy for your hand.

@HippieChick58 Admittedly, yes it sure was. But I'd have preferred to have been compelled to write something of consequence instead.

I suspect that if letter-writing was good therapy for the hand, the therapist would make you write letters instead of squish a little ball for therapy. I'm pretty sure the ball was probably better for his hand than writing.

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I can't say I am an unbeliever. I just don't see a lot of proof. I have had an experience that counters a lot of disbelief that I won't describe here. It hasnt changed how I live my life

@ogtirof you mean that she just lived/behaved along the line of her belief and didn't just proselytize?

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great nurses and you were lucky to recover at all. faith had rien to do with it

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I had a lot of people praying for me as I went through 3 years of in and out of the hospital dealing with leukemia and later heart failure. I don't think prayers helped me return to a nomal life. First I learned to walk again, physical and occupational therapy required that I do the work to get out of a nursing home. If I hadn't done the work I wouldn't be back. 3 years since my last hospital stay-yahoo.

You kick ass! ❤

Thanks @Paul628 and @ogitirof.

I used to live in Burlington, VT and go to Montreal a lot. lol.

Awesome.

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