Why does God only give miracles for things like Cancer but not for Dementia or other incurable things?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Sereta
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
S

Sereta

Guest
I don’t wish to diminish the suffering of those with cancer,however it seems that the things that people claim God gave them a miracle for are always.things that can be cured by medications or go into regression.
You never hear (with evidence) about God providing a miracle for incurable things such as Dementia or some genetic behavioural disorder.
Also some people with Schizophrenia arnt helped by medicine and they live on the streets without any family or love and without any cognitive abilities left etc…
I find it heartbreaking,and even upsetting that people with cancer review miracles and that usually their minds are not affected,and people say how brave they are etc…but others lose all control over their mental and/or physical faculties and miracles never happen for these devastating circumstances.
Often,when people claim miracle happened,I can see a earthly explanation.
Eg:one ladies brain aneurism shrank after praying,and she said God healed her as it was no longer evident on an MRI scan,however this type of aneurism on some circumstances goes away on it’s own naturally.
It’s hard for me to know if miracles really do happen or if they are just natural circumstance s misperceived as miracle.
If they are real then why they don’t happen to the devastating cases ever that medical means can’t help?

Do I lack faith or an I just being rational and testing?
 
How do you know God doesn’t cure any of those afflictions that you mentioned? I think a lot goes on in this world we never hear about.

I don’t think its wrong to question these things though. I am skeptical about miracles and apparitions as well but it does not affect my belief in God. Those things are not the basis for my faith.

I don’t want to be too corny but what about all the little miracles that happen in our everyday lives? I think God has his hand in those and for me they are much easier to believe in than some of the big ones.
 
Thanks.But how does someone know that those little things really are from God and that it isn’t just their minds attributing it as being from God?
 
One of my classmates had a little brother who didn’t sit right before he was born and his leg was a shriveled. No chance, the doctors said, when he’s strong enough we may have to amputate. He touched a relic of Padre Pio and was cured immediately. Before their eyes. It was beautiful to hear about.

Maybe every time a brain aneurism goes away its a miracle. God made us and all of our bodily functions. : )
 
Your post caught my attention because my dear wife suffers from late stage Alzheimer’s dementia.

First of all - I do know that God has not cured dementia or other mental issues in people. he may well have - in fact I am sure that he has.
The problem with some of these things is that they are difficult to quantify and the Church, in her investigations, desires quantifiable data. In a sense she does the same thing you are doing - looking at other more “natural” possibilities before officially declaring something a miracle.

However - as “hamandcheese” says there are a lot of things that happen and we never hear about them.

In our own case…dealing with Alzheimer’s…I have indeed prayed for a miracle. I sometimes wonder if we have received it…but not in the fashion that I would have preferred.
By rights my wife should have been dead 2 years ago - yet she is still with us. Not only that but she shows signs of improvement from time to time. Has God cured the Alzheimer’s but left the effects? In other words do we have the miracle of a “cure” without the miracle of a “restoration”? Alzheimer’s in the brain cannot be seen while the patient lives. It is only seen by a postmortem examination of the brain.

Another aspect of this is the amount of “healing” that has occurred that is not associated with the disease itself. Through this journey, we have been able to return to the Church, we have learned many lessons about love, and patience and forbearance. We have had the opportunity to serve as an example to others through our love for each other…
And I wonder if this isn’t the greater miracle than any physical healing.

A physical healing is a wonderful thing…and I still hope in God’s mercy that he might restore my Dear wife to me if it be His Holy Will.
However - a physical healing is, in any event, a temporary thing. If the same disease does not return, another one will end our corporeal life. Christ himself raised Lazarus from the dead…but where is Lazarus now?

There are no easy answers to your questions. You ask above…
It’s hard for me to know if miracles really do happen or if they are just natural circumstance s misperceived as miracle.
Or perhaps the opposite is true…perhaps there are miracles mis-perceived as natural circumstances.
If they are real then why they don’t happen to the devastating cases ever that medical means can’t help?
As already mentioned - perhaps they do. In the case you mention of Schizophrenia - or other mental disorders there is often no “medical” (chemical?) way to say this person has it and that person doesn’t. So it’s difficult to say whether a person has been “cured” let alone miraculously cured.
Do I lack faith or an I just being rational and testing?
We all lack faith to some extent. Questioning (testing) is not a bad thing.
My view is that it is fine to question - just don’t feel like you have to have the answer. Believe in and trust God and all will be made clear eventually.

Peace
James
 
I had some minor problem with my prostate gland and stupid as I am I thought, after reading a few [stupid] articles that masturbation would be a good cure, I am divorced so no sex life. Well, I felt bad right after the “act” and I really did not knew what to do so I did what I do when life get’s though, I did pray. I did pray that God would heal my problem and let me find a coin if I can stop masturbating and know my problem is gone. OK, then out with my dog, and I was not really thinking about the whole thing, and then I did look down for a reason I still not understand, and there, right in front of my left shoe, was a coin. And when I came home, still shaken and very confused I sat down on my sofa, and when I could think straight again I did realize one thing, I did not need to use the loo twice every hour nor did I feel that there was some urine left. And today, three days since all this did happen, I am good, no problem. And this coin “thing” is something that have occure many times theese last years as a Catholic. (I do not mean that God help only Catholic’s) I pray and wait, and sometimes right after my prayer, sometimes a day or two later, I find a coin, and not so long ago I did ask two things, and the same day later on I did find two coins.

I may sound crazy, or you may think I make up this story just to have something to do but no. It is true all the way. And yes, I have been thinking what the possibility to find coins against how often I do find them and the truth is that ten years ago I don’t think I ever found any money. So, you either believe me or not, but God know my story is true. And how do I think this is related to other miracles? Miracles happen every day and we don’t know how many get sick and God heal them before the person really know he/she is sick, so yes, I belive God can cure all illness in the world. What I don’t know is why God don’t cure all, but one day we all have all the answers we need. God bless you all.
 
Miracles. It depends upon how you look at it. At them. At us.

The usual definition of a miracle is “an unusual event that goes against the commonly observed laws of nature.”

I choose in my faith to believe that (one type of miracle) is bestowed upon the human race via the educated minds and skilled hands of people who are inspired by their Creator to study fields such as science and medicine and the practice of surgery. Imagine being the first person ever in history to even consider cutting into a human body! :eek: Such an idea was blasphemous at the time. And was there ever a primitive person who thought that the motion of all things living was based upon invisible electromagnetic impulses… like lightning in the sky… :confused: before the discovery and harnessing of electricity… AC/DC currents… the development of neurology… brain surgery… spinal connections… regeneration of damaged nerve fibers… regaining feeling and the ability to walk or see or hear? I don’t know the answer to that, but I rejoice that society today has produced advances that destroy diseases and save lives. 👍 What may happen tomorrow? I don’t know, and cannot predict it. Such learning and the products of such learning is (a) miracle(s)… and I do pray daily that we be gifted with such miracles more often, so those of us living on “Mother” Earth today can have at least some of their problems solved by them.

There are those who choose to have faith in a spiritual life and/or religion and/or God/dess, and there are those of us who choose to have faith in nothing but themselves, i.e., humanists, atheists, etc. For folks as they, there is no such thing as a miracle - ever. (See article linked below - warning note, it is rather harsh, and in-your-face but not foul-mouthed, just critically sad and far too bleak for me.)

americanhumanist.org/HNN/details/2011-06-the-fallacy-of-miracles

Anyway… what the author expresses is not what I believe. It may sound “logical” in its interpretation to those who believe that way, but it is too pessimistic for me, and in my faith, pessimism has no place whatsoever… and in the long run, I suppose it’s all about faith… which I do choose to have.

Blessings.
 
A friend and I were discussing how a couple, who could not conceive a child after many years, prayed and asked for a child, and they had one. The doctors had told them that they never would have a baby. The reaction of my friend was, “I guess the doctors were wrong”.

Don’t be like that. 😉

I know God can do anything, there is nothing too difficult for Him. You don’t ‘lose’ anything by giving God the credit when something ‘unlikely’ happens. Try to be more generous with God because doubting injures your faith. If I get a parking stall I like at the grocery store, I say Thank You God! and smile at him, because I love to involve him in my life and life is better with him in it. When we say Why, How come, Is it really God doing that, how do we know? you are missing the opportunity to come closer. You are practicing pushing him away. You lose something. It is a better practice to exercise gratitude and thanks and it will change this attitude which really doesn’t help you at all.
 
see faithandfamily.org.uk/publications/jack_traynor.htmee .
It is rational to question, but don’t put your God to the test. Why this disease and not alzheimer’s etc. Here was a miracle in our times. I love the fact he still got a complete disability pension for the twenty years after his cure.
I am also impressed by Our Lady’s identification of herself as the Immaculate Conception fours years after the proclamation of the dogma, to an illiterate peasant girl who did not recognise Her title. I am also impressed when as at Fatima Our Lady promised a future miracle and tens of thousands of people saw it on the very day promised. Some things even a doubting thomas as myself find it difficult to get over. But don’ base your faith on miracles. Blessed are those that do not see yet believe.
 
It is not for me to judge but it does seem like some people don’t deserve a miracle. I’m thinking of when the disease is caused by lifelong sinful behavior like cigarette smoking. I knew someone who got lung cancer from smoking, and the cancer went into remission after a round of chemo and radiation. When she recovered from the treatments, she felt good enough to…you guessed it…start smoking again. The cancer came back with a vengeance.
 
I do agree/believe that God has given children to those who were told they can’t conceive,but again,this has also been achieved through natural means-eg herbal medicine for infertility.
The impossible stuff just doesn’t seems to happen though and while some do receive the miracles of becoming closer to God,others just end up with very tragic results like ending in suicides or such severe cognitive loss where the persons can’t even understand /express love or be aware anymore and they are just a shell with no function or joy in lufe.
It seems that on earth doctors etc are often so selfish and selfserving that they care more about prestige and holidays and no one does enough quickly enough to discover cures for things like Dementia etc.
The governments,do not care or give enough money for research too etc…
God doesn’t seem to provide healing for these tragedies but often when people recover from cancer they thank God for a miracle and peoples prayers etc and I can’t help thinking if there is cognitive bias going on,or if God really did help then id be lying if I said I wasn’t a bit mad or despairing or something that He doesn’t help those whose situations are unbearable.

In addition,how do you even know if you have faith or not?
 
Deus_tecum said:
It is not for me to judge but it does seem like some people don’t deserve a miracle. I’m thinking of when the disease is caused by lifelong sinful behavior like cigarette smoking. I knew someone who got lung cancer from smoking, and the cancer went into remission after a round of chemo and radiation. When she recovered from the treatments, she felt good enough to…you guessed it…start smoking again. The cancer came back with a vengeance.
Click to expand...
With this,if most of us are compassionate enough to keep giving someone medicine even though they cause their own cancer,I don’t understand why God isn’t compassionate or able or willing enough to help the cases with no hope.?
 
Sereta,

These are difficult things to come to understand. I don’t think that any of us ever really do fully understand them - at least not in this life.

As I see it, part of the problem stems from our very natural viewpoint of “this life only”. In other words a very corporeal world view that sees suffering and death as a negative thing - as a very real and fearful ending.
For a Christian, this is not the worldview that we should have. When our minds are properly focused on heaven - on eternity - with our Lord, then our view and our understanding of things corporeal shifts. We come to understand suffering and death in different terms and they are not so disturbing to us.

This realization should not mean that we cease to pray for others or for ourselves, but it can and does help us to recognize that the most important thing in our lives is not whether we live or die but that God’s will be done to, with and through us.

Just some thoughts.

Peace
James
 
Sereta said:
With this,if most of us are compassionate enough to keep giving someone medicine even though they cause their own cancer,I don’t understand why God isn’t compassionate or able or willing enough to help the cases with no hope.?
Click to expand...
Cancer meds weren’t developed out of compassion. They were developed out of a desire to make money. Look at the cost of them. I do not see a great deal of compassion by sickening people with meds that cause such nausea and weakness that the patients are bedridden and miserable.

Where is their faith when people begin to think they are more compassionate than God? Where is their faith when people cling to this world at all cost even when on the brink of Paradise?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top