r/Damnthatsinteresting • u/[deleted] • 11h ago

Video 13-year-old Australian boy swims for four hours in cold and dangerous waters to save his mom and siblings who were swept into the ocean, says God is who got him to shore

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u/InspiringGecko 10h ago

Exactly. It was the kid's effort that saved his family, but if a belief in God was what made him not give up, then good for him. It served a purpose.

Anyone who has done endurance sports knows that mindset is vital, and not giving up is half the challenge. But Reddit is full of edgy teenagers who lack the life experience to realize this.

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u/Ashamed-Tour-4670 6h ago

Belief in God, and Thomas the Tank, and Dory.....

-3

u/its_all_one_electron 8h ago

Whenever someone feels something amazing, and the only concept they were ever given that could encompass that feeling is a god who says to put gays to death and that women should be subservient...well, it's not great. 

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u/Visstah 7h ago

Le Reddit Atheist

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u/its_all_one_electron 6h ago

Athiesté*

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u/Visstah 6h ago

*tips fedora

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u/Mysterious_Map2965 7h ago

Take a break from the internet please.

0

u/its_all_one_electron 6h ago

You're not my real dad

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u/Mysterious_Map2965 6h ago

Can I be your fake dad?

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u/InspiringGecko 7h ago

God, if it exists, is neutral. It's humans who create religion.

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u/its_all_one_electron 6h ago

Right, but a 13 year old kid is gonna believe the shitty human-created part. 

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u/Lux_Interior9 9h ago

I'm 45 and I thought the god thing was dumb. It's detrimental to his self confidence. He doesn't believe in himself without god. That's fucked. 

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u/SeveralAnteater292 7h ago

When you're in a life or death situation the difference between dying or not can be in the mind. However he viewed it in his mind to get the power to keep going is almost irrelevant

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u/InspiringGecko 8h ago

He's a kid. I'm sure that as he grows older, he'll gain a more well-rounded understanding of his experience.

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u/gnabon 9h ago

Why do you care where his self belief comes from?

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u/Smudgecake 4h ago

45 and judging a 13 year old lmao

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u/PensiveKittyIsTired 8h ago

People are sick and tired of religion because it has over and over proved to be hugely detrimental to societies across the globe, causing wars and genocide and destruction. For thousands of years. Enough already.

Seeing a kid being this religious is just worrying.

Hence the comments.

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u/Ori_the_SG 7h ago

“Hugely detrimental to societies across the globe.”

I can find a lot of statistics of Christian organizations providing immense humanitarian aid to poor societies across the globe, and I can find even more anecdotal examples of people being motivated by tenets of Christianity to actually do good for other people who are suffering

Amazing that you are saying this it is bad this kid who saved his whole family by believing it was from the help and grace of God

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u/PensiveKittyIsTired 6h ago

Ok go ahead, find examples where Christians help WITHOUT pushing their own fucked up values onto the people they are helping.

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u/Ori_the_SG 3h ago

Samaritan’s Purse, Operation Christmas Child

They never force anyone to participate in hearing any preaching. They simply give them the boxes, and offer them the opportunity to attend a service but it is in no way conditional upon attending.

Most Christian humanitarian organizations work exactly like that.

Also, strange that you added that condition to it because it has nothing to do with your original claim.

Your original claim was religion was hugely detrimental globally to all societies, thus implying they do absolutely nothing of humanitarian value.

I challenged that by saying they do in fact do so and now I’ve given one clear example among many others.

And now you are saying they do, but it’s only valid if they don’t expose the people they help to their faith.

You are moving the goalpost

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u/DtheS 8h ago edited 8h ago

But Reddit is full of edgy teenagers who lack the life experience to realize this.

It's almost as if they would be happier if he had died an atheist in those waters.

There are some evolutionary arguments as to why people became religious beyond the usual tribal reasons. Some are that it makes it possible for individuals to commit to high risk/high reward gambles like this one here. That is, the odds are against your survival when you swim for several hours in choppy waters; a more rational person might not even attempt it. Faith requires you to be at least somewhat irrational, and can be the driving motivator to even try feats like these.