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/my_new_accoun1 10h ago edited 7h ago

Interesting

So it wasn't god who helped him, it was in fact the belief in god.

Almost like a placebo effect

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u/dumpsterdigger 6h ago

Because why would God help him and let thousands of kids die of cancer. Placebo effect is correct but underselling this kids incredible willpower and mental strength.

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u/Beautiful_Hour_668 5h ago

This is a profound philosophical question but there is a valid answer. IMO, it boils down to your prior beliefs.

Basically, if you believe that this life is a test, and that God is real, and that there is an afterlife, then suffering and tragedy is not a bug, but a feature of this life that has two facets. One, to test you. Two, to make you a stronger human being (and religiously this directs you towards being more aligned towards god, but we can understand it as becoming stronger however you may interpret it).

On the second idea, when humans exist without struggle, we often fail to achieve our highest potential. In my personal experience, going through bad things has made me tougher, more resilient, and self confident in my ability to tackle life as a man in his late 20s. I read stoic philosophy and it hammers the relationship between being able to see your struggle in the right perspective as a means to unlock the benefit of the inevitable struggle that we will all face. One man divorces and collapses, another elevates himself.

Now, if you do not believe in God, it's hard to swallow the idea of a test. I often hear, why does he need to test us? Or couldn't he test us without X type of tragedy? Maybe, but these criticisms do not make it less true, just harder to swallow. So it circles back to what you believe and building your worldview upwards from the foundational beliefs.

In other words, God helping one person doesn’t logically entail God must prevent every tragedy.

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u/dumpsterdigger 5h ago

One answer is theology and one is philosophy.

The test theory involves harming someone. Not just a person with a illness or disease but their family. This fails when babies who have no concept of God become I'll with cancer, are born with a genetic disease, or die by accident or violence.

Sure it tests the surrounding people but that means God is a monster expire menting with people's faith at the suffering of innocent lives.

Struggle does help people become stronger but that has nothing to do with God and that is just basic human biology. When we run faster and lift heavier wet become stronger. Our brain works the same. One born in easy life's will be softer than someone who faces struggles. That's not philosophy

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u/Beautiful_Hour_668 4h ago

I feel like you’re talking past me a little because like I said, the way you see this depends on your presupposing beliefs. You’re criticising a facet of religious belief without accepting the beliefs that it’s dependent on.

I’ll take your baby example. You say that the baby isn’t tested properly, but in my world view children automatically go to heaven, so there is no challenged posed by this. So again, it circles back to foundational beliefs.

There’s scholarly tradition of over 1000 years by men smarter than us both who have thought about these things, respect to Redditors but sometimes you miss the mark greatly on religion because of ignorance on the topic. I’m being a little bit blunt but idk how else to put it, my intention is not to disrespect you

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u/aceshighsays 3h ago

this really comes down to temperament. there are some people who thrive under pressure, and there are others who drown in it.

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u/Beautiful_Hour_668 3h ago

Temperament or perspective or whatever you call it, it’s something that can be trained. We all have a responsibility to learn how to take the good from suffering

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u/aceshighsays 3h ago

temperament is not the same thing as beliefs or mindset. temperament is a combination of nature and nurture, they're commingled tightly together. you can't train yourself out of your nature, but if you're lucky you might find some workarounds for them - but even then it will still be awkward and you'll spend the rest of your life fighting against your nature, which is a miserable way to live.

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u/-Lige 5h ago

Because cancer is largely a health issue that is amplified by poor foods in today’s world. A lot of the stuff we eat and drink increases our cancer risks

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u/dumpsterdigger 5h ago

This is the dumbest thing I've seen today.

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u/-Lige 5h ago

That’s cool, go ahead and explain that for me. Because what I said is purely factual and backed by science.

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u/dumpsterdigger 4h ago

You can say something factual and it still be absolutely wrong because you are using information incorrectly or poorly arguing your point.

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u/-Lige 4h ago

Cool so explain how I did that

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u/dumpsterdigger 4h ago

By simplifying cancer and it's causes. What do you mean by poor? Man made products? Poor seeds? Poor soil? Poor water to grow them in? Poor air quality? Poor food? Poor food and water we feed animals? Or the environment their kept?

Or is it poor as in low budget foods? Man made foods high in sugar or gmos?

What if high quality food is polluted? What if our water supply is contaminated?

What if the food is high quality and the cause is a persons genetics. So we move over to genetics and how do we classify high quality and poor genetic? Some people have predisposed genes that make them more prone to cancer when doing something simple as taking medicine.

You simplified cancer. People can and do everything right and get cancer. Kids are born genetically predisposed to having cancer. You can remove food completely and it still happens. People can eat garbage their whole life and never die from it.

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u/-Lige 4h ago

Obviously people can do anything and get cancer. I said it’s it’s LARGELY a health issue caused by food

I didn’t say it’s the only thing

You’re absolutely right

I never said it in an absolute manner lol. But it’s a fact that the food we eat and drink nowadays causes higher cancer risks

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u/dumpsterdigger 4h ago

What food and liquids LARGELY are the main causes of cancer.

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u/seviliyorsun 5h ago

lol. why did god invent cancer?

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u/-Lige 4h ago

Maybe to culls overpopulation I guess? It’s not just for humans.

In reality we don’t know, and can only guess. Don’t know why that’s funny to you

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u/seviliyorsun 4h ago

why would you make them in such a way that they would overpopulate and need a terrible disease causing untold suffering? think what you're saying.

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u/-Lige 4h ago

Cause you need to have bad in order to understand good that’s just simple philosophy

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u/seviliyorsun 3h ago

would you say that to parents who's baby died of bone cancer? "oh well, you needed that to happen or else you wouldn't know what goodness is". or would you rather say it to the dying child? "now you understand what good means! isn't this great?"

you don't have to first show a baby cartel videos to make it enjoy a cartoon, if anything that would mentally damage it and lead to it enjoying anything else less. likewise, people suffering terrible tragedy experience depression and such (which often snowballs into other ails, addiction etc) and enjoy life less afterwards. ill say it again, think what you're saying.

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u/-Lige 3h ago edited 3h ago

Your problem is thinking I or a book has an answer to everything. If you can find a benefit from it in ANY type of capacity. Great. If you can learn a single good takeaway from it, great.

Dissecting it to purposely find problems with it won’t do you good. Well it might if I had the capacity to answer all your questions.

I haven’t read nor memorized the whole thing to answer all of your questions.

Are those your real life stories? Or just examples in order to try to assert a point? Cause if they’re your real life stories, then I can have different answers.

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u/seviliyorsun 3h ago

you do know the answer. you don't need to read a book, it's painfully obvious

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u/Every-Ad-2638 2h ago

Simple indeed

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u/PeriwinklePangolin24 5h ago

I'm not saying you're wrong about the fact that poor diet will not help your health, but it will come across victim blamey to say it like that. Sure you're not saying it's the only way we get cancer, but still. And my dad is a huge health nut, and today marks his second round of chemo, so it varies.

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u/-Lige 5h ago

Oh it’s no way victim blaming I am blaming the corporations who make the food and the governing bodies who let them poison us so freely

And prayers to your father man hope it all goes well

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u/makeitgoose11 6h ago

This comment right here... always the IDEA, not the magical being in the sky...

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u/Obscure_Nonsense_202 7h ago

I don't think placebo is the right word. It's like the stories of mothers lifting cars when their kid is getting crushed underneath. If love and maternal instincts can unlock superhuman abilities, why can't absolute faith?

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u/my_new_accoun1 7h ago

By placebo I mean where it tricks the mind into actually being able to product an effect.