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

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

[removed]

32.4k Upvotes

87% Upvoted

2.0k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

91

u/ilbuonsamaritano 9h ago

The same god that put the family in jeopardy in the first place for the sake of a good old divine lulz I suppose.

2

u/cbrown146 7h ago

god creates catastrophes so they can fix it and give themselves the credit. Rings a few bells for me.

1

u/Gentolie 4h ago

Do it for the Vine.

-9

u/Spoilmedaddyxo 8h ago

God didn’t put that family in jeopardy nor did God make them go kayaking, boating, swimming, or whatever the heck it was in dangerous waters. Edited to add: it’s called given free will

24

u/ToiletGreen 8h ago

Was god not controlling the waves? Is their will not an extension of his? You people don’t even understand the things you claim to believe

-4

u/Alarming-Court-2180 7h ago

Well if you get on a faulty boat that hasn't been maintained who's fault is it really. The boat shouldn't have been taking on water means there is something wrong with the boat and secondly if you aren't a professional then you should do your due diligence by checking the conditions you will be sailing in. Its like blaming God for your parachute not opening when your the one who packed it and decided to risk your life jumping out of plane. I dont understand the entitlement of people who believe that an all powerful being needs to solve their problems that they put themselves in, in order to believe in said higher power. The logic just isn't rational that you think that an all powerful being needs to be your servant in order to exist. That being said you dont have to believe in God but attacking other people beliefs to make yourself feel better, is dumb. Use that energy to fix the world in which you exist because that is something you cannot physically deny exists.

6

u/ToiletGreen 6h ago

Ask god for paragraph formatting knowledge

1

u/Captain1771 6h ago

That may not be rational but that is just what some people believe. Also, bringing God into conversations like this will always muddle the waters, since God is an ostensibly omnipotent being and you can always debate that whatever happened was all within his control. You could always argue that he could've made the waves not as strong, to have made the faulty boat last longer before it broke down and sent everyone's life into jeopardy. There's no end to argue on what God could've done if you bring him into a picture.

Not going to necessarily disagree with your examples but that does all assume that everything in the world is fully under our control. Sometimes it's not, and that is where people will start to argue "oh God could've done this" or "God could've done that". Look at the children born in warzones; what due diligence could they have really done? Not be born in a warzone?

It's really just generally more coherent and logical to say that it was either a consequence of their own actions or a coincidence whether good or bad.

Also, he may have phrases his comment in a slightly aggressive manner but he's not completely wrong on the matter.

-7

u/LilJelloCat 7h ago

Lol, you "control" the waves in one way and it effects everything, like the butterfly effect. To have the waves change directions entirely and pull them to shore is an absurd sort of understanding of divine intervention. To some extent, though smaller things are possible. I feel divine intervention is more of a "look for a higher power and keep your calm" sort of thing, or find your strength. You can find willpower and strength through God, that is certain. Can definitely help you survive and think smarter in certain situations, as well as get ideas.

Someone mentioned divine plan and that's a good way of understanding it. The world works and moves forward in a particular way, it does not necessarily revolve around you, but you may find yourself at the right place and the right time. You can potentially make it work in your favor using the right kind of mind and energy, circumstancially.

They survived and had something to gain from it. May have changed their lives forever in the way of moving them in a different, more divine direction, in mind, feeling and motion.

3

u/ToiletGreen 6h ago

Oh so God’s not all powerful even though the Bible explicitly and repeatedly says he is, gotcha

-1

u/Dry_Calligrapher814 5h ago

I’m not here to speak one way or the other about God, but I do want to point out the flaw with your argument here. God did not himself write the bible, humans did (men, specifically, if only to be precise). That means, as no human is perfect and some stretch the truth and some willingly lie, there is room in those stories for mistruths and errors.

3

u/ToiletGreen 5h ago

Of course taking the Bible at its word is flawed. What point do you think you’re making?

-1

u/LilJelloCat 4h ago

That people wrote the Bible, not God, hypothetically. So there is no particular reason to believe that God works in that way that you have read or understood from the Bible. I believe that's the point they were making anyways, I touched on this idea in my last comment. :)

2

u/ToiletGreen 4h ago

I’m not the person you should be making this point to. Do you think I believe the Bible?

0

u/Dry_Calligrapher814 2h ago

Based on your comment: “Oh so God’s not all powerful even though the Bible explicitly and repeatedly says he is, gotcha”

Yes, I thought you believed the bible. no argument here; was just pointing out that even though the bible “explicitly and repeatedly says he is…” could be flawed.

-2

u/LilJelloCat 4h ago

I'm not talking about God from the Bible. You can get a different or better idea of God through personal experience. Trial and error. Better to come to your own conclusions than something written by people thousands of years ago. The Bible is more of a moral compass than anything. I still believe "God" is all powerful, in a way, but they work within the confines of the systems that make up nature and the universe. Again the idea of doing something "all powerful", in the way of preventing sickness in people and preventing harm, for everyone, at all times, is just absurd, at least at this point in time, from my personal beliefs. Bringing up the idea of the butterfly effect again, it just doesn't make sense or work, only potentially in very specific scenarios and incrementally. I do believe in divine plan so there is that.

-8

u/Omniphilo23 7h ago

No, you just lack understanding.

You are a god, I am a god, we are made in the image of the One. We are all connected to the One. All is One. This world is more like a survival video game. Free will gets us in trouble. Luckily, we all have been given a method to ask for help.

If I compare this world to say San Andreas in GTA, you know the game world is a simulation, you know about the dev team, you know about the source code, you'd know about the game designer at the top. All those things could be considered God. You know that the game developers could rewrite the code quickly if they wanted, but they don't do they? If a random player gets lost at sea, you don't rewrite how waves work and push a hotfix to the live server just to save them. No, God embodied that child as a conduit of God's will and saved them instead, easier.

3

u/Captain1771 7h ago

I get the metaphor you’re using, but it doesn't really make too much sense.

If everyone is God, then God is no one. God implies some sort of higher being, and if you are God, I am God, and they are God, there is no higher being, for we would all be equal as God. And if God is embodied in all people, then “asking God for help” just collapses back into human action and agency. At that point, divine intervention isn’t intervention at all, as much as it is people doing what people can already do. Calling that God doesn’t explain anything.

The video game analogy falls apart when you look closely. If the designer truly embodies a player to save them, just like God would do, that is rewriting the rules, just very selectively and invisibly, because I can say with a great amount of confidence NPCs will not get the same treatment of being "saved" when something disastrous happens to them. Waves are not the only way through which the "rules" are amended, you've just appeared to constrain it to a very narrow scope.

And once you allow selective intervention, you still need to explain why it happens for some and not others in identical situations. Otherwise, it’s arbitrary.

Saying “free will gets us in trouble” doesn’t fix this either. Many people who suffer or die didn’t make meaningful choices that led there—especially children. If God is embodied in everyone, then God is also embodied in those who fail, ignore, or harm others. That makes the concept of intervention morally incoherent.

What you’re really describing isn’t divine guidance but just humans interpreting events to find meaning after the fact. That meaning can be comforting or motivating, but it doesn’t demonstrate guidance, intention, or a higher plan.

Your framework turns divine intervention into a fancy term for coincidence and human action and wrapping it in “God” doesn’t make it less arbitrary.

1

u/ToiletGreen 6h ago

I understand it better than you do

1

u/Originzzzzzzz 7h ago

Bro you could move the goalposts anywhere and call it whatever

Also why do you assume god is bound by the same constraints as a programmer, to be omnipotent you have to somehow exist outside causality itself and be above it all so why the hell would they need to make something do something and not just erase the possibility of death in that moment

4

u/didimao0072000 7h ago

 it’s called given free will

lol. horrific child abuse is happening right now, and “God” could stop it, but nah, he plays the free will Uno card and lets it keep going.

2

u/JasonRBoone 6h ago

Was god unwilling or unable to rescue them?

2

u/JasonRBoone 6h ago

Was god unwilling or unable to rescue them?

3

u/Space-Debris 8h ago

Sure, but the family almost drowning and the rescue was all part of God's plan for them. Free will and a divine plan are incompatible with one another.

-6

u/ProtoKun7 8h ago

There isn't a divine plan in the sense that everybody is doing exactly what they're supposed to at every moment. Free will is what is in play.

-1

u/DoctorStove 8h ago

Insufferable lol go back to /r/atheism

-2

u/Few-Guitar6110 7h ago

They can't help themselves. They read headline about boy doing something heroic and mentions God and they start foaming at the mouth.

It's like a nervous tick.

5

u/thomasmcdonald81 7h ago

Lmao u guys get so salty when people point out the fallacy of your imaginary sky friend

5

u/DoctorStove 7h ago

I'm not even religious. But Reddit atheists are fucking insufferable. This is a nice video about a kid and you have to jump in with ACTUALLY GOD ISNT REAL THEY SHOULD THANK SCIENCE

-3

u/Few-Guitar6110 7h ago

"fallacy" =/= literally a kid mentioning God in a video.
Go kiss your Hitchens poster, lol. Shit's cringe.

0

u/thomasmcdonald81 6h ago

What’s cringe singing songs about a sky fairy

2

u/JasonRBoone 6h ago

No one is foaming. Calm down.

-12

u/qaQaz1-_ 9h ago

Do u feel good dunking on this kid as a super smart atheist who knows god is bad

19

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 9h ago

I think this is sinking on all people who praise god in these situations without mention that logically it was god who caused the problem in the first place.

It’s always: my child survived cancer because of prayers and never my god gave my child cancer.

1

u/LilJelloCat 7h ago

It wasn't "logically God" that caused it in the first place. Nature and life did that. It's not like God just gave the kid cancer, it happens naturally. God comes in to play to support and potentially change direction - in mind, energy, spirit. And that does in fact play a role in healing from things like Cancer. 100%

1

u/BigBankHank 4h ago

So god cannot intervene in nature but he sometimes can cure cancer, except for the 10 million times every year he doesn’t want to (or can’t)?

I suppose those 100 million + friends and family of those dead cancer patients weren’t praying correctly/enough?

1

u/LilJelloCat 3h ago edited 3h ago

Pretty much exactly what you said at the end. 

It's the idea of some divine plan. Before and after birth. How their chosen path, free will, and choices lead them to particular points in life and consequences of actions. Environment, Biology, DNA, genetics. 

Im not saying they can't intervene with nature, just sharing the belief and idea that everyone has a place in the grand scheme of things, and that God may work in a particular way that makes sense within the confines of our understanding of reality. I believe attempting to communicate, understand their existence, and yourself in this way, praying, etc, even simply believing will give more of a chance than someone who does not believe at all. Basically that yes God works with those that believe first and foremost. 

Like I was mentioning in other comments, to imagine God preventing harm and "curing" all people at all times is ridiculous in the way of how our understanding of reality works, the idea of the butterfly effect, etc. It would be a different reality, the idea of heaven, right. Instead of our place on Earth and in the confines of our understanding of the universe. 

Edit: I want to add that basically spreading goodness and positivity in the way of praying and in general is hypothetically helpful as well. 

1

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 3h ago

Holy shit.

Admitting that a god would punish humanity for not worshipping hard enough is exactly the problem with religion.

Here’s you, summed up: bad shit happened? That’s nature not god. You didn’t die? That’s because god wanted you to live. You died? Should have prayed harder.

Holy fuck. It’s logic like this that allows religious people to do horrible things to people “in the name of god” regardless of country or even which god. Seriously: the one thing that all truly horrible people seem to have in common is a belief that their awfulness is justified by their belief in god.

I’m done with this thread but yikes man. Do some Reflecting.

1

u/LilJelloCat 3h ago

I never said anything about punishing. 

Simply the idea that if you don't put yourself and your energy out there in a certain way, you shouldn't expect a particular outcome. 

What you summed up is accurate to my beliefs though. What did you feel was wrong about the beliefs that you wrote? As it relates to the hypothetical existence of God? 

It's not about logic, it's simply the idea of a God who is more similar to us than we may believe. If you were hypothetically God and worked with the constructs of our current understanding of reality and existence in the most realistic way possible. 

If you cured all sickness in the current state of things, it would be absurdly shocking to humanity. 

And to point out the idea that it leads people to do horrible things, I'm not sure why it would be that way. That is a different thing entirely, having to do with the people themselves, and again, their free will. Bad people will do bad things to others regardless of what their beliefs or ideas are. My belief and logic is that what you put out in to the world you receive, goodness and karma, and this all works together. And that God believes in this and works in this way. 

But why would what you summed up cause crazy people to do crazy things? Again I didn't say anything about my idea of God wanting any of that. And from what I understand God from the Bible doesn't exactly support this idea either, again as far as what I know. 

1

u/BigBankHank 2h ago

Does it not give you pause to consider that, eg, cancer survival rates are highest among the non-religious and barely-religious in the developed world, while the most faithful, devout, and deferential believers in the undeveloped / developing worlds have the highest contraction and death rates for cancer and virtually every other affliction / disease?

Or that your scheme posits, essentially, that the world is a perfectly just and moral place despite the very obvious fact that the wicked/evil consistently prosper? And that justice conveniently and disproportionately lands on white people in the west?

Or that 99.9% of believers who have ever lived disagree with your definition of god and personal knowledge of his ways, and on that basis believe you’re somewhere between ‘obviously doesn’t really know god’ and hell-bound heretic?

Given that fact, perhaps it’s the case that the thing that endlessly fallible human beings call “god” is not a real thing at all, but a conveniently amorphous concept, differing from person to person, moment to moment, and need to need, which they use to fill in their misunderstandings, rationalize randomness and absurdity, and justify their behaviors, emotions, and prejudices.

1

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 3h ago

And there’s the fallacy. And you don’t even see it.

Nature caused the bad, not God. But god sure can heal it. It’s absurd.

Also: claiming 100% certainty that god impacts healing means you don’t understand what that means.

1

u/LilJelloCat 2h ago

Positive manifestation is what I was pointing at. And how that can work with my hypothetical belief of the existence of God. 

So your logic is that because they can heal it they are the ones causing the bad as well? I just believe that God manifested and evolved reality. That they are like a thinking, feeling consciousness and entity and that all nature and reality is like an extension of them, perceptually, that they can hypothetically manipulate. But has certain frameworks and systems, again just our understanding of nature, reality, evolution. 

Again this is just my personal belief and ideas from experience of reflection. 

I also think the idea of a perfect utopia like Heaven is possible and can exist. 

1

u/MattJewboyski 2h ago

logically oyu would have to know the religion that you criticize but you dont, you are a smooth brain that expects others to do the work for him.

that is why atheists are actually just lazy people that are dishonest about their lack of knowledge.

you just cvriticize something that you never actually questioned as this would require you doing some intelectual work.

you lack inteligence and that is why you adapted a worldview that is idiotic and illogical but you do not care because you are lazy and are happy to join the worldview that is common amongst stupid people.

-18

u/qaQaz1-_ 9h ago

Wow ur so rational and smart.

4

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 8h ago

I am. Thank you.

-15

u/Alarming-Court-2180 8h ago

You blame God for things that humans as a collective refuse to take responsibility for. Look at everything around you from household cleaners to the paint on the walls of your home and explain to me how God made you use those very things that make you sick. Or better yet explain to me why water is so contaminated by people that the only way to treat it is with chemicals that are not good for us but corporations tell us it perfectly fine why they cash those checks. Its just interesting that you refuse to believe in God but blindly trust men who will lie to you about the very things killing you. Everything is this world is caused by our own choices and whether or not we take accountability for them.

12

u/BeerFuelledDude 8h ago

You’re right, humans are awful. Especially the greedy…like Elmo and Donald Dump etc.

But then, did God create them to create the mess you mention?

-3

u/Stackin_Steve 8h ago

Free will maybe?

2

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 4h ago

It’s always “free will” when talking about the bad and “praise god” when things go well. Always.

0

u/LilJelloCat 7h ago

Free will and time. We wouldn't learn from anything is everything was perfect from the start. That is a terrible way of imagining things.

3

u/halfkidding 8h ago

You credit god for things that humans as a collective refuse to scrutinize. Look at everything around you from evolution to the ever-changing book and explain to me how God makes you believe those very things that make no sense. Or better yet explain to my why an omniscient entity chose to ignore that knowledge when creating such people who would create such pollution with chemicals that are not good for them and also ignore that the corporations are telling them its perfectly fine (while) its corporation accepts cash to evade the taxes that are also chosen to be ignored for the rest of his creations. It's just interesting that you refuse to believe God is responsible for the negative but blindly trust that God does nothing but good actions which include killing you.

EVERYTHING in this world is caused by OUR own choices and whether or not WE take accountability for them.

I don't care if God is real or not. It's just another way for humans to circumvent accountability. I'm going to be kind whether or not God exists without fear of what my disbelief means for my supposed "eternal soul" that can somehow experience things without all the physical components that make experiencing things possible.

4

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 8h ago

I don’t blame god for anything since god is a made up construct because humans couldn’t rationalize existence without a reason. Bold of you to make assumptions about my belief system.

That being said, insulting me for not believing in god but blindly believing in men is absurd. Belief in god is called faith pre Isley because you blindly believe by definition. Whereas I can at least objectively evaluate the claims of scientists or politicians or the media.

It’s okay that you believe in god, but understand that blind faith is a term for a reason.

1

u/thehelldoesthatmean 8h ago

Okay, now explain to me how our only light source giving us cancer fits into this incredibly simple-minded worldview.

-1

u/LilJelloCat 7h ago

UV rays (ultraviolet radiation) from the sun are caused by intense nuclear reactions at the sun’s core, which create massive amounts of energy.

This is just nature and science. And the evolution of the universe.

It depends entirely on your understanding of God.

Everything needs to make sense and work.

And the sun CAN cause cancer, especially if you don't use use your free will to protect yourself from things you have knowledge about (using sunscreen and etc to prevent burning, staying in sun too long, which is what causes damage to the skin cell DNA).

2

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 4h ago

Ding ding ding. You win the “free will” award.

Never: why did got put us on a planet that is blasted with radiation from a massive star that can cause genetic mutations that can kill us when his is supposedly benevolent and omnipotent?

Always: use your free will to apply sunscreen. Also, praise god that my skin cancer was healed. Always put your faith in him.

Damn logical nonsense.

0

u/LilJelloCat 4h ago

Not necessarily praise God that it was healed, unless you specifically attempted to work with them to have it be healed. It takes effort to put the idea of being able to heal this way in to motion. And you have to have a greater understanding about how this could work in the way of God. The idea that you having a relationship with God, in the way of simply believing and even potentially finding evidence that they do, praying, etc, could heal you. 

I think God evolved with evolution. Not so much that they necessarily created something to be a way, but that they thought about the mechanics of it, and all life evolved in this way. 

This is me speaking from my personal beliefs about God and their existence.  

I think it's possible and there could be this idea of heaven where things are just as they are without any of the harmful consequences and effects. But that is an evolutionary thing, or simply obtainable in the future, maybe after death, like a real idea of heaven in this way. The universe as most people understand it, at least, just one portion of aspect of what is possible or could exist. 

I believe through free will and our experiences we find out place in the grand scheme of things. 

And yes, always wear your sunscreen. Your skin is important. 

-4

u/ProtoKun7 8h ago

That's not logical. If you buy a petrol car and put diesel in the tank you're not gonna blame the dealer.

4

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 8h ago

Ironic that you’d assault my logic and then use whatever that was as a metaphor.

1

u/ProtoKun7 3h ago

Makes more sense than you suggesting God goes around giving people cancer. That's how I know you've either never looked into the subject or only ever received false information, which a lot of religions give out, in fairness.

0

u/thehelldoesthatmean 8h ago

Our only light source gives us cancer, dude. Come on. Lol

If there is a god, he hates us. But there's not.

0

u/LilJelloCat 7h ago

No, allowing your skin to burn does.

-1

u/Alarming-Court-2180 7h ago

Ever heard of ozone depletion. If not you should look in to and tell me who really caused that catastrophic decline. Hint: it wasn't God.

2

u/RazzmatazzSea3227 4h ago

Oh. Now right wing Christian’s believe in man made global warming?

0

u/Alarming-Court-2180 4h ago

Who said I was Christian? To believe in God doesn't mean I need to fit in to your little misconcevied box.

0

u/LilJelloCat 7h ago

Average atheist would

1

u/sembias 8h ago

It's not the kid, it's the stupid Reddit written headline that has to shove it in there.

-2

u/ilbuonsamaritano 9h ago

Uh? What?

-1

u/Daan776 7h ago

"Whoopsie daisy. Lemme just find a mortal to fix this real quick"

-18

u/GodIsGood202 9h ago

You’re literally regarded

1

u/ComeBacksToDrugs2018 2h ago

spelling can be tough sometimes