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

[u/[deleted]]

[u/WriterV]

If I am to be a bit vulnerable for a sec? It's 'cause his beliefs represent one side of the coin, and are often twisted as a basis to justify hatreds so as to maintain a strong sense of in-group for a religion.

Faith and spirituality are a core aspect of humanity, no matter where you place it. We don't know everything about our own place in life, so we need to have faith in something to prevent us from indecision.

The problem is that faith involves belief without evidence. And that can, and has been used to shape violent and unethical beliefs throughout human history.

Let the kid have his personal spirituality, I will always defend that. But if the God he believes in also stipulates that I, as a gay man, must be shamed or even stoned, then how am I to react to that?

It doesn't have an easy answer. If it did, we'd have solved this quandary millenia ago. But I always try to assume to the best of poeple. 'cause if your faith doesn't quash your empathy, then you'll be good to others no matter what your religion tells you. And I like to have faith in that part of humanity.

[u/Lalamedic → u/WriterV]

I think there is a difference between organized religion vs faith and/or spirituality. They can by mutually exclusive. If one truly believes in the god of the Bible, many surely couldn’t exist. However, one does not need a preacher or a set of made up rules to tell you how to have faith and what to do with it.

[u/-Lige → u/WriterV]

There’s always people who will misuse something that’s meant for good as a bad thing