When Anne Sullivan, the tutor of the deafblind Helen Keller, attempted to explain to her student who God was, Helen responded with a shocking "Oh, I know Him. I've known Him a long, long time."
2006-07-11 11:53:21 · 34 answers · asked by aggies_2011 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
can someone explain to me why this would have any bearing on the actual existence of a god? this is quite possibly the dumbest topic i have seen so far.
2006-07-11 12:07:09 · answer #1 · answered by Critical Mass 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Before answering, I would first examine the source of the quote. If it's Sullivan's own writings, then I would ask if there were other witnesses. If none, perhaps she concocted the anecdote to embellish a story or make a case for something she felt strongly about.
Perhaps there was a misunderstanding between the two in this langauge-limited context. The student most certainly didn't capitalize Him.
Perhaps Sullivan had told the student other stories or bits that conveyed and imparted Sullivan's beliefs about god. By the time the student was able to give such a detaiiled answer, she had certainly been taught a lot.
2006-07-11 12:05:41 · answer #2 · answered by tlctugger 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Why ask atheists to explain it...? you know they'll try to explain it away! Even if it happened to THEM, they'd try to explain it away! And if they did come to believe, their friends would never believe them, and try to explain it away!
I appreciate hearing this. It is something about Helen Keller that I never heard before.
I have often thought that we don't detect God with our physical senses, so how do we detect Him...? With our moral sense. And that is something that must begin with the fact that when someone hurts us, we say "That's not fair!" That is something that people agree upon, even if they are atheists. They believe that certain things are right and certain things are wrong. I am sure that Helen must have done more thinking about this than many atheists put together.
God is real and Jesus is LORD.
2006-07-11 12:27:18 · answer #3 · answered by cdf-rom 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
How would atheists explain what? A statement that a person made? Does her statement prove that God exists? Did Hellen Keller assume the position of The Grand Understander of God and His Ways? So i suppose everything that she said is the truth and always will be? A child might say, "There's a monster under my bed." Does that mean that there is a monster under the childs bed? You are really, really dull.
2006-07-11 12:00:02 · answer #4 · answered by eskimo 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There is a part of the brain responsible for the illusion of 'presence' - If you stimulate it artificially, the subject has a strong sense of an entity being present - they have a 'religious experience'. It's an illusion, but a common and powerful one, so it's entirely unsurprising that Helen Keller would experience it too, just as we all experience the same optical illusions. Nothing mystical there.
2006-07-11 11:58:54 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
That is as mythological a story as George Washington cutting down the cherry tree, Ben Franklin flying a kite with a key and Christ walking on water. Don't believe everything you read just because someone wrote it in a book...Ann Sulllivan or NED (non existent deity)
2006-07-11 11:58:50 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
This proves nothing, she might be impliying a number of things by that statement, a moral knowledge, a religious belief, up to a true religious experience which can be explained by science and has been studied under scientific means with both catholic nuns and buddhist monks, it is scientifically known that when you stimulate or stop stimulating a specifical part of the brain, a religious experience is felt where you see whatever god you belive on, ranging from the virgin mary, to jesus, to god, to vishnu, or whatever, its pure science, kid
2006-07-11 15:55:21 · answer #7 · answered by yupi666 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
what book did you read, i just got the E book of the miracle worker and did a quick search on any pretenses and the phrase God or oh i know him and there was no such thing, o lol "you must have read the revised christian version" LMAO, and being nice if you want to prove or persuade people that a god does exist dont do it threw a book, do it threw something that has factual evidence like the existence of the Romans or Greeks or Egyptians but lol just be smart about that and dont use a book
2006-07-11 12:13:11 · answer #8 · answered by ♥ Crystal C ♥ 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
No, Anne Sullivan was trying to explain Jesus, not God, and Helen Keller responded "Oh I know Him, I've knowm Him a long, long time. He does the yardwork around here"
HAHAHAHA
Okay no offense to my amigos.
2006-07-17 17:27:32 · answer #9 · answered by Nerdly Stud 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Provide resources for this baseless claim.
In any case, it means nothing. Helen probably had a thousand imaginary friends. Considering she had no connection with the outside world, her brain probably would have lapsed into schizophrenia to compensate for the lack of social relationships.
"God" could mean anything to her. And Anne's definition of god could have been whatever Helen would relate to, i.e. not what the average theist would hold as god.
2006-07-11 12:14:47 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋