Answer if you can. Test of faith revised...?

Question

You go on a trip to Australia. Your mother is with you, and she got bit by a snake, and will die in a few seconds. You have the anti venom. You can give it to her or pray. What comes first? Do you value praying over medicine? The catch is, your mouth is dry from the hot air, soo bad that you can't talk. You can get a water bottle, and wet your moth so you can pray, but if it does not work, she is dead. Get the water, and pray, or anti-venom? What do you do? What do you value more?

IF YOU TRY BOTH, YOUR MOTHER WILL NOT MAKE IT.

sajid_icfai
You don't get best answer, but I like the answer.

Answer 1

anti-venom, about 50 years ago this question may raise some controversial answers. but in this day and age, realigion has been proven to do nothing towards the sick and helpless

Answer 2

That is kind of a far-fetched scenario. I mean, first off, you can't just sit there and not do something when you can and then pray to have it fixed anyway. It doesn't work like that. I mean, it's like saying, "I'm just going to sit here and do nothing and get you to do all the work." That doesn't seem fair, now does it? Would you respond to something like that? Second, you don't have to physically speak in order to pray either. You can pray in your mind, and God will still hear you. Third, your additional information sites that you can't try both, or your mother won't make it. I disagree...it just depends on what you do. My answer? Time is everything, so I wouldn't waste it by getting the water bottle. I'll just deal with a dry mouth. I would use the anti-venom and then pray that it works and that she recovers. Medicine doesn't always work, but God is always there for you...as long as you don't abuse His grace and mercy and love. He'll help us, but only if we do what we can to help ourselves also. If you use the venom first and then mentally pray, then your mother will still survive. It's only if you're dumb and try to get your water bottle and soothe your mouth before taking any action that doing both would cause your mother to die. If you are thinking about yourself before helping someone, then you're not likely to be much help to them at all.

Answer 3

Actually, I think I would really give her the anti-venom instead. I know I should pray to God but I guess I don't have a lot of faith in Him which really makes me scared. (But then does that mean I'm a Christian or not?) I would really do both, but then my mom would be dead, so no. Anyway if she dies, I'd be an orphan...
I might pray, but I'm not really sure.

Answer 4

First of all, it's silly to think that you have to be able to speak in order to pray. Many times I am praying and no one would be able to tell.

Second of all, you set up a false "either/or" scenario. Certainly I would give my mom the anti-venom. At the same time, I would be praying all the while (whether or not I could speak). It would be foolish not to use all the tools (like the anti-venom) available to us--since they are given to us by God, anyway.

You seem to have an odd view of "faith."

Answer 5

First off, it is a misconception to think that you aren't praying simply because you can't make audible sounds. We believe in a God who knows all things, it only matters to us if we use words to communicate to him, he can hear thoughts just as clearly. Nor is the God Christians believe in so bound by ritual that he would ignore a plea for help simply because your mouth was dry, that is more the line of the infantile tyrant, not the all knowing deity.

Secondly, it seems rather obvious to me that any prayer you might make to save your mother has already been answered by the presence of the anti-venom. It seems that a prayer of thanks is the order of the day.

It is as if you were drowning in the ocean, and a man came by offering to haul you onto a life raft. Instead of taking his hand, you demand that he save you somehow, while you remain in the waves. It's simply foolishness. Take the hand--you've been saved.
So on a couple of levels your example fails to pose a dilemma to people of faith, but I get the idea that you are asking for more. You want to know if we believe that prayer is worth more than natural forces, if we have as much faith in it as in medicine. If you don't mind I'll give a brief answer to that as well.

We believe in a sovereign God who can do anything, including break the rules of the natural order. But we don't believe in a God compelled to do things simply because we pray them (then he would no longer be sovereign over the natural order, but obligated to it in a very specific way). So we hold that God can answer prayers with a yes, or a no, or some shade in between.

We also believe that God set up the rules of the natural order (though not, perhaps, exactly as we see them now). So, having already made rules, why is it that we expect him to constantly violate them at our whim? He may choose to, and we'd thank him for it, but he's in no way obligated to--and it makes sense to me that such violations of his own order wouldn't be ubiquitous.

One might wonder what prayer is good for then (that is the usual next question of skeptics, I think). But, as I understand it, a large part of the value of prayer isn't in its effect on the reality of the world, but its effect on us. It is a direct lain of communication between ourselves and God, and it is valuable as a way to reconcile ourselves to his will, much more than the other way around (that only stands to reason: who ought to be listening to whom, the creator to the created, or the other way round).

I hope that answers things for you a bit. If you have any questions and would like to pose them to me feel free. My e-mail is [e-mail] . Have a good day.

Answer 6

Anti venom. The Goddess and God gave me a brain for a reason. Blessed be.

Answer 7

I give her the anti-venom and thank God for providing us with people who had the intelligence to invent such a thing!! I'd be doing my praying AFTER I took action!

Answer 8

pray to God that the anti venom works you can do both at the same time:)

Answer 9

I would give her the anti vemon whilst praying that it works without needing to talk out loud and then I would thank God that I had the anti vemon with me and thank him for being their in the terrible time of my mother nearly dying.

Answer 10

The Lord helps those who help themselves. If you let her die, he's going to look at you and say "You idiot, I gave you the anti-venom, why didn't you use it? Do I have to do everything myself?"