Well then it becomes your responsibility as the parent, if your pull isn't good enough to get a yes than you should have taken another option. So the government didn't say there isn't a God, they just said that that wasn't the solution here, you should have chosen one that was a little bit more dependable.
By that logic any time you take your child to the doctor, if the doctor fails to heal, then you are responsible for your child's death and should be charged with manslaughter, right? No wonder malpractice insurance is so high.
To a certain degree you are right, but that is why we have competency requirements for doctors, there are government/industry backed systems to assure parents/patients that the physicians are competent. If the aren't there are systems to remove them (don't always work well, but there are systems).
If you don't believe in God, then your comments about someone else believing in God aren't very worthwhile are they?
But you are talking the intersection of where your god and our laws intersect, so your going to have to take our positions into consideration. As much fun as this is I have a Southwest Airlines Cattlecall that I have to attend to, so have a nice evening Clif!
It's your position that is at the heart of my comments. According to the CIA World FactBook, over half the population of the planet believes in (pretty much the same) God. For the USA, it's closer to 80%. Yet when this couple claim that they were relying on God to heal their daughter they get charged with manslaughter. Even here in this forum, most people who claim to believe in God believe the parents were negligent in believing God would heal their daughter. To me this is, at the very least, odd. It's also very contradictory. It's not that people should believe or not believe in God. That's a personal choice for each and every one. However, it seems to me, that if you believe in Him, then believe. If you don't then don't. Don't say you do then, when something like this happens, act as if He doesn't exist. That's all I'm saying.
The problem is not that the parents were looking to God to care for their child. The problem is that when they went to God they didn't listen to what He had to say. He was probably trying to tell them that the demands they were placing on Him is not the way He was going to work in this situation and to go see another doctor. If they had gone to see a physician it would not have meant that they did not trust God or that God would not have been with them. He would have been right beside them every step of the way. But they still would have been expected to listen to the physician and follow the instructions given. If they neglected to follow through on the instructions for care they would likely be facing the same charges. If all Christians decided to just sit at home and start placing miraculous demands on God to provide healing, cupboards full of food, and an overflowing bank account we'd all either be sick, broke, homeless, or dead. As I've said before; God doesn't work that way. The parents were limiting the ways in which God could have, and would have, worked in the situation. They were acting irrationally and neglegent and they caused the death of their child, not God.
How do you know what He had to say? Oh, you don't know. Then it's just as probable the He was telling them that they were doing good. Putting an awful lot of limitations on God, aren't you? How do you know how God works?
My understanding God does not answer prayers when we want him to. He answers them when He wants to. It is His timing, not ours. He may not answer them at all during our time on earth, they may not be answered until we are in heaven. He also may not answer them because He is using the circumstances us to grow and be more like Him. It is simple, yet complicated at the same time. I prayed for my mom to be healed from cancer and she wasn't. It was God's will to not answer my prayer. In going through the trial, I was able to help others at a later time deal with this tragedy. Also, my mom did not have to suffer anymore and can now enjoy her eternal life. God's will may not make sense to us when we want it to be - that is just the way it is.
In the end it's still a very sad story. I firmly believe that if these parents would have remained open to the idea that God works in many different ways and through many different people that their daughter would be alive and with them today. I'd like to think we can agree on that. (We have veered off your original question a bit, though, haven't we?) Gotta get some lunch. My stomach's hollerin'.
