Has God blessed America ?

I'd really like to know. 

I thought the phrase was a request, not an observation.

"Blessings," by definition, are undeserved. From the richness of our undeserved legacy comes obligation. If we have been given much, we are obligated to give much to others. If we love our neighbors as ourselves, we will seek not only to preserve and protect our liberties, but to assist others in their efforts to attain these same liberties for themselves.

American exceptionalism is not a delusion of national grandiosity. American exceptionalism is not a doctrine of pride and privilege. It is a belief that God has blessed this nation in amazing ways, and those blessings invoke a reciprocal obligation and responsibility to seek to share, but not impose, the blessings of freedom and democracy with others around the world.

Let's all pause to give praise and gratitude to our Heavenly Father for the manifold blessings of being an American and to say thank you to all those who have sacrificed to protect and defend those precious liberties.

christianpost

I dont think that the belief that God has uniquely blessed America is a controversial or rare one.  Do have any comments on the premise of the article? 

Well, since I’m agnostic, I don’t believe that we have a special blessing.  That said, when President Biden or Obama said, God bless America, I think that it was a request.

That said, when President Biden or Obama said, God bless America, I think that it was a request.

Blessed, past, present , future, its all the same concept. 

Damn, what is Biden thinking?

Damn, what is Biden thinking?

Surely you recognize the hilarity in assuming Biden 'thought'.

Blessed, past, present , future, its all the same concept.

Albert disagreed, he wrote:

People like us who believe in physics know that the distinction between past, present and future is only a stubbornly persistent illusion. 

The Chambers brothers on the other hand thought that time had come one day:

Love that song. It has nothing whatsoever to do with the topic, but why start now? 

Great song though. 

Did the attentions of God have anything to do with it?

Not likely.

My opinion is that one of God's greatest of gifts to humanity is freedom of choice to determine what we believe to be right from wrong. Final judgement does not take place on this realm but on a higher plane.

Gee … exactly as if a god doesn’t actually exist at all.  Imagine that.  Sounds like Pascal’s Wager is alive and well.

I've got my opinion, you've got yours. 

In 1492 Europeans began to understand that there were two big continents in the western hemisphere that were both extremely naturally wealthy and primarily unexploited. The United States consists of the prime temperate zone in North America. Europeans flooded to the Americas then quickly overpowered the indigenous natives, thanks to guns. America was founded by bloody guns...

God had nothing to do with that!

Well....

 The question is only relevant to those who believe in God. This is because the question assumes God, so the comments of non-believers are not going to be relevant beyond expressing disbelief that God was a factor. 

That said, yes, I believe God blessed the United States. But what does that mean? I believe the answer isn't simple, but multifaceted.

Since it is my belief that nations rise and fall according to God's will, in that sense we were blessed by God (and I intend the past sense) and is evidenced by our success and power. However, the sense in which the question is asked seems to suggest God was responding to the ideas and efforts of people who founded our country and those who continued its trajectory. That is, God reacted to what man had come up with and put His approval on it. I don't think that is the case. 

I believe the truth is that God, moving in the world, created the people, conditions and ideas that brought our country into being for His purpose and His own ends. It was not because our founders were especially deserving of God's blessings. They put together a Constitution that, at its core, were generally based on God's view of justice, yet failed to fully realize those principles, evidenced by injustice displayed like slavery, racism and other issues. In spite of that, we grew into those principles over time. And while we benefitted from those blessings God gave us, those blessings were not the end in themselves or evidence that we were faultless. In the end, our blessings were the benefit of God using us to accomplish some purpose He desires. 

I think we've lost that blessing. I think our turning away from God is the reason. The evidence for this, in my opinion, is our continued spiral to destruction as a country. I think what is going on now is God's judgement of what we have done with the blessings He has given us. Our ever increasing turning of our backs on Him is only accelerating our destruction. 

In Africa, one in five people faced hunger in 2020. The number of hungry people continues to rise.

Conflict, drought, and economic woes triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic are reversing years of progress. As of 2020, more than one-third of the continent’s population was undernourished. In the whole of Africa, 282 million people were experiencing hunger , more than double the proportion of any other region in the world.

Conditions are deteriorating across East Africa, where 7.2 million people are at risk of starvation and another 26.5 million face acute food insecurity. At least 12.8 million children in the region are acutely malnourished.

Has Africa done something to offend God? 

Has Africa done something to offend God? 

Why are you asking me? Do you think God consults with me on everything He does? Have I given you the impression that this is the case? 

More importantly, why are you attributing the situation in Africa to God? Why isn't it our fault? I know people love the idea of overpopulation, but we have the ability to reason, right? If human nature wasn't what it is, we could easily feed the world. Why isn't Africa a result of the mismanagement of the world God put us in charge of? Why is this not an example of blame shifting? 

Since it is my belief that nations rise and fall according to God's will

So it's God's will if America does well, but its not God's will if Africa suffers? 

All I'm doing is pointing out inconsistencies. I do believe in God, but I do not believe God has favored nations. 

In addition, God influencing nations at this level is yet another inconsistency with the notion of free will.   Free will is apparently highly conditional.   That is, if one believes God grants free will, one necessarily believes that God has carved out avenues of 'free will' in-between channels of his imposed will.   

(I am intentionally not going to raise the logical contradiction of free will with a knowable future and a knowable future being a prerequisite to omniscience.)

Another related issue is the belief that God chooses the leaders of nations.   In which case, the belief is that God chose Trump in 2016.

In addition, God influencing nations at this level is yet another inconsistency with the notion of free will.

The simple concept of an omniscient god, and free will, is inconsistent. 

If god knows the future, then there is no free will unless god can be wrong, but if he can be wrong, he is not omniscient.

Correct

Your last sentence begs the existence of or questions the logic of the alleged deity.

I am not assuming the existence of God.   I am stating that some believe that God (whom they believe exists) chooses the leaders of nations and (if that were to be true) God chose Trump.

All I'm doing is pointing out inconsistencies.

I'm afraid I'm missing something then, as I don't see the inconsistency. I also don't see how you arrived at that conclusion from what I said. From my perspective, it seems as if you completely ignored what I said. In spite of that...

So it's God's will if America does well

As I said, God doesn't consult with me as to what He will do or why He's doing it. It seems evident God has blessed this country greatly in the  past. For what reason, I can't say. I didn't get the memo. I feel confident that it serves His purpose in some way and that's about it. I don't think it was because we deserved it. 

but its not God's will if Africa suffers?

Again, no idea how you got this from what I said. Especially when I made it clear that God doesn't include me in current events decision making. You seem to be trying to make it seem as if I'm saying God gets to take credit for what we perceive as good things but it's our fault if what we perceive seems bad to us. 

Here's how I see it. It could be that Africa suffering could serve God's purpose. Alternatively, from God's perspective, Africa could be blessed as is, simply because it isn't a lot worse there. The US government is the greatest donator to Africa in the world, with over 100 billion in the last 20 years, and that doesn't include faith based and non=faith-based charities. For all I know, God raised us up for that reason alone. Or maybe to be there when Hiter, Stalin, Mao and a bunch of other baddies needed stopping. 

One thing I know, though. God prefers to work through people. When He made us, it was to be His partners in doing the works He had planned before the fall. He still does so, after the fall. God didn't make Pharao the kind of man he was, but God said He raised him up (made him Pharao) for the purpose of displaying His power to the world through him. Which is why Africa is more likely the world's fault rather than His. He has equipped us with more than enough to do something if we really cared. It's the sort of thing we were created for. 

Here's how I see it. It could be that Africa suffering could serve God's purpose. Alternatively, from God's perspective, Africa could be blessed as is, simply because it isn't a lot worse there. The US government is the greatest donator to Africa in the world, with over 100 billion in the last 20 years, and that doesn't include faith based and non=faith-based charities. For all I know, God raised us up for that reason alone. Or maybe to be there when Hiter, Stalin, Mao and a bunch of other baddies needed stopping. 

This is phenomenal nonsense. According to your belief, everything that happens is God's will and it is God's will that America prosper and Africa suffer. How convenient. 

Alternatively, from God's perspective, Africa could be blessed as is, simply because it isn't a lot worse there

So God was thinking about making it worse in Africa, but decided to bless them with drought and famine instead.

I have to ask you a question - are hurricanes a judgement from God? 

Well, since you seem to be determined to interpret what I say however you wish, I don't see a point in answering. Why not simply assume I've given the answer you desire and just go from there?

If god knows the future, then there is no free will unless god can be wrong, but if he can be wrong, he is not omniscient.

I finally get it. I could never wrap my head around why we don't have free will but you spelled it out for me. Another light bulb lit for Giggles today

No one has ever lived who didnt have the experience of free will available to them every second of their life. Maybe we dont have free will from God's perspective, but from the human perspective  we do experience free will, and cannot not experience it. 

Then let's solidify: 

If the future is knowable (i.e. it is possible to calculate what will happen in the future) then free will is impossible since what we choose with 'free will' was knowable before we even made the choice.   This is true even if no entity actually knows the future; it is a function of reality, not of any particular being.   

Now, let's add in the Christian God.

If the Christian God exists and is omniscient then it would be an entity that knows the future.   Just having one entity that knows the future means the future is knowable.   Thus free will would be impossible.

If we do not have free will, we are living in an extremely convincing illusion.

If we do have free will then the future is not knowable.

We have the experience of free will and it cannot be circumvented or taken away from us. 

That is good enough for me, I dont worry about the perspective God may have on the future. 

We have the experience of free will and it cannot be circumvented or taken away from us. 

We either have free will (meaning the future is not knowable) or we have an extremely convincing illusion of free will.   Nobody knows which of those is true.

But we do know this (by pure logic):   if the future is knowable then free will is impossible.

I can believe in free will since I'm an agnostic. The future is unknowable. Nobody knows what will happen 5 years from now or even 5 minutes from now. Correct?

The future could be knowable.   We do not know.   There are quite a few scientists who hold that our reality is an (extraordinarily complex) causal chain.   That if we could get information about every particle and had computational capability to process same, that we could model and predict the future.   In less abstract terms, many biologists are convinced that our brains are indeed biological machines that, when presented with the same environmental conditions and identical brain chemistry, will always make the exact same choices.    Of course this is controversial in science ... probably because scientists are human beings who have a hard time thinking of themselves as extremely complex biological machines.

It is extremely difficult to imagine a reality where we are all extremely complex automatons, but that remains a possibility.   That is, it is possible that what we perceive as free will is just an amazingly convincing illusion.

That if we could get information about every particle and had computational capability to process same, that we could model and predict the future.

Where's the fun in that? I really don't want to know what's going to happen tomorrow

many biologists are convinced that our brains are indeed biological machines that, when presented with the same environmental conditions and identical brain chemistry, will always make the exact same choices. 

So we don't have free will because our complex biological computer will construct an algorithm and set us on the path it wants us to take.

This. Is. Too. Deep. For. Me.

I do not buy that 'too deep' modesty.

Well think of the brain as neurons receiving and firing electrical signals to each other in an extraordinarily complex network.   That is the underlying mechanics of the brain.   At that level, the brain becomes predictable given a defined stimulus.   This is far too complex for anyone to model (and certainly beyond our ability to comprehend given the details) but ultimately it is a rather decent argument that our brains are predictable cause & effect machines.

But, of course, it is counterintuitive (and demeaning) to think of ourselves in such a fashion.   

it is counterintuitive (and demeaning) to think of ourselves in such a fashion.

I'm an environmental scientist...took lots of biology and chemistry. I 'm perfectly fine with describing myself as a biochemical mechanical computer who knows which algorithms to use to cause me to end up in the emergency room

People can believe that God has blessed America, I don't care. But it's ironic that there is no mention of the USA in the Bible

Funny how that Bible does not mention (with precision) anything that is beyond the basic knowledge of ancient men.

That is funny since God is supposed to be omniscient. The only "future" in the Bible is John of Patmos writing Revelation and even then it's so full of imagery and allegory it's hard to take it seriously

Indeed.   Exactly my point.

Has 'God' blessed?  Why would She care?

She's currently playing skee ball in Ocean City New Jersey