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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I am (marginally) Catholic.  I find it hard to believe that the whole world just appeared from nothing, and that no intelligence was necessary to create it.  I converted as an adult but have of late become a spiritual recidivist, backsliding into the agnosticism of my youth and early 20's as I cope with secondary infertility and a child with fairly severe ADHD.  I HATE when people say "God has a plan for you."  To my ears, it sounds like predeterminism and I firmly do not believe in that.  That has never been my conception of God.  When people to say this to me, I think they are nuts.  That kind of talk sounds like God decided to make me infertile and give me a child with special needs, while the drug addicts and child abusers in my area seem capable of procreating like rabbits based on all of the ads entreating people to foster this growing population of kids.  If God is really that involved in our lives, determining what will happen to each of us and when, why the hell would he do this?  It defies the intelligence and logic that I believe are a necessary component of creating a world like ours.

So I guess my question is, WHY do people believe in this "God has a plan" stuff?  What are they trying to convey when they say it?  IME, Catholics will say things like "look to God for strength and guidance," but not "God has a plan."  However these days neither camp is working for me.  Lately I'm more of the opinion that God exists but is a pure intelligence - a force of biological creation - that is indifferent to the fate of mankind.

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OP, you are asking some very intelligent questions here. I am Christian but not Catholic and will provide my POV from that perspective.

First, please understand that when people make statements like this, they are not trying to dismiss your pain. This is just one of those clumsy things that people say when they want to say something to help, but know that no words really can. I know it's grating and hits a horrible hot spot with you, but please try to have a little compassion.

As I'm sure you know, God never promised us a perfect or an easy life. We all have our share of misery, pain and misfortune. What God did promise is that He is with us through those times and that "all things work together" for those that love the Lord and are called according to His purpose. To me, this means that it is actually irrelevant to God if we have no children or fifty - He still calls us to follow Him through Jesus. All of us, and all of our children, are broken in some way -- ADHD or something else. No one gets a pass on the problems of life.

BUT the good news is that these problems, illnesses, hardships, periods of unemployment, depression, addictions, etc etc etc can be used by God to redeem us and to witness His word and His way here on earth. I don't believe that God singled you out for secondary infertility, or your child with ADHD. These things are just factors of life in the less-than-perfect world we live in. [b]But He can use them, and you, for good -- if you will let Him.[/b][/quote]

This is basically what my friend said.  And again, it doesn't sit with me, because I am Type A, and I believe in my own power to get shit done, and I don't want to be "used" by God to make some sort of point about the meaning of the world or life or whatever.  I hear what you are saying, and I appreciate it, but as I think more and more about it I just think that the religious notion of God no longer makes any sense to me.  [/quote]

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