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What Does "God Bless America" Mean?

16.5 said:
God bless and god damn do not have the same effect, because the Lord is merciful:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
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Citations, please.
 
16.5 said:
In all, in bestowing His own blessing, God declares His goodness. We in turn bless God by praising Him, thanking Him for all of His benefits and offering to Him our service, adoration and worship. When we invoke God's blessing, we implore His divine benevolence, trusting that He will respond to our needs.
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Being all knowing one would think he would know our needs without us asking.
 
16.5 said:
God bless and god damn do not have the same effect, because the Lord is merciful:

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again to a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

The LORD is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in love.
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Your god needs a lot of praising, does he have a self image problem?
 
arthwollipot said:
The verb "to bless" has a lot of different meanings, from sanctifying to protecting to favouring. It means all of those things.

If you like, you could understand it to mean "to bring to God's attention in particular". Blessing something means that you're pointing it out specifically to God so that he pays special attention to it.
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God needs human help to recognize problems?
 
arthwollipot said:
The verb "to bless" has a lot of different meanings, from sanctifying to protecting to favouring. It means all of those things.

If you like, you could understand it to mean "to bring to God's attention in particular". Blessing something means that you're pointing it out specifically to God so that he pays special attention to it.
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tsig said:
God needs human help to recognize problems?
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arthwollipot said:
Not at all, but people like to feel that they're getting special attention.
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Still, god is being influenced by humans.
 
tsig said:
Still, god is being influenced by humans.
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Not necessarily. After all, god may look down at the situation and decide that it's exactly the way he wants it to be. But the idea of god is premised on the assumption that he craves worship, so the mere act of asking for attention is pleasing to him.
 
Jrrarglblarg said:
I use it that way when I'm backstage around ballerinas and stuff. People who know me know it means I'm about to become loudly angry about some utterly stupid and pointless waste of my time and energy. Because other wise I just say "dang" or something Leave It To Beaver -ish.
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Yep, self-censoring.
 
I think it serves about the same purpose as praying before a race or match.

"Dear deity, I would like you to favour me (or my country) over others (or their countries), using your infinite and mystical power to ensure that I do better than the other fellow (or country) for no better reason than that I have asked in a suitably grovelly fashion.
 
Occasionally, you see a more "Christian" (in sentiment, anyway) bumper sticker to the effect of "God Bless All Nations".
This would seem to adhere more to Christian theology... After all, America is about as "blessed" a nation as could be found on Earth, in terms of prosperity and resources and opportunity and all.

Wouldn't it be better to "bless" all those places that are having so much trouble so that perhaps they'd be less likely to say, spawn terrorists?
 
arthwollipot said:
Not necessarily. After all, god may look down at the situation and decide that it's exactly the way he wants it to be. But the idea of god is premised on the assumption that he craves worship, so the mere act of asking for attention is pleasing to him.
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Any being that craves is not a perfect being because a craving means there is something lacking.

Saying god craves worship makes god sound remarkably egoistic more like a strutting human than a creator of the universe.

If god needs something from us does not that put him in an inferior position?
 
Interesting as this discussion is (and I do mean that sincerely), I'm still not exactly clear on what people who, in all earnestness, are asking for when they say the phrase in the OP. I am not being obtuse. Are they asking that their collective free will as Americans be tempered to better align with some preconceived path of righteousness? Well, if it is our destiny what's the point of asking for intervention? Or is it a denial of free will altogether, prostrating our selves begging to be shown the way (which in itself is an act of free will is it not?) Is it requesting health and cleanliness? I think all would agree that there are more effective ways to get healthy and clean than through prayer.

I am not a theologian in the slightest. I don't think I have posted in this sub-forum once in the 16-plus years I have been an active poster in JREF or ISF forums. But it irks me that millions of people intone these words out of habit. I wonder if they know what they are asking for. And when I choose not to join in I am presumably viewed as unpatriotic. Maybe if I understood what it is they are asking for, despite my atheism, I would come to have greater respect for their goals.
 
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grunion said:
Interesting as this discussion is (and I do mean that sincerely), I'm still not exactly clear on what people who, in all earnestness, are asking for when they say the phrase in the OP. I am not being obtuse. Are they asking that their collective free will as Americans be tempered to better align with some preconceived path of righteousness? Well, if it is our destiny what's the point of asking for intervention? Or is it a denial of free will altogether, prostrating our selves begging to be shown the way (which in itself is an act of free will is it not?) Is it requesting health and cleanliness? I think all would agree that there are more effective ways to get healthy and clean than through prayer.

I am not a theologian in the slightest. I don't think I have posted in this sub-forum once in the 16-plus years I have been an active poster in JREF or ISF forums. But it irks me that millions of people intone these words out of habit. I wonder if they know what they are asking for. And when I choose not to join in I am presumably viewed as unpatriotic. Maybe if I understood what it is they are asking for, despite my atheism, I would come to have greater respect for their goals.
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In a nutshell:

An unblessed America = good​

A blessed America = even better​

HTH ;)
 
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Why should we believe and trust in God if he does not even trust Himself?

Psalm 22.1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

(Only a question for Trinitarians. No others need respond.)

:confused:
 
Gord_in_Toronto said:
Why should we believe and trust in God if he does not even trust Himself?

Psalm 22.1 My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me? why art thou so far from helping me, and from the words of my roaring?

(Only a question for Trinitarians. No others need respond.)

:confused:
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PSALM 22? HIMSELF? The speaker in the Psalms is not God, of course and thus I am baffled what you are talking about....
 
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