..... or something like that.


PFF article: 'Tebow “not sure” he’ll be a starting quarterback again'

http://profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2012/03/30/tebow-not-sure-hell-be-a-starting-quarterback-again/

 

Generally speaking, the biggest thing I don't like about religion is how it allows a person to scapegoat failure, mediocrity, lack of achievement, etc onto "God's will".
"It just wasn't meant to be."..... "It's not my time."..... "God must have other plans."..... or "If God wanted it to happen it would've.".

IMO it can remove accountability by giving God too much credit for their own individual success or failure.

 

So what you're saying is he created pastel colors, Key West, and interior decorating for a reason? :shifty:

 

yup. For once, instead of Tebow saying "I'm blessed", I'd like to hear him say "I'm at where I'm at b/c I worked my rear off for it.", something that gives credit to years of massive dedication and hard work.

 

Did I say that? NO.
Nice try twisting my words though in order to make an entirely unrelated point at the sacrifice of mine, and anyone who Fist Pumped it deserves 10 lashings.
READ THE LITERAL TRANSLATION. What does "for once" mean? Did I say "I wish he'd become egotistical & arrogant? NO!!!
Do you even know what egoism & arrogance mean? Do you know what humility and graciousness mean? Can a person credit their hard work without losing humility and without being arrogant in approach? YES.

Do you honestly think Tebow would lose ALL his humility & graciousness by crediting his hard work and dedication for once? :glare:

Is it ARROGANT & EGOTISTICAL to occasionally credit the hard work you've done so that kids who idolize you understand there's more to success than being touched by the hand of God? So, occassionaly have a spine, make people know that hard work pays off and that each person is accountable for his own actions in the regard that his success & achievements (or lack there of) are based on what he creates for HIMSELF rather than being determined by destiny, God's will, or God's plan for you. Therefore if you think it's "arrogant" to help motivate your fans and followers into ACTING rather than passively WAITING, then your priorities are screwed up!! Everything that Tebow has accomplished is because of TEBOW, not some outside entity working through him.

It's ALLLLL TEBOW, HARD WORK, MASSIVE DEDICATION, DETERMINATION, SACRIFICE, PERSEVERANCE, GOOD GENETICS, AND A STRONG SUPPORTING CAST TO PUT HIM ON THE RIGHT TRACK AND HELP KEEP HIM THERE. Kids need to know this. You're acting ridiculous to think Tebow shouldn't convey this just b/c you think it "compromises humility". !!Gimme a break!! You're right bro, it's better to be passively humble to the extent that kids are left believing God decides who succeeds and who doesn't, and if they're not succeeding at something then maybe they should just give up on it or not try so hard b/c God didn't choose them like he did Tebow. :glare:



So are you saying is it's better to lie and always credit to an outside source while rarely to never crediting the actual one?

 

Tebow is successful for the reason's I listed above, not b/c of "God". Tebow trusting in God is merely coincidental. If he believes that God allows him to work as hard as he does, then that's his choice (if it is the case). The bottom line is--- he works his butt off for it and knows he works his butt off for it, and he doesn't use his trust in God as an excuse to sit back, take a wait & see approach and not put in the effort. You're talking about it as if Tebow's the norm when he's the exception.

No, it's not. However, a person not working as hard to obtain a goal b/c they feel God (or destiny) has a part to play in it can lead to failure..... and any failure can lead to the mentality of "Trusting that God has a plan", hence rationalizing their failure rather than taking accountability for role in it and the fact that perhaps they didn't work as hard for it as they should have. Trusting in God also takes away from putting trust in YOURSELF.

Basically, if it's "God's plan" then it's not entirely my plan either, is it. Therefore if it's not entirely my plan and I don't know exactly what "God's plan" is for myself, then I might not work as hard to achieve in life outside of simply being a good, devout Christian or whatever, which their religion further feeds into by essentially preaching it's ok to not achieve goals b/c the only thing that matters is if you've accepted Jesus as your Lord and savior and try to live a good Christian life, and if you stick with us you'll always feel accepted. You just have to do & act how we say and believe what we tell you to believe just like any cult does.

That's a very nice rosy picture of it. Unfortunately that's not reality, and unfortunately Tebow's case isn't the universal one. For many people, "What's meant to be, is meant to be.", is first used to rationalize a lack of attaining a want or goal.

I don't think you understand that not everyone works as hard as Tebow, but that doesn't mean people don't have dreams or goals. So for the MANY people who have simple goals & dreams but don't work hard enough to attain them, they almost always absolve themselves of responsibility by immediately saying "I guess it's just not meant to be", or "It wasn't meant to happen", or "God has other plans", b/c that's IMMENSELY easier on their psyche than admitting to themselves they failed. What happens after enough of these "It wasn't meant to happens"? Self-fulfilling prophecy. All this stuff is basic human behavior as well as coping mechanism that allows each person's belief of himself to stay consistent. If you want to see just how powerful it is, look at Vietnam POW victims.

I'm sorry, but what does any of this random coincidence have to do with how hard you do or don't work to achieve something? Nothing.
All you did was tell a nice story and used "God's purpose" as a way to nicely interpret it in a way to help rationalize what happened, no offense.

All that is, is common psychological egocentrism-- the tendency to perceive, understand and interpret the world in terms of the self.

From your eyes, "God's purpose" of this college experience worked out well for you and another person. How about if you instead look at it as, Your scholarship completely prevented someone else from getting one, someone who might have made even better use of it and gone on to become an influential difference maker in society (perhaps you only got it over him b/c he had to balance studies with work and taking are of his brothers and sisters due to a crack addict father and absent mother working 3 jobs, but b/c he didn't get the scholarship and had a family financially unable to afford it, he instead went to community college [when he could afford it] while also working full time, and in a desperate attempt to get ahead and secure money for his education he goes against his beliefs and begins selling pot, gets busted, gains a criminal record, and subsequently watches his dreams flush down the toilet. Would that still be the same "God's purpose" where everything worked out great for all involved?

 

See, there you go. You just gave an example of exactly what I've been saying. You're throwing accountability to an external source. It's no different than saying, "My faith in God told me to drive my car full of kids into a lake.". At the end of the day, YOU'RE accountable for your own actions, and at the end of the day YOU'RE the one doing the acting. What you accomplish is up to you, not some invisible being, and if you don't accomplish it, it's not b/c you didn't have enough faith in God; it's because you, yourself, didn't do it.

Faith is a broad word, so stop acting like "God" is the reason it works. Faith is faith. PERIOD. You could put the same amount of faith in yourself and you'd still get the same result. "God" isn't what makes faith work; your faith (extreme belief) in something, anything, is what makes it work. If I have enough faith in the tooth fairy giving me a hundred bucks for my tooth, I might try a little harder to accomplish something. "If you're good this year, Timmy, Santa Claus might give you a new bicycle!".

Basically, what you're saying is Tim's faith in God rewarding him with a trip to heaven is like a little kid's faith in Santa rewarding him with a new bike. Are you serious? So you're saying adults have to be treated like little kids in order to accomplish anything? Gimme a break.

If you believe a person can ONLY be motivated to accomplish something and succeed b/c of "faith in God", then that person is obviously using an external source as a crutch. If you can't set a goal for yourself and let the achievement of that goal serve as enough motivation, then you have problems. Conversely, if the actual achievement of a goal isn't enough motivation all by itself, then just how badly did you want it in the first place? Taking that a step further, if a person needs "God's influence" to achieve a goal b/c he couldn't do it on his own, then maybe it wasn't a real goal of his to begin with but was rather one his religion created for him instead. :wink2:

For instance, do you think it's a person's goal to strap a bomb to his chest and blow up a building, thus ending his existence in the process? I seriously doubt it. Who's goal is it? Supposedly his God's.

Faith is nothing more than a very strong belief in something, to the verge of confidence. The stronger the faith, the greater the confidence. "I'm going to attend church every sunday and accept Jesus as my Lord & Savior because I'm confident he will reward me.". "The more confident I am in Jesus and the stronger my belief in being rewarded with a trip to heaven, the harder I'll work to become a better Christian." <<< that's how it works. The underlying catalyst in this equation is "confidence", "strong belief", and "desire to achieve a goal", not God or heaven. People should be capable of creating this on their own w/o the aid of the biggest bribe mankind has ever seen---- "If you do this this and this and live like this and act like this, I'll reward you with something more valuable than success, wealth, and all the sex you can handle; I'll save your soul from burning in an imaginary hell for all eternity."

 

Maybe there's a "real" god out there who sneakily tests how logical, reasonable, and prone to outside influence each individual is, and it's actually this criteria (along with the kind of life a person lives) that he uses to determine who gets into "heaven"; thus he created a fake god & devil etc to test our ability to resist persuasion, hence explaining the reason for tons of different religions existing due to the fact religion represents the highest form of persuasion, even higher than the power of the vagina. It's so strong that even the "face that launched a thousand ships" takes a back seat. Hence, this god created the ultimate weeding-out process. Therefore, this real god is judging you on whether or not you buy into some contrived religion, one that requires you to believe in illogical stories while discrediting much of what he's created and accomplished--- like dinosaurs, the big bang, evolution, etc. In this god's eyes, persuasion is persuasion; it doesn't matter if it's a bomb strapped to your vest, handing out a rose at the airport, or believing that accepting Jesus represents your only salvation. If you compromise yourself, you compromise yourself. But you know what? This god's smart. He doesn't let you know his "actual" intentions b/c he doesn't want to influence your actions, and he does this because he knows it's difficult to judge a person's true intentions when ulterior motives are present. Therefore, in this god's eyes, those who fall for the persuasion of religion are actually the ones who go to his version of hell. :wink2: