I was afraid we might be heading for a dead end, but just now I think not after all. At least, not for the moment. I have no predetermined scheme, here. Im just exploring, like anyone else.

As the story goes, YES! G_d does it for all religions.

Cor-RECTO-o !!! This is what the scientific evidence shows. Its an equal-opportunity arrogance-smasher for anybody (Yoo hoo? ANYBODY!) who wants to go around condemning other peoples religions.

But does that mean that those who just can't forgive are not equipted? I think it would be very hard to forgive some one for murdering a family member. Time may ease the pain but does that person ever really forgive?

I dont have clippings handy, but I do recall news stories from within the past couple years where exactly that did happen: somehow or other, the family flat out forgave the killer. (Which does not mean setting him free!) A few years farther back: first came Rodney King; then came Reginald Denny. Denny flat out forgave those who had tried to kill him.

On the one hand, for sure, few of us are equipped to do that so quickly or automatically. On the other hand, some folks conduct themselves, on purpose,
so as to make sure the pain never goes away.

The nuts and bolts of how God accomplishes healing, the late Ambrose Worrall often described by making analogies to electronic circuits, or radio broadcasting/receiving. There are any number of different points and ways by which one can choose to frustrate the process -- switch God off, as it were, or tune out.

Carolyn Myss, M.D., a Jewish physician and clairvoyant, wrote a book, Why People Dont Heal (that is, why they dont get better). M. Scott Peck , in The Road Less Traveled, has a chapter about Resistance to Grace, that is,
deliberate ignorance or sabotage,
of opportunities God presents to make ones life better.
Recall Calebs exploration of Canaan:
God said, Just go in there and take it. Its yours.
But the people stomped their feet like a two-year old and said No!

TaNaKh includes many examples.

Now, lets turn around and take another look at saving and sin.

One or more participants insisted, before, that God either cannot, does not, will not, or need not rescue anybody from sin. But weve just had this whole discussion about how God, no doubt, rescues people from physical disease.
Are the two things completely separate?
Are these really, as one participant insisted, apples and oranges?
Without any jump to any conclusion
that Ive been right all along (whatever that might mean),
a ton of evidence says, No.
Theyre not completely separate, apples and oranges.

(1) The sages speak often, apparently, about specific diseases as punishment for specific sins. I personally dont buy into any divine wrath theory, but the sin = disease equation is there. (2) Anyone ever hear of psychosomatic illness? Its real. Its not all just in ones head, though it may start there actually, its more likely to begin in ones relationships (a social body). If my boss is a pain in the butt, is it any wonder Ive got hemorrhoids? Now, I might can get them suckers removed surgically, but thatll solve nothing if their cause (how I feel about that other ay-ho) isnt fixed. (3) Few details in medicine are currently better documented than the fact that stress takes a toll on the immune system, making one vulnerable to contagious disease.

A conceptual challenge is that so many of these spiritual or emotional, or relationship-based, or behavioral, causes of disease, are either unknown to or dont line up with, anyones listings of sins. And even if we did get a perfect catalog, that itself would not wipe out the problem. As everybody knows, everybodys prone to some of these kinds of behavior; different ones, different kinds; the bottom line being, that none of us seems absolutely able to save herself or himself from those propensities.

I suggest that, yes, prudence and right conduct matter. I suggest also, however, that in the end humanity does need a savior, a savior from sin no less than from anything else; and that HaShem is indeed that savior. The one and only.

P.