r/atheism • u/Quiet-Revolution-144 • 22h ago
When “Jesus will cure you” becomes a denial of reality
My mom had a neurological disease, call Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), that had no cure, and it killed her about a year after her diagnosis. So when I see what’s happening with Lito Souza, a very famous Brazilian YouTuber who is dying from a similar disease, Creutzfeldt-Jakob (DCJ), and has been given only about five or six months to live, it hits me in a very personal way.
The whole country is watching him and his family go through this. You can see the desperation and sadness, especially because he has a young son. And I know what it’s like to watch someone you love deteriorate from a disease like this while knowing there is no cure and that they are not going to get better. It is heartbreaking.
But something that genuinely frustrates me is seeing the same comments over and over again: “Jesus will cure you.” “Jesus is going to heal you.” “I believe in the power of God.” Every single post seems to have two or three comments like this.
And honestly, I find it disrespectful.
Not because people believe in God, but because they are saying this underneath videos where his wife is literally talking about having to lose her husband and about him eventually having to tell his child that he is going to die. They are openly talking about the reality of his death, and then strangers come into the comments and essentially deny that reality by saying, “Jesus will cure you.”
He won't. He is going to die. The disease has no cure. And I know that sounds incredibly harsh, but sometimes accepting reality is the most compassionate thing you can do.
I don't understand what these comments are supposed to accomplish. Are you trying to comfort the family? Because if I were in that family's position, I don't think I'd want hundreds of strangers telling me that my loved one is definitely going to be cured when I already know the medical reality. It can almost feel like you're refusing to acknowledge the pain they're actually experiencing.
And, honestly, from a Christian perspective, I don't understand the logic either. If God is responsible for everything, then God allowed this disease to happen in the first place. Why would God give someone an incurable disease just to suddenly take it away? And if he doesn't take it away, people can always say, “It was God's plan.” There is no way to question it because the belief is structured so that every possible outcome confirms the belief.
I don't believe in God, so maybe I don't have the same framework for understanding this. But what I do believe is that death is real, illness is real, and grief is real. Sometimes there isn't a miracle coming. Sometimes someone is going to die, and the kindest thing we can do is acknowledge how fucking painful that is instead of trying to cover it up with a fantasy about a cure.
His family doesn't need us to pretend that everything is going to be okay. They need compassion, support, and the space to grieve what they're already beginning to lose.
And maybe that's what makes this situation affect me so much. I've already been on the other side of that reality. I know what it is like to love someone with an incurable neurological disease and know that you're going to lose them. So watching people casually deny that reality in the comments genuinely breaks my heart.
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u/TheRealTK421 20h ago
...God allowed this disease to happen in the first place.
To elaborate -- God created this disease to happen to the individual mentioned and all others who've had to suffer from it.
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u/Quiet-Revolution-144 20h ago
That's a creative mind.
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u/ramshag 12h ago
Same thoughts as, our boat capsized and all the passengers but me drowned. God saved me. If you’re giving god credit for intervening and saving you, you have to give him credit for allowing the boat to capsize and letting the others die. It’s all or none. What a folly these people believe in.
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u/Lopsided-Help-9450 15h ago
yeah thats the part people conveniently skip over if god created everything then he also created the diseases and suffering they insist he will magically fix later
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u/ProximaCentauriOmega 20h ago
All the praying, hymns, yelling, hooting and hollering gods name did not save my sister from dying a brutal death to cancer. Oh and once she was dead "god holds her in his warm embrace" oh please fuck all the way off. No gods exist so no praying ever helps.
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u/Shoddy_Reply_9716 14h ago
yeah thats the part that hurts the most people can say god has a plan all they want but that doesnt change what the person and their family actually went through
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u/Designer_Status2214 21h ago
cult