Cleft Lip / Palate Support Group
Cleft is a congenital deformity caused by a failure in facial development during gestation. It can be treated with surgery shortly after birth with highly successful results. Cleft occurs in somewhere between one in 600 and one in 800 births. Cleft occurs in several severities and is divided in two major categories: cleft lip and cleft palate.
Do any of you guys have any religious beliefs? Would you say that being born with a cleft has had an impact on your relgious views? Just something I've always wondered about. Personally, I think it has impacted my worldview, religion included, rather significantly. Often, I refer to something my brother once told me, to think about "the hand I was dealt." He doesn't realize the impact this had on me, but I remember exactly where I was when he said this to me. I was so much younger then, but I've dwelt on it for a really long time. It's made me think about the "hand" that I could have been dealt. And how it sucks that I've been dealt this hand. I'm all in and all I have is two of a kind. What do people like this born do who are born in third world countries? What did they for who knows how long before modern medical advancements? Spoiler alert: they died. What kind of God would allow for the attrocities that so many countless humans have suffered? What kind of sick joke is that? No way man, there might be a higher power, but the bible 10000% isn't it. Your life is a gamble. You've gotta play the cards you were given, and you've gotta come out on top. It isn't about prayer, it's about having a poker face.
From then on, I've been describing myself as agnostic : maybe there is a god, maybe there's nothing.
I agree with you on the end. After all, life is but a blink, we've got to make the most of what we've been dealt with, but there are some days when it's not so easy where I have to take a step back and analyse.