.A decision not to attend the combine is one that many pro athletes make.
Right there in the article(s) it says that he did go to the combine, but left because god told him to.
The sitting in the airport part is silly, but ultimately harmless.
Yes, it IS ultimately harmless. But at what point do we use these sorts of actions to indicate mental health problems? Is it ok to be crazy as a shit house rat as long as you talk about one of the publicly accepted gods? If he said it was Zeus talking to him, does that change anything?
There is another football example that comes to mind. Michael Sam: the first openly homosexual high profile athlete and potentially the first openly gay NFL athlete, depending on if he gets drafted. If this same person that I mentioned in my OP left the combine because god told him he didn't want him being around a homosexual, would you still feel as though he was making a sound decision free from criticism? Would he be justified in his rationale? I mean, it's just his harmless belief, right? Faith is a-ok in her beliefs (AZ thread) because god said so, right?
(note: I am not calling into question ones
right to have these beliefs. Instead, looking at how we as a (hopefully) enlightened society view them. You liberal christians are supposed to be joining enlightened society, aren't you?)
There is no need for any of us who are not NFL team owners to care if it is crazy.
Again, my intended direction of the discussion is not about how we, or you, feel about this particular individual or instance, but about where we draw the line between harmless belief and crazy talk. The first line of my post says exactly this.
I mean it's just sports which is of no real consequence.
Except it is very real consequence and NOT "just sports". The amount of dedication one would have already put in to get himself to the NFL combine means it is no longer "just a sport" and now a career choice. That would be like saying professional programmers "just fart around on computers" while participating in an internship.
Of course fans don't think that way, and it is fans that you are going to find on message boards.
I think you've missed the point entirely. I used this example because (as I already said), sports is a culture that looks past this sort of behavior most of the time but in this case it is viewed as irrational behavior. What makes that distinction? We have political representatives that say similar things daily and no one (except atheists) bats an eye. What does it take for the moderately religious to finally say "ok, you're nuts" when someone claims god talks to them? Or do you honestly think it is normal for someone to talk to god or have god talk to them? Was GW not applauded for saying god told him to invade Iraq?
On the other hand I know a story about a pastor who prayed for an adult to recover from cancer who 'expressed disappointed' that her flock member under went conventional and successful cancer treatment. The whole episode was very hurtful to the family.
I remember another story where a person in who assumed that a salary mistake by her company was a 'gift from God' she'd been praying for. Much to her surprise, the company eventually noticed the mistake and sought to get its money back.
Crazy or not crazy?
If you're asking me, I say crazy on both accounts. Delusional, even. But I am a bias party since I think they are looney just for believing a god exists in the first place.
"Science is interesting, and if you don't agree you can fuck off." -Dawkins