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I personally have come to the conclusion that prayers won't change the outcome of ANYTHING.
Your example is just as silly as the people who pray for victory in a football game.
BINGO. Perfect answer. I was trying to show the ridiculousness of prayer and how people use it for the most mundane things. Obviously people are free to do whatever they want, however prayer seems to be the default mode for people whenever they want something; be it lost keys, weather, football games, etc., etc. I wish that instead of saying I pray my team wins, I'd rather see, I wish or hope my team wins. When praying is overused it loses all meaning, and I don't think people realize that.
And as someone who has lost a child at a very early age, I HATE when people say I'm sending prayers to the family. What the hell does that mean and do people think that somehow that will comfort me or my family. It won't.
Last edited by seethelight; 03-07-2024 at 09:47 AM..
God is NOT a "Genie in a lamp" or Santa Claus so NO! Prayers are not to ask for special intervention in this life that we are to "endure to the end" no matter what happens. Prayer is to bring God into your mind to comfort you during those times you feel most overwhelmed, NOT to find your lost car keys or prevent the NATURAL course of any event, accident, disaster, disease, or whatever might be beyond our human intervention. Our Dominion on earth means WE are God's "hands and feet" here on Earth. Prayers CAN influence the minds of those who are trying to intervene, such as surgeons, first responders, etc. so they are NOT useless as often believed. BTW, our minds are the ONLY place we CAN experience God so the stupid atheist accusation that it is "all in your mind" is pointless!
Perfect prayer is a two way conversation. Also in Christianity, we are taught to believe we have received our requests and not doubt, being persistent. And to not ask to fulfill a lust of the flesh. Prayer can be like a start up meeting, where we receive what our Father has planned out for the day.
I personally have come to the conclusion that prayers won't change the outcome of ANYTHING.
Your example is just as silly as the people who pray for victory in a football game.
I don't think the example is silly...just the one's doing it.
I remember on a trip west, we were driving through South Dakota and heading for a day at Badlands National Park. There was a real possibility of rain. A relative began praying that it would not rain so that we could have a nice day in the park. I guess I kinda wanted to argue the point, so I took the side of the farmers who were experiencing a very serious, very prolonged drought in the region, so I said I would pray for rain. It ended up being a draw.
But certainly -- if you believe in prayer -- when you have opposing prayers, some might be more valid than others.
I have been thinking about this for a while now and I would like to hear other thoughts about my inability to come up with the right answer, if there even is a right answer.
Okay, there are two people are at a wedding and one person prays to the infinite power, or source, or the thing many people call God hoping it won't rain and spoil the wedding. And there is another person attending the wedding for personal reasons, who prays that it will rain, thinking it will be blessing to the couple. This question is mostly based on a true experience.
What will God do? Make it rain, or not make it rain, or not do anything because millions and billions of people are praying for their own individual wants and request and maybe God is busy.
I find this subject interesting because it gets to the real deal about prayer. Are there winners and losers? Will God listen to? Anyone? Or no one?
Your description has nothing to do with Yin and Yang, which represent balance, not opposites, yin requires yang and yang requires yin.
What you describe is two *******s thinking god should listen to them. God does not give a flying flip whether it rains for someone's wedding or not and opposite prayers are just that because they are attempts to move god to do something for their selfish reasons. A group organized to pray for a specific outcome might have more chance of happening if all or most are also acting towards that goal, but it has nothing to do with any deity. Proper prayers (whether you believe there is some bipolar god who listens to them or not) are for "best outcome of a situation for all concerned". Those are the prayers that "work". Personal prayers may work because you follow them with action to set up the outcome you are praying for, but just sitting and praying and waiting for "god" to answer is useless.
With prayers of yin and wang to Jesus will get no answer as yin and wang are not of God, but come from Taoist who have no God........ Then if you curse and prayer for curses to Jesus than will get no answer where if you call a prayer to bless through the will of God could be answered with a faithful heart to God
I thought your god was all encompassing, omnipotent & omniscient so how could something be not of god if someone thought of it?
BINGO. Perfect answer. I was trying to show the ridiculousness of prayer and how people use it for the most mundane things. Obviously people are free to do whatever they want, however prayer seems to be the default mode for people whenever they want something; be it lost keys, weather, football games, etc., etc. I wish that instead of saying I pray my team wins, I'd rather see, I wish or hope my team wins. When praying is overused it loses all meaning, and I don't think people realize that.
And as someone who has lost a child at a very early age, I HATE when people say I'm sending prayers to the family. What the hell does that mean and do people think that somehow that will comfort me or my family. It won't.
Oh yeah and, just go to a battlefield and watch sworn atheists becoming ardent believers, the very moment shelling begins and their lives are endangered.
See, this is an interesting indirect proof that, pretty much in most humans, there is inherent faith in some sort of a supernatural force, watching over them, that they can refer to, in need. Difference between say believer and atheist is, one is constantly IN that force and the other reaches to it only in a grave situation.
As of your question. I do not find it "silly". Maybe naïve, but it's not that bad.
I have two answers.
One is a parable:
A village suffered form a severe draught, resulting in hunger and famine.
They sent a delegation to holy person, to come and help them.
After some time, the man arrived and asked for a secluded dwelling somewhere on the village outskirts.
A lone hut was provided for him and he locked himself inside.
He didn't come out for three day.
At the end of the day three, a strong rain fell, reviving the crops.
Full of joy, villagers approached the holy man with gratitude and, one of them asked, what was that you've done, to make such miracle?
Nothing, was the response. I simply spent this time to bring myself to order.
Second response is: well, just sit down and try to imagine, what repercussions will response to such prayers, as in your example, have, should it rain indeed, just because the two asked for it?
Realize one simple fact. That rain will influence dozens of people and may cause effects, spreading for miles and for years and years to come.
Everything, that a powerful spiritual being does, MUST be weighed against every human destiny to come and complexity of such affects is immeasurable. So it is, naïve the question, more naïve to conclude that, things happen because someone wishes it. Things happen as they happen, as permitted by destiny, at conjunction of place, time and conditions. Now multiply this times billions of lives, and the entire cosmos, in its unity.
Maybe now, you will understand, how naive the question was and how immeasurably wise the "god" work is, to maintaine all that in oprder and balance.
Oh yeah and, just go to a battlefield and watch sworn atheists becoming ardent believers, the very moment shelling begins and their lives are endangered.
...
Once I stopped believing, even twice when I thought I might very well die, I did NOT suddenly begin praying again.
Once I stopped believing, even twice when I thought I might very well die, I did NOT suddenly begin praying again.
You know where I was on 9/11. People who prayed lived and people who prayed died, and people who did not pray lived or died, and afterward some people became more religious and some people became less religious. Or their beliefs changed form.
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