Why do people put their faith in God when they are seeking a particular outcome of a difficult situation? Isn’t it obvious that he’s got his own agenda and doesn’t give a rip what you want?
How many times have you prayed for something that came to pass? I would guess it happens at a rate that’s exactly statistical.
Let’s say there’s a baby with 1/100 chances of survival. I’ll bet it dies. Sure 1 in 100 will survive and it will be a great and wonderful miracle, but the other 99 are toast. I propose an experiment, lets pray for babies to die and if the rate of mortality goes from 1/100 to 1/1000 it would certainly be significant. Sure some kids’ll die, but it’s for the greater good. Or will they? You don’t think so? Well, then doesn’t that prove my original premise that He doesn’t give a rat’s patootie?
People are taught by religion not to believe in themselves, others, or the world. When you remove all reality as a basis for your belief system, that leaves only the unreal.
Ok, I’m willing for the sake of argument to take the “fact” that answered prayer is just statistics at work…but even if that’s all it is, and people only pray out of fear…What’s wrong with that? I mean, if an elderly lady, who lives alone, prays before she rests at night and sleeps better because of it, then what’s the problem?
If you can demonstrate this conclusively to James Randi, he’ll give you a million bucks.
On the other hand, if you’re like every other person who’s ever tried to demonstrate such supernatural effects objectively and are just fooling yourself through selective sampling or some other lack of critical thinking, then you risk embarrassment and ridicule. But if you really believe it, why not back up your claim and win a million bucks? You won’t even have to get to 100% to satisfy Mr Randi. If the problem is doing something for personal gain, you could always donate your winnings to charity. http://www.randi.org/research/challenge/index.html
There’s the rub. “When I ask God let things happen that I’m pretty sure are going to happen anyway, he usually comes through.”
I can pray that God will give me a brand new Porsche, but I don’t think he’ll actually give it to me.
I can pray that God will heal my great uncle Earl who has end stage lung cancer, liver failure, and tertiary syphilis, but I don’t think it will actually happen.
On the other hand, I can pray that God makes the sun come up tomorrow and lets my car start, both of which I’m fairly confident will happen. Score one for God!
It’s easy to think that God does great things for you when you give him the credit for the good things but take the blame yourself for the bad or chalk them up to “his ways are not our ways”. As has been said many times–you often see athletes thanking God for the victory when they win, but how many have you seen blame God when they lose?
Dr. J
“Seriously, baby, I can prescribe anything I want!” -Dr. Nick Riviera
Or, by praying to God, it gives them the self-confidence/strength/hope to actually go out and do it themselves, and then they go and give God all the credit.
Well, hey, let’s test it out and see what happens. Join me, please, people, as I pray…
Dear Jesus,
You promised 2000 years ago that you were going to come back and get your people. We now ask you, in God’s name, PLEASE COME AND GET THEM!
Thanks,
A girl
::thinking how great it’s going to be to have no traffic on the way home::
And then, hey, if Jesus doesn’t answer, well, it wasn’t god’s will, so I didn’t get what I wanted. Too weird. I mean, what’s hte point of praying if he’s going to do whatever he wants anyway?
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
My friends all drives Porsches, I must make amends!
Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends—
So Lord, won’t you buy my a Mercedes Benz?
