Follow up on the prayer question, why do non believers already know the answer?

Question

Agnostic here, dont want to convert anyone or change anyones religion.
Follow up to this:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20060826055949AAZHuRr&pa=FYd1D2bwHTHwIbxjHe06SXnAOkkhsN9T4dY5EXwpv7Oirw--&msgr_status=

Why do people who don't believe in God, including myself, already know that all the religious people are going to say essentially the same thing, that sometimes God answers no, and they didn't answer the question in the details, what if someone invented God and said that there would be unanswered prayers, knowing that it would be the case?

There is something called apologetics, its a defense of a belief. Why is it that some people myself included know all these scripted apologetics answers but still don't believe in God?

Is it inevitable in yahoo answers our questions will only get the scripted apologetic answers? Are there any real believers or are they just cutting and pasteing from an apologetics book?

Answer 1

Because unbelievers quoted the same answers when they were believers therefore it shows that they never really believed in God and that they were quick to escape God when their prayers wasn't answer. Not every believer say the same things and you and others former believers don't know what every believer will say. My answer was not a program Nor a trained thought! Be fair and not an arrogant know-it-all.

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Answer 2

Jim, it sounds like you will only accept a particular answer and if we say anything else, it is considered that we don't think for ourselves, follow a book, blah, blah, blah. Guess what, as a Christian, I've heard these arguments from agnostics and other nonbelievers over and over...

Is it just possible that we answer this way out of our own experiences?

I've seen too much evidence in my own life that tells me that prayer is definitely answered by God and the facts are far too coincidental to be anything but God. The odds of the total prayers answered and the circumstances that happened would be infinitessimally small to be anything else.

I don't know if you are a parent or not, but do you always give your children what they want? Do you sometimes let them learn the hard way through experiences (because it's the best teacher) and sometimes you give them what they want. Other times you would like to give them that item but you know ultimately that it would be either unappreciated or would lead to other issues.

Let's take the issue of a parent who has the money and has a pretty good 16 year old who wants a car. Sure you can give them the car and they are well behaved, but is that the right decision for them to have that car? Because you know that the car would also create a temptation for them to do things they should not do (sorry, I'm typing without my glasses so excuse any typos I don't catch).

God knows our circumstances and the reasons why or why not to give something.

I'll give you two examples of prayers in my life
Husband had a tumor and the Lord led us to the right surgeon. My husband is the only person with this size of a tumor to end up without facial paralysis and the circumstances that led us to this surgeon were far too coincidental, including finding the name on the internet while we were praying for this in a different location.
The second is when my sister in law died of cancer. If she survived, her kids would have ended up very different than they ended up with a step mom, who was more capable of raising them.

So, sometimes answers don't happen in our own logical minds the way we want or what we think should happen. But I'll still stake my claim on God being sovereign and knowing what's best in the long run.

Answer 3

I am a believer in God and you know what I think you are too. The only difference is that I admit it and you take the other stand. The very question that you are posing sort of implies that you are asking because you want someone else to reassure you of what you may think is true, that God does exist. Remember now this is the Supreme Being in the Universe, do you think that this Supreme Being is going to worry about you not believeing in Him. Well you know what, this is why He is the Supreme Being in the Universe, He does not worry but He does care for you. So maybe this is your own apologetics answer to your own question. Keep searching that is your God given right and He would not have it any other way. When you are old and grey you may discover that the energy that you extended all those years in trying to disbelieve in God was wasted but who knows. God is within me and I do know that when I do something that isn't right I know it because I think about what God or in alot of situations, what Jesus, would do in this situation. Have a good day and may God be with you.

Answer 4

Jim,

You asked about an article of faith and this question has been definitively answered within the faith. Thus, so many answers looking alike.

You asked the faithful whether their experience could be the result of someone inventing God, and each seems to have insisted that their experience is consistent with their belief in God.

How does that make them fake, as opposed to whatever you define as "real"? Why assume cutting and pasting when it seems obvious they were stating their belief as they understood it, spontaneously?

I think you're more upset about their determined faith than cutting and pasting. You know better than to expect Christians to entertain the possibility their religion is based on invention rather than revelation.

You can hope...but expectation is a bit much, I think.

Peace.

Answer 5

I read the details in the question. You assumption is that questions are not answered, that leads to the rest of our position. However, my point is that the prayer is in fact answered. Which negates the rest of your point.

The Bible, which I am assuming is one of the religious books you are talking about doesn't say that. It doesn't say that God doesn't answer prayers. In the Psalms and Lamentations there are times when we feel that God isn't answering our prayers, but the truth is that is not the case. In fact if you read those books you find that those that wrote them testify that the reason that they seem unanswered is that they, the writer, have strayed from their relationship with God and therefore are NOT LISTENING to him and therefor cannot hear the answer.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTS

I try to be brief in my answers because I find that most of the people here are not actually looking for answers, they are looking for someone to agree with them about their particular point of view.

Believe me, I have been a Christian for over 20 years, and I am a ponderer. There is rarely a question that is asked here that I haven thought about in some for or another. I could sit here and type long answers all day long. But like I said most of the people here are not actually looking for answers, they are looking for someone to agree with them about their particular point of view. So I tend to keep my answers brief but full of truth if the reader thinks about the answer.

Answer 6

First of all, God only hears the prayers of believers. And He only acts positively on prayers that are according to His will. God answers all prayers, but the answer may not be what the person praying wanted. He will answer that pray, but in a way that is best. And sometimes, the answer to a prayer is no, because that is what is best.

Answer 7

okay...do you know the future? do you know what the outcome of everything you do is going to be? i'm not talking about the effects things you do have on your own life, your immediate surroundings or the people you know. have you considered, or is it even possible for you to consider how an answered prayer will affect you, the people you know, the people you don't know and in what ways? what if you prayed for something....like a million dollars. and in getting that million dollars and it affecting things you do, you set off a chain of events that kills your mother. or on a larger scale even, what if you getting that million dollars inadvertantly begins WWIII? how would you know? how do you even know how the things you do now affect the cosmos? have you ever seen "The Butterfly Effect"? i know that was just a movie, but a lot of religions, not just Christianity, believe we are like a stones, our actions tossing us into a pond. we make ripples, man. what it comes down to is...wouldn't you rather have someone who knows every outcome of everything you do make some decisions for you? that's why you can't have everything you want. because if you could mold and shape everything that happens in your own life how you want it, you'd probably seriously f*ck up all of existence.

Answer 8

Follow up on the prayer question, why do non believers already know the answer?


It's very easy to beg the immaterial for relief from our needs and misfortune. Better would be for us to work to bring about what we desire.
For some it is not easy to believe things that make no sense at all.Unanswered prayers are such a sad thing.

Answer 9

Could it be that one is looking for a mechanical (absolute) answer, rather than accepting an answer from growth; which could vary? Could it be the repliers (to questions) are answering based on where they are, but also realizing they are shooting for something better than where they presently are; consequently their answers have room for growth. The difference between the absolute right (the goal) and place on is at; could that be what the asker calls apologetics?

Answer 10

Can you see that it can't help but work both ways? Even as you say, "how can you believe that your way of thinking is better than my way of thinking?" you are thinking that your way of thinking is better than our way of thinking?

I think it all comes down to faith. I don't believe faith is a feeling some people have and some people don't. Faith is willingness to do what God says, even though you can't see how it's going to work.

At some point it has to become kinesthetic and not just hearing or seeing. At some point you have to do it yourself. It's like teaching someone to tie their shoes. You can tell them (though it's difficult to put into words), you can show them how you do it, but they don't learn how until they try for themselves.

Faith won't make much theoretical sense. It's not really supposed to. It's meant to be used.