Do ever talk to God through prayer?

Question

Religious people often say that they talk to God, and hear God’s voice through their prayers. Most intelligent people know that when we hear voices or talk to fantasies in our mind, that such behaviour is the result of a mental disorder. This is much the same way as talking to aliens on spaceships, chatting to voices in your head, and numerous other similar mental problems.

It’s well known through Yahoo Answers that I am trying to find a cure for religious madness and help free people from the “blissful” but nonetheless mentally handicapped world they live in. This whole process, although very time consuming, will ultimately help our younger generation and bring greater happiness to our world, without the need for the slaughter of innocent men, women and children by organised religion.

Religious people, when you talk to your God, or listen to your God, can you try and explain what you hear and feel at the time. I’d greatly appreciate your input to my research studies.

Answer 1

No, since god doesn't exist, and I am not psychotic enough to talk to myself, I don't.

Answer 2

Wow...and people think that Christians are evangelical.

When I talk to God, I usually do it in the privacy of my own mind, and God speaks to me through his Word (the Bible) and the words of other people, as verified by His Word. When a person truly relys on God, God the Holy Spirit actually indwells that believer and speaks to that person's spirit, in accordance with His Word. I don't hear voices or have uncontrollable impulses to, oh, bomb an abortion clinic or shout down/kill/maim someone who disagrees with me, and no true Christian does, if God has truly transformed and renewed their mind.

I don't think that you're engaging in research, either. If you were, you wouldn't be trying so hard to forward your agenda. However, to answer the implied question you ask in the second paragraph, the total number of "innocent men, women and children" who have been "slaughtered" by organized religion thoughout the recorded history of civilization have amounted to about 4 million. One atheist leader alone, Josef Stalin, was responsible for over 20 million deaths over a 20 year period. (I can document this, if you'd like.)

I could go on, but my point is made.

Answer 3

It's a sad thing that so many people are taught to fear and distrust the voices of the Gods, that they have to convince themselves that those who aren't headblind are "mentally handicapped." It is those who cannot see who are blind, those who cannot hear who are deaf.

If it became fashionable to always wear a headband over one's eyes (for example, if people lived in a region with so much dust and sand that eyesight was pretty much useless), then a person who saw, and tried to describe his visions to others, would be considered delusional.

People "know" that voices in the head are a sign of illness the same way people "know" the Pope is infallible... because they've been told this by people they trust. No logic is required, no confirmation of premises, no testing of hypotheses--such claims defy testing, because they are based on tautologies that allow no questions.

I am sorry you have turned your handicap into a distrust of wholeness.

Answer 4

I talk to God all the time. I have never heard Him speak to me in audible words, but many have. Those who are in touch and close to Him hear Him more. I feel His presence and I get answers to prayer. I have had ideas and words come to mind which I know are from Him. The 10 commandments observed by Christians are the basis for most laws. Are you also against laws? My church feeds hungry people, visits those in jail, sends money and school supplies overseas [and locally], helps people find jobs, gives away clothes, and much more. Gee I can't think of one person we have slaughtered, even on a world level.

Answer 5

You do realize that if you 'freed' the world from organized religion there would be something entirely different for everyone to blame their problems on.

I talk to God and Christ through prayer, yes. Do I hear human words back from either? No. God doesn't need to 'talk' in human words to anyone. He can bestow His knowledge on us without any human-type interaction at all. It cannot be explained in words because it is easily misunderstood. But if your heart and mind are closed, there is no point in trying to make YOU see what you cannot.

Answer 6

It is interesting the choice of words that some Christians use to describe their experiences.

It would be much more factual if they could phrase things like "I was meditating while staring at my hands and I saw a strange pattern and what I interpreted was god seemed to urge me to jump up and down and shout, which prevented my two year old from sticking his finger in the electrical outlet (nevermind that I should have been watching my kid to begin with)..."

The use of exclusionary language actually causes more distrust and disbelief than the amount of "converts" it might create.

Just my opinion.

Answer 7

Proverbs 12:23

Answer 8

When I talk to God through prayer, it's spiritual. Though my praying may be verbalized speech, God responds to me though His Holy Spirit. Though I don't hear little voices in my head, God makes His will known to me.

Answer 9

so, you're an 'atheist missionary?' interesting...you must be that person that keeps coming to my door for no apparent reason...and isn't it just marvelous that you are devoting yourself to freeing us from our religious madness...i sense subtle clues in your post that lead me to believe that you are from 'across the pond?'...if so, perhaps your time might be better spent on other, more pressing matters-like driving on the wrong side of the road, cooking various and sundry nasty animal organs into pies and calling it 'food' and doing something about those dreadful gossip sheets you laughingly refer to as 'newspapers'...or maybe you could explain the fascination with a family full of inbred oddballs you call 'the royal family'...what, exactly, do they have power over...the feeding of the royal ducks?

Answer 10

Yes

Answer 11

In your mind, then, billions upon billions of people throughout time all had a "mental disorder"? What about the your so called "sane" people, i.e., the atheists? What have they done for humanity throughout the ages?