How does "free will" and "god's plan" work with prayer?
Does God ever intercept at all?
2006-09-09 19:43:51 · 36 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Well, the answer of course is that he doesn't because he has no objective reality, being a cultural construct. But it's a very good question. I've read evangelical posts in answers in which theists claim that god or angels have helped them get back together with girlfriends, or find lost keys etc, which strikes me as an odd sort of set of priorities given all the misery, disease, genocide etc going on!
Of course there have been empirical studies of the effectiveness of prayer, and they show what you would expect - diddly squat, despite the lies of some christian groups.
Doubtless you will get individual believers coming up with powerful personal anecdotes that they attribute to divine intervention. But if you accept that there is a god who intervenes to help isolated individuals here and there, yet ignores millions of others dying in misery and pain, then one has to conclude that he is a bit of a bastard, really. Created in the image of man, in fact.
2006-09-09 20:06:09 · answer #1 · answered by Avondrow 7 · 5⤊ 1⤋
jane l,
Sometimes the way people word things make the question hard to understand. But I will take it litterally.
"If God never stops really bad things from happening because of free will, then why would prayer work?"
He does stop really bad things from happening. And prayer doesn't work, not that God needs a prayer to work.
Do you get my initial statement now?
"How does "free will" and "god's plan" work with prayer?"
It's up to us to act in faith. The act being prayer in this case. So we choose to act in faith by praying. God's plan is His perogative. He chooses. He does have freewill too, you know.
"Does God ever intercept at all?"
He sure does. He sure does.
2006-09-09 19:52:54 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋
What does not kill us makes us stronger. God does not create bad things, people do because of free will and choice. God intercepts or intervenes with true believers.
God has a plan for everyone, it's just up to each person to stay on the path.
Two children are born with terminal cancer. One couple prays day and night, the other couple doesn't. Which child's cancer is cured?
It's a trick question because there is no definite answer. God may heal the child of the devout parents because He answered their prayers. He may heal the child of the non-believers in order to bring them to Him.
No one can tell exactly WHAT God is going to do, but if you can find the meaning in what's happened, then you have become a better person for it.
2006-09-09 19:51:43 · answer #3 · answered by Bachman-ette 4 · 1⤊ 5⤋
First of all prayer at least helps us mentally and emotionally, It allows us to put everything we're grateful for or have problems with on the table and helps us ponder them. Second, Everything happens for a purpose, God may not Intercede people who are evil because of free will. But he can make things, feelings, better on both sides. There are many stories how prayer brings compassion to evil people. On the the hand, if the evil ignore their sense of compassion that God may be giving them, that's another mark against them. In the end it is faith and enduring to the end that counts, and prayer helps every step..
2006-09-09 19:51:15 · answer #4 · answered by Coool 4 · 0⤊ 4⤋
I don't know where you got the idea that GOD never stops really bad things from happening because he does.If He didn't, no one would be left alive on this planet. The reason that bad things happen to people is because we are surrounded on all sides by evil. The evil that we THINK. (Even when we don't know it is evil). The evil of those who know they are evil and relish it. And those who are evil but think they are good because they have good intentions.
Evil is not something that you do, It is something that you think and your actions resulting from evil thinking is "sin". It is the issue of sin in the world that is the source of all "bad things that happen". That is the reason that free will exists in the universe. God has showed us the way to get out of the bondage to sin by accepting his work on our behalf. When Jesus Christ went to the cross, it was our sin he died for. He opened the way into the presence of God by His Perfect Sacrifice.
We are not qualified to represent ourselves before God because we are dead in our sins. Jesus has provided something we could not obtain for ourselves. Forgiveness from the penalty of sin. Which is death. God has offered a way of defeating the evil in the world even when really bad things happen. God is there offering his comfort if we will only receive it by faith.
Now prayer is for the purpose of building faith in God. It helps us focus on what God's plan for our life is. It is the line of communication between us and God. Even though we may feel that God has not answered our prayer, sometimes answers come in less obvious ways than a voice from heaven. Sometimes we are quietly comforted by his presence and other times it is the way events happen in our lives. Tragedy is something that cannot be avoided in our lives as long as evil people exist but human government was instituted by God to help restrain evil.
I have heard it said that the reason God allows bad things to happen to innocent people is because that was nescessary in order to make sure that the evil people are ultimately punished by separation from God in eternity.Those people will have no joy, no happiness, no freedom, and no relief from the consequences of their sinfulness.
2006-09-09 20:41:48 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
How do you know that God never stops really bad things from happening? How would we recognize the good things without the bad to balance things out? How would we learn if we didn't have good and bad to compare by? How would the killers be known and stopped if they were never caught? I do however think that the abundance of drug abuse and the additives that have been put into commercially sold foods we eat everyday over the last 30
years plays some part in the effect on the mental constitution of a lot of the population today as well as a lack of today's adults lacking a good christian upbringing which teaches us to have a good and moral conscience...Check the history, murder, rape and theft were never so rampant as they are today. Although, I also think that the outlawing of corporal punishment in the hands of the parents played a large part too...We feared our parents so we never did anything like people do today...Granted, corporal punishment needs to be monitored but we do still need it!!!
2006-09-09 19:55:42 · answer #6 · answered by annrizzo 2 · 1⤊ 4⤋
You must pray for realistic things. Before you pray you must understand you cannot pray for God to take away someone's free will - Naturally he won't do that. I could pray for God to kill someone I hated (if I hated anyone, which I do not) or to give me fame, wealth and power, but would He? Of course not! He'd give me a kick in the rear for asking, probably, and I'd deserve it!
Free will and God's plan work fine with prayer. You just have to understand in advance you have to be realistic and reasonable in your expectations.
I used to always say that God was too busy to produce miracles on a daily basis. But then I remembered that the sun rises and sets every day and what miracles sunrises and sunsets often were...
2006-09-09 19:55:49 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 4⤋
This is a big thing that philosiphers have been debating forever, if god doesnt intervene when bad things happen then god isnt all knowing, all loving, all powerful and so on and therefore isnt a god and certainly isn't worth worshiping.
2006-09-09 19:54:32 · answer #8 · answered by graeme b 3 · 3⤊ 1⤋
in eden satan challenged God's right to rule by lying to eve that God had with held the knowledge of good and bad from them. then they sinned and everyone inherited that. God could have destroyed adam, eve and satan for that but what would it prove? killing them doesn't prove he is the only one who has the ability to rule mankind. besides, he would have to destroy all the angels too as they would have seen of heard of the event. so God left humans to try and prove they can rule themselves better than God can. he sent his son to die so humans can once again reach perfection if they follow Gods instructions.
and as for prayer, in jesus's model prayer, we are taught to pray for the glorification of jehovah's name and for his will to be done as regards heaven and earth. his will was and is for humans to be perfect. revelation 12:9 shows why many problems occur but also shows that his will is being done in heaven because they are perfect again. now we pray for the earth to be made perfect again.
another reason for praying is to ask jehovah for holy spirit to empower us to carry on serving him. he won't cure ilness and all the suffering yet as it is not yet time for armageddon. once that has come and gone he will return the righteous ones and all those who are resurrected. john 5:28,29 says: 'Do not marvel at this, because the hour is coming in which all those in the memorial tombs will hear his voice and come out, those who did good things to a resurrection of life, those who practiced vile things to a resurrection of judgment.'
2006-09-09 23:34:53 · answer #9 · answered by iamalsotim 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Prayer is usually a way to worship God, not ask him to intevene personally in one's life since it is a human's free will that ended them with the life they have.
Prayers are Hail Mary, Our Father......they are a form of meditation and worship to bring ourselves closer to God, the concept of us asking him to do personal favors is not really a prayer, it constitutes as asking for help, pleading, or sometimes whining.
Prayer is supposed to help by opening your eyes and clearing your head not dumping your responsibilities on God's hands because you can't handle the consequences of your actions
2006-09-09 19:54:35 · answer #10 · answered by natelements 2 · 1⤊ 3⤋