Have you ever noticed that the only prayers that are "answered" are for things that had a chance of happening anyway? Seriously think about it for a minute. I Challenge you. If someone's canser goes away people say God answered their prayer, but it had a servival rate of 1 in 10 anyway. I'm sure people who have had an arm or leg amputated have prayed or been prayed for, but why doesn't their leg ever regrow? EVER! Not one? Please answer seriously. This is just one example, there are many more things that have a zero chance of happening and when they are prayed for they still never happen. The only so called "Miricles" are always things that had a statistical chance of happening anyway. Does this not logicaly show you that the bible is wrong and that god doesn't answer prayers.
2006-09-28 07:53:28 · 17 answers · asked by advgman52 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Your observation is a good one, but you are not the first. Now you must decide, did those statistics occur by chance or were they divinely initiated? The question remains, did the universe have a beginning or has it always existed? Was the universe created or was it uncaused?
I believe that God does answer prayers. Can I prove it to another? No. Many Christians do not believe that God answers prayers today, but answered them all at the beginning of time. Other Christians believe that we are instructed to pray, not because it changes God's mind but because it changes our hearts. There are multiple doctrines on prayer. These are just a few. Your argument/question truly addresses none of them.
Being persuasive and being logical are two different things. There are many other factors involved in your question. For instance, is eternity a lot of time, or a dimension where time does not exist and things therefore do not occur in sequence? God and eternity are BIG topics.
2006-09-28 08:11:18 · answer #1 · answered by Nick â? 5 · 6⤊ 0⤋
First of all, prayer is not just to get free stuff from God. God is not your, or my, personal genie or slave. If someone has that attitude, then he is misusing prayer.
Prayer is first and foremost an act of worship. The main goal of prayer is to bring a person closer to God.
According to the Bible, you pray for many things and for many reasons. Asking for stuff is OK, since the Bible teaches that sometimes God will do something simply because someone asked, but prayer should be more than that.
And I have had specific prayer requests answered. True, it might have happened anyway, but it IS kind of unlikely that I would specifically get exactly what I asked for. Hum....
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Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray. Is anyone happy? Let him sing songs of praise. Is any one of you sick? He should call the elders of the church to pray over him and anoint him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective
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Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years. Again he prayed, and the heavens gave rain, and the earth produced its crops. My brothers, if one of you should wander from the truth and someone should bring him back, remember this: Whoever turns a sinner from the error of his way will save him from death and cover over a multitude of sins.
~James 5:13-20(NIV)
2006-09-28 08:08:50 · answer #2 · answered by Randy G 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
It all comes down to one thing FAITH. Fearless Attitude of Integrity Trusting Him and Him is God. Either you have faith to believe He will answer your prayer in His time and in His way or you don't it's that simple. The carnal mind or the flesh cannot understand this because it has not accepted faith and it's blind and cannot understand the spiritual realm. Take it or leave it believe what you want but it's not by chance, happenstance or the circumstance that God does or does not answer prayer. God is God and He knows what He's doing. What makes you think you're so right as to deny Him and say He does not answer prayer and that the Bible is just some fairy tale book? How do you know? I live my live knowing that God indeed is who He says He is and His Word the Bible is 100% true. How? By and through faith. Faith is not blind as some think it's more or less just saying I believe even though it's not happened yet or I can't see it I believe it is and it will happen. It's like saying I allready have it. When you have faith like that things do happen. Test God and see if it happens. I dare you. Watch out though you may just get what you asked for. I dare you to try God.
2006-09-28 08:04:37 · answer #3 · answered by dave_83501 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I do believe in god, but not as a miracle worker. If he answered prayers or performed miracles, then there would be no homeless people in the world. The people are not homeless because god didn't answer their prayers, but simply because they are too lazy to work, or too stupid to live their life differently. But the power of belief through prayer for the weary in life, weak of spirit, or sick in health, may help in the producing the desired result. (If someone is deathly ill and they pray to get better, their belief gives them strength to go on and endure until the worst is over and the healing can begin.) Without the belief of answered prayers and miracles, they would have given up and not lived long enough to see the ending result of being well. So I do believe in god and prayer, but whether they are answered by him, i don't think so. (I still haven't won the lottery.) i think your theory on the probability factor of success is correct.
2006-09-28 08:32:12 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God answers prayers in different ways. God give you what he thinks is right for you. Do you remember asking your parents for something that they didn't think was rite for you and you never got it but instead you got something 10 times better???
That's exactly what happens. True, there is a 1 in 10 chance of cancer being cured without prayer, however, with prayer and with God's blessings, the chance increases.
2006-09-28 08:06:48 · answer #5 · answered by Luv Peace 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Prayer doesn't help heart patients in U.S., study finds
Last Updated: Thursday, March 30, 2006 | 2:26 PM ET
CBC News
Having people pray for heart bypass patients had no effect on their recoveries in an American study, researchers say.
The scientists, led by Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School, emphasized that they looked only at the effect of prayer on the patients in their study – and could not address questions such as whether God exists or answers prayers.
The research, which is to be published in the April 2006 issue of the American Heart Journal, involved about 1,800 patients at six medical centres.
Three Christian groups were asked to pray for particular patients, starting the night before their surgeries and continuing for two weeks.
The volunteers were given a patient's given name and last initial, and prayed for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications."
Patients were divided into three groups:
One set of patients was being prayed for and knew it.
The second group was also the subject of prayers, but only knew it was a possibility.
Patients in the third group weren't prayed for, although they were told they might be.
The researchers did not tell patients or their families or friends to change their plans for praying, saying it would have been impractical and unethical to do so.
More complications among patients who knew they were prayed for
The patients were then monitored for 30 days for any complications.
The results showed no effect of prayer on the patients' recovery, the researchers said in the journal article, Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients.
The study found 59 per cent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed medical complications. Among those who thought they might be prayed for, 52 per cent had complications.
The researchers said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate among patients who knew they were being prayed for.
The work was funded by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion.
2006-09-28 08:00:42 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
Your a little confused about prayer, it's not like making an order at a fast-food restaraunt and you get whatever you want.
Sometimes the answer is no, or not now, but to people who do listen with their hearts, there is always an answer, and when they follow that answer, they are always guided right.
(and I can tell you things that have happened to me that are way statistically out there BTW).
2006-09-28 07:59:25 · answer #7 · answered by daisyk 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
What you call statsticial probabilities other people call miracles. A better question to you is. What is wrong with someone thinking that God has answer their prayer if their cancer goes into remission or they get a promotion at work or anything else good happens to them.
2006-09-28 08:20:56 · answer #8 · answered by m_stormcloud2003 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Because if something like somebody's let regrowing happened, it wouldn't be the way God planned it to. Humans were made like that, they don't just regrow body parts like they do hair. God answers the prayers that will be for the best. Lets not interfere with that, shall we?
2006-09-28 07:59:20 · answer #9 · answered by saasay0 2 · 2⤊ 0⤋
shop repenting. yet remember that actual repentance skill to have a metamorphosis of coronary heart and turn removed from the sin. while you're fairly remorseful God will forgive you, yet that doesnt propose you're able to do it many times. Take steps to steer away from circumstances which will bring about intercourse. Like, till you're married, do not spend time on my own consisting of your fiance. bypass to video clips, dinner, church activities. places the place you will not have the means to do those issues. once you have the urge to do issues that are sinful, pray, examine the be conscious, quote scripture. Jame 4;7 tells us that if we arise to the devil he will flee. Are you extremely resisting devil? Or do you in many situations only provide in? i take advantage of to conflict with those issues to, yet then sooner or later i found out that i wasnt doing all that i could to combat it. God by no skill helps us to be tempted greater suitable than we can bear. in actuality, the bible says that he continually supplies us a fashion out. Are there strategies you are able to steer away from those sins? I indexed the fairly some strategies above -- like examining the be conscious, etc.
2016-10-01 11:29:16 · answer #10 · answered by ? 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋