does god answer prayers or do people just attribute good things to him?

Question

and if god is supposed to be everything, then isn't he also everything that's bad, too?

Answer 1

And don't forget to ask why Jehovah allowed 6 million of his chosen people to be incinerated by Hitler, or how Buddha allowed Truman to vaporize 200,000 men, women or children, or how God allowed Stalin to execute 30 million Christians. If god was truly benevolent and omnipotent, could these things have happened.

The mere existence of evil in this world makes the existence of a benign god impossible: If god were omnipotent, he could eliminate evil and if he were benign, he would want to do so. Furthermore, if god were all-good, as he is supposed to be, he could not sin. However, if he were all-powerful, he could sin.

If God is willing to prevent evil but is not able to prevent evil, then he is not omnipotent.

If God is able to prevent evil but is not willing to prevent evil, then he is not benevolent.

Evil is either in accordance with God’s intention or contrary to it.

Thus, either God cannot prevent evil or he does not want to prevent evil.

Therefore, it follows that God is either not omnipotent or he is not benevolent. He cannot be both omnipotent and benevolent.

And there's the absurdity of prayers, requests by confessedly unworthy persons to have the laws of the universe repealed in their favor. In a war, if soldiers in opposite trenches pray to God, who does he listen to?

After horrendous disasters or personal calamities, religious people commonly thank their god for the miracle of saving them or helping them. It does not occur to them that, if god is omnipotent, he could have prevented the disaster before it struck in the first place. Since god did not prevent the disaster, he obviously harmed his poor believer purposely and with malice. Who needs gods like that?

But, alas, there's a scientific reason for our belief in god using CAVE MAN logic, it's in our genes. To survive in a hostile environment, our ancestors developed a god to believe in, to give them succor in time of peril and to cushion them from the despairing future of their utter death and annihilation.

Obsolete genes do not die overnight, so we'll be seeing a distorted worldview for some time to come.

Answer 2

Devotion is love towards God. I really don't know what i do and think is right. I shall just say what is prayer for me. If anything good happens to me, even for a very small thing, i would just thank god.. Whatever problems and worries i got, i would just feel that God will never let me down. Whenever i'm helpless too, i will be okay soon, not that i would get the thing, the absence of which made me sad. But i would get the power to live and deal with the problems i face. And it's not necessary that we could pray only by going to temple regularly or chanting mantras, as far as me.. I do go to temple regularly before. But, now my profession doesn't allow me to temple much.. I feel God as one of my best friend, who always eases me and make me feel strong when i face my harder times.. I do say some mantras, while praying.. But i think chanting on mantras will only make the prayer complete.. The thing is our thoughts should be pure enough. We should never think bad for others.. That is what God sees, i guess..:-)

Answer 3

I can answer your question, but its only my own, personal point of view....God does not answer prayers. When we pray for something, it either happens, or not. Its not random, thats not what I'm saying. I guess its, well, what we pray about, and how much we believe that it will happen, and all the small things we don't realize that we are doing that make it happen. When it does, we take it on faith that God has answered...when it doesn't, we tend to blame God, or our own shortcomings in his sight, that God knew better than to grant our prayers.
About the evil thing, all I can say is I can not believe that a deity that creates beauty, and loves, can be evil.

Answer 4

With no offense to YOU, OTHERS, or a GOD, I offer this, and maybe you've answered your own Q?

Since 1986, the year my daughter was born, I have been looking DOWN, most often,,, NOT depressively, but in that context I've managed to collect over $1000 in moneys left laying, or lost, which I give over to her, in a form of tribute and thanks.

I'm an ordained Minister, though don't have a congregation, or "pulpit" so to speak, but I admit I say, "Thank You Lord" with every penny I pick up.

Steven Wolf

BTW,,,and again with no real offense. PRAYING is often an act of greed, or selfish thoughts of NEED. I'll give you an analogy.
IF one calls out to the Universe, "GIMME", most often what is echoed back is "gimme" and we don't. The better "Prayer" might be "HERE, TAKE." allowing that reflection to come back at one, as a gifting of sorts.

Answer 5

God does not answer prayer and God is more than good. If God were just good, he would just be the opposite of the Devil, or Satan, or Asmodeus, or whatever name you want to give the non-existent being who we mistakenly think causes evil. Good and evil are concepts of human beings. If God exists then God must transcend these concepts. Otherwise, we make God in man's image.

Answer 6

i think God answers prayers, i was camping at the beach ,,, had left/lost my car keys on it the night before,,,,, had looked with flashlights, then next morning, looked again for hours, had help from others and the security guard,,,, finally as it is getting time to check out,,,, and im faced with calling a locksmith,,,,,, was on the beach and i said "please Jesus , help me",,,,, next second looked over, and there in the sand, was just the end tip of my key, sparkling in the sun, the whole key chain part was buried in the sand!,,,, as to things and everything,,,,, i believe things esist,,,, it is totally up to us how we use them,,,,, but yes,, God would be part of the bad things also,,,,, that wouldnt mean purposely causing them, to harm us,,,, just that the creation has certain occurrences,,,, some of them negative, like natural disasters,, attacks by animals etc,,,,,, other things are the result of us humans,,, and the choices we make

Answer 7

I think people attribute good things to God.

I've also heard that God's answers are yes, no, and wait, but I think those three would cover about all the bases regardless of to Whom one prayed or if one prayed at all.

Answer 8

God does answer all prayers. You just might not like the answer he gives you. He has three answers - yes, no or wait.

God isn't everything bad. God is perfection. Mankind brought sin into the world and allowed evil to run amok.

Answer 9

God answeres my prayers very quickly! I have prayed for other people and people I pray for tell me the next day that my prayer was already answered! Too many instances for me not to believe! God is everything good--Satan is everything bad. God loved us so much that He sent His only begotten son to die for all of our sins and to defeat death (Satan). Our Father in Heaven just wants to find us blameless so that He may love all of us FOREVER. He just wants us to repent of our sins and to love Him and love Jesus Christ. Small prices for us.

Answer 10

Good and bad are relative. You can't know one without the other.
True story. I was praying for discipline and got pulled over by the cops.. Be careful what you pray for and remember that they do get answered.