What could explain why his prayers were never answered?

Question

I asked the other day about that ten-year-old boy who was in the news a while back.

He had prayed fervently to have his leg restored, which had been lost in a farming accident. Unbeknownst to his parents he had uttered the prayer every night for a year.

I put a question in here about that, and people in reply came up with theories why the little boy's prayer never was answered.

Question: can you guess what some of them were?

What would be your favorite theory as to why a little boy's prayers were not answered?
And then last week came a funny item in the news: A duck born with four legs.
So now the same people who ventured theories why God didn't give the little boy a leg, you are invited to venture theories why God gave the duck four legs

Since God is all-powerful, giving a little boy one leg shouldn't be any harder than giving a duck four legs?

CHURCH PEOPLE NEVER TIRE OF SAYING "ALL PRAYERS ARE ANSWERED AND SOMETIMES THE ANSWER IS NO"
Excuse me, but I define an answered prayer as one that receives an affirmative answer.

Answer 1

I think the answer is that when people pray to God, or whomever, they are really just doing it for psychlogical reasons, the same reason that people go to therapy, or talk to a friend. They just need to get something off their mind and as humans, we do that by talking. I think that the boy's prayers weren't answered because there isn't anyone or anything to listen to it and do something about it. People just use the idea of God or a higher being as a crutch so they don't have to deal with real life and it's problems. As for the duck, it had a mutated gene, or it was actually two ducks in the womb but one of them was absorbed into the other one imcompletely only leaving 2 extra legs outside. This happens in humans as well.

Answer 2

God didn't take the little boy's leg. It was taken in an accident, right? So why does God get all the blame? Maybe the person who is responsible for the accident should restore the boy's leg!

Most people in this country spend 80% of their time telling God to butt out of their lives. Our government and our courts say God has no place in this country, except in private expression. With so many people telling God to buzz off, why is anybody ever surprised when He leaves well enough alone?

I also don't believe God deliberately chose one duckling to give it 4 legs. That was just some kind of genetic fluke, like being born blind or deaf, just in reverse. God doesn't guide absolutely everything on this planet 100% of the time. He gave it (and us) our own independent existence, and gave us choices.

Who knows? Maybe the 4-legged duck can thank a polluting human for it's genetic oddity, just like the boy in the above scenario has another person to thank for his handicap.

If you are looking for a scapegoat, try a human, instead of God! You will hit closer to the mark.

Answer 3

I highly suggest you read up on a theory known as causal determinism. It is a philosophical term meaning that every act is inevitable. Do some research and apply that to the concept of God. Consider the assumption that God does indeed exist and view not as just being all-powerful, but also as being the original cause of things. Consider he has a plan for everyone. And consider that God knows what he is doing and that everything will work out for good in the end even when things seem like they won't. This answer won't make much sense now, but if you do some reading it will. If I were to explain causal determinism, it would take me pages and pages.

Here are some links to get you started:
http://www.answers.com/causal%20determinism

http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/determinism-causal/

It may not have been in that boy's best interest to have his leg restored. He just can't see that yet. God may have set things in motion so that some good will come out of that boy not having a leg. This will keep you occupied. I challenge you to mediate on this concept until you cannot find any holes in it. Have fun :)

Answer 4

Making children believe in and pray for the impossible and then giving them excuses as to why their prayers were somehow "answered" (i.e. "Oh, son, another little boy somewhere in Papua New Guinea got a new leg thanks to you losing yours") should be considered child abuse. I don't mean teaching them that there is beauty and hope in nature and in imagination; I mean teaching them that if they were good enough somehow God would make everything in their lives perfect. What a crazy standard to have to live up to! I am not against prayer. I am against people who insist that it will work as a "medicine" somehow, to deprive others of their so-called 'sin'. I have prayed at times as a means to possibly spread positive energy but I have never said it "worked" when I feel it didn't.

THEORIES AS TO WHAT PEOPLE RESPONDED WHEN THEY READ YOUR FIRST POST:

1. Of course it worked. He has another leg. He's still alive. Maybe if he hadn't lost his leg that day on the farm a plane carrying his family would have crashed.

2. 'Twas God's will.

3. God heard the boy's prayers and decided instead to bash homosexuals.

FAVORITE THEORY AS TO WHY IT WASN'T ANSWERED:
Rather than learning that "god" was NOT someone on a throne in the sky delegating crazy miracles; rather than letting him know all the wonderful things he could do on one leg; this boy's church and family failed him. He never learned to pray to do whatever he could to better humanity with only one leg, he learned only that there was something wrong with him that some god must fix. This, of course, didn't happen. Perhaps it wasn't his parents, I don't know the full story, but a society that promotes the idea of prayer as a "fix-it-all" tends to be confusing to those without the tools necessary to understand what this means.

As for the four-legged duck, I think he was probably a well-endowed drake, twice over.

I'm sorry *Jesus*, but it is not God's will that he get a prosthesis. It is the will of doctors, volunteers, and humanity. If it were simply God's will there would be no reason to follow any moral compass.

Answer 5

We do not know the reason that God did not restore the boys leg. The boy may not even know for years (or possibly not at all in this life), but we can be sure that God does have a purpose for this. We can praise God that the boy is still living! It is better for his family that he be here, living even without a leg, than for him to have died.
And you can't say that God didn't answer his prayer, because God does answer all prayers. It's just that sometimes He says yes, sometimes He says no and sometimes He simply tells us to wait.
While we may not like or understand His answer.....He does and we just have to rely on Him.

Answer 6

By merely reading your comments from your question, it will be conclusive to say that you have now lost your faith to God (if you ever have ). Do not lost your faith because God is always here to help us.,and when you pray, pray with all your hearts and ask what you want but of course with faith in Him. God will no immediately answer your prayers and do not expect that God will be personally do what you asked for. Someday, somehow God will call the attention of a rich believer of God who will shoulder the expenses for the leg of that 10 year old boy to have a leg in place of the cut one. For sure the leg of the boy will not be restored anymore but in place of it, a leg be installed to make him walk. There is probability on it and it depends on God s will, when will that be. Do not hurry. Have faith in God.

Answer 7

What exactly does a boy's legs and a duck's leg's have to do with each other?

Your reasoning is way off.

All prayers are answered, either yes, no or wait.

Just to be blunt, for some reason, the answer was no.

The Apostle Paul had an infirmity ( many think it was his eyesight). He asked God three times to heal them. God answered him also, He said no.

Answer 8

Most people are confused. They mistake the law of karma for a Gods wrath or blessing. Then they think a God that only emanates perfection would listen to there delusional cries to make right a wrong. They are telling God what to do and not listening. I blame religion for the above. Most people are asleep to the truth, due to "beliefs".

Answer 9

What...?
We're shortsighted. We tend to think in terms a lifespan and weight the cost and benefit of our prayers based on a temporal life. In the grand scheme of things, what is 72 years (avg) compared to eternity?

God is more concerned with character than he is with happiness.
Life is hard. It proves our mettle.

Answer 10

There is no god to do anything. andpeople don't regenerate any organ but the liver. As for the duck, it was obviously a mutation.