Is God listening and where is the evidence that he has listened?

Question

The memorials for September 11 were glutinous with the language of GOD. People prayed to GOD, sang songs to GOD and, interestingly enough, gave GOD “thanks”.
They needn’t have bothered – one year ago, GOD didn’t listen to the terrified voices that cried out to GOD from the same patch of earth, and there is no reason to believe he was listening this time. If he was – if demonstrations of admiration and gratitude are more likely to arrest GOD’s attention than desperate pleas for help – then surely he’s not worth congratulating. Asking GOD for help is completely futile.
Some received assistance, or so they believe. I heard one survivor declare that his miraculous escape was “the work of GOD”, who had obviously saved him for some “greater purpose”. What does that mean for those who didn’t survive? Did GOD decide, in their moment of need, that they were worthless? Yes! that’s it you are a useless carbon units your time is up!

A Christian would say that some good will come of the suffering, and when that good comes then – hey presto! - that’s GOD’s miracle. But that same miracle is dealt by a deck of cards and every gambler knows it; endure enough clubs and sooner or later you’ll turn up a heart. If the withholding of inevitable pleasure is GOD’s finest trick, he’s a lousy magician who wouldn’t get a round of applause in a strip joint, let alone squadrons of groupies eager to love GOD unconditionally.
“It’s all part of GOD’s plan”, says the believer. But if GOD’s plan is so vast and mysterious that the suffering of millions is an integral, immovable part of it, then what is the point of prayer? The plan is more political than compassionate, and therefore none of our business. What is the point of kneeling and praying for all manner of petty deliverances when His plan is a steamroller that will not be stopped?

I might just as well ask Al Qaeda to please postpone their terror campaign as today is my birthday.

If there is a GOD, He failed on September 11. All GODs failed. The GOD the people in the buildings prayed to returned their desperate pleas for help by filling their mouths with flame and grinding their bones to dust. The GOD whose name the terrorists wailed as they slammed into the buildings rewarded their faith by allowing American hands to slither over their beloved homeland, to police their brothers and sisters, perhaps for good.

The simple fact – and it appears humankind must endure a billion miseries before coming to terms with it – is that GOD does not exist. Not in heaven, not in Manhattan, not in Mecca, nowhere at all. He exists but as a character in an ancient best-seller, and a nasty bit of work at that, his lust for violence and cruelly-manufactured ironies spectacularly detailed in every chapter. We’d be better off praying to Hannibal Lector.

At least he gives his victims a day off now and then.
Of course, the idea of GOD is comforting to the bereaved - it is simply more tolerable to believe that the dead are in heaven rather than flat-lining through oblivion, the grotesqueries of their last moments irreconcilable for eternity. And we should, I suppose, as compassionate, romantic beings, allow people the peculiar comfort their imaginary friend brings.
But GOD is no benevolent white rabbit, and human beings aren’t all gentle imbeciles. This invisible friend whispers death to His apostles. He tells people to kill each other, He does it all the time and He’s been doing it for millennia. If it were a new idea, if he were a 21st century fad, the courts of the world would abandon their war on drugs and throw all such resources at the jugular of GOD.

While theologians, politicians and activists alike all argue over who’s responsible for all the mayhem in the world, the true architect of every grief we know is right under their noses. It’s GOD. He is the only difference between Arab and Jew, the fight organiser of protestant vs. catholic, the mirage that lures the little boy to the paedophilic priest. He’s too much trouble and it’s time we stopped making excuses for the guy who kick starts barneys then never shows up to pull his weight. If any cosmic being kept his appointment on September 11, it was Satan. He promised us chaos and he delivered. And nobody was strong enough to stand in his way.

You know why? And the answer has been there all this time but here it is for the non thinker’s tad darrr ---- That’s because there was nobody.

Satan doesn’t exist either. It seems he does because those things we consider to be evil – chaos, destruction, bad days – are the restive ways of the Earth. As a species, we have worked miracles to keep the violent world at our gate. Sometimes those miracles are baffled, because the universe is like that. Against exploding stars, earthquakes and the tempers of men, we can only do so much to defend ourselves.

To end on a positive - We are all gods we are the creaters of our own destiny we can do amazing things when we pull together for a comon purpose and we can create a bomb that can destroy major cities to complete dust. We are all part of a collective conscience we live in the soup of gods together we can create eternal happiness heavan on earth and all it takes is you to put aside your differances and reflect more on what makes us the same. - Amen

Answer 1

I am sorry, but I didn't read all of you additional comments...I think I get the question though, you could have asked "If god is so good, why does he or she allow people to suffer?" Would that not have been much simpler? I will not deal out the cliche about god having a plan or whatever. My point is this, when it comes to the christian god, this god has the quality of omnipresence. That being said, god is everything or at least present in everything. Thus, who suffers? God. Who kills? God. Who complains about god not listening? God. Why does god hide from the faces of so many? Why do you hide? It is because it's a good game.

Answer 2

I personally do believe in many Gods, including a one true God, however, anyone who thinks that any entity of such a scale as to be the creator of the universe is going to pay any attention to the suffering of people on a planet that is smaller than the tiniest microscopic speck of dust in regards to the universe then they need to seriously rethink their perspective and the importance of their lives. I may disagree about the existence of a God, but I don't think anybody could earnestly argue with most of your points. Good rant, I congratulate you for actually thinking about this whole God thing and coming to a good conclusion.

Answer 3

Prayer isn't for changing God's mind to spare you or give you something you want. That's not the help God provides. You are obviously intelligent, but apparently have fallen victim to the same delusion of which you complain. You are trying to refute God's evidence based on the same method of limited human reasoning that you assert believers use to explain their beliefs.

Happy Birthday!

Answer 4

This is not truly a question.You just wanted a chance to get on your soap box and rant about your reasons for not believing in God.I have asked God for help and he has answered then i asked again and He didn't that's the reason you say NOT MY WILL BUT THINE OH LORD.

Answer 5

Why do you afraid to die. As humans we are destined to die anytime as God wanted it to be. And why do you blamed God for the death of a man at young age and will cause your faith to God to be lost.

If somebody dies, do not think that God has punish him. No. God has some other purpose for the dead man in his life

All humans are bound to die.
jtm.

Answer 6

nice rant.

Prayer pays at the same odds as chance; most people just never do the math.

Edit: flossie mae...do people really speak Jamesian English in prayer? I really think God's either "current" or not listening to English at all.

Answer 7

There is, of course, no evidence of any sort to suppose the existence (or non-existence) of god, and it provably follows that any theory of god is useless: it can predict nothing about the real world. See also:

Answer 8

No materialist can understand faith,so give it up and get another hobby than asking lame questions on a religion site.

Answer 9

I'm sorry you are so bitter ... it will eat you up eventually, I hope you are aware of that.

I won't go through your entire rant, you obviously needed to vent, I hope it helped somewhat to let it out.

Answer 10

God only makes sense to believers. That's why He doesn't make sense to you and thats the way He designed it.. "without faith it is impossible to please Him"