If you think the answer to everything is "god" then in reality you are really just saying you don't have the answer to anything. It's like when you are a child and pretend that a toy soldier is really a soldier. You may tell yourself that it's a brave soldier that kills the enemies and destroys the bad guys hideout and makes the world safe for everyone, but in reality, it's still just a toy, and it hasn't done any of that. It's just been imagined to have done something, because you made it do it. No one that wasn't playing with you would say that it happened the way you said it did. And even of the ones who did play with you, there's a chance that some of them would make the distinction between make believe and reality, so when you suggest that we send your toy soldier to fight the war in Iraq, they say "C'mon, man, it's just a toy."
Basically, attributing anything at all to god is like attributing it to that toy soldier. Does that explain why prayer doesn't work, despite faith?
2007-07-01 14:01:46 · 18 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
Patty, I'm very open for discussion and debate, and I'm very willing to hear your point of view, you don't have to hold back on account that you "think" I'm not willing to listen. To the contrary, you should assume that I am, since I made my assertion in the form of a question. So, please, feel free to share... but don't be upset if I have counterarguments that give secular meaning to your arguments.
2007-07-01 14:21:37 · update #1
p.s. According to the words of Jesus, he does operate just like that. He says on more than four separate occasions that he will grant anything you ask in prayer. ANYTHING. Not some things, if they're in god's will, anything. I can direct you to specific verses if you'd like.
2007-07-01 14:24:08 · update #2
ah but toy soldiers exist and god doesn't
2007-07-01 15:11:39 · answer #1 · answered by . 6 · 1⤊ 1⤋
I have had many prayers answered "Yes", I would like to take the time to share them all with you, and maybe I should, but I don't think you are open to rebuttal anyway - so I guess I won't share the details. Just because God's answer is "No" doesn't mean He didn't answer - He just said "No".
God isn't your secular Santa - that's where most understanding about answered prayer fails the unbeliever. When we pray for "things" (like Janis Joplin's Mercedes Benz) . . . .
Get it?
2007-07-01 21:17:05 · answer #2 · answered by Patti R 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
Jesus says that when you have given your whole heart and you are godly person and have total faith in Him. Then He will grant our wishes if they are not selfish. There is no such a thing that God allows pain and suffering. WE allow it.
Prayers DO work. And sometimes answer is NO.
2007-07-01 22:00:15 · answer #3 · answered by Nina, BaC 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I am not sure if prayer works. I have seen no evidence of it in my life. I have had to face what life has thrown at me and deal with it alone. I pray but it is mostly as a tool for meditation for me.
Does He answer my prayers? I don't think He does. Do I feel better after I have prayed? Sometimes I do but I never expect a reply.
2007-07-01 21:08:32 · answer #4 · answered by Gorgeoustxwoman2013 7 · 2⤊ 3⤋
]Even as We have sent to you a Messenger from among yourselves who recites Our Signs to you, and purifies you, and teaches you the Book and Wisdom, and teaches you that which you knew not.
Therefore, remember Me, and I will remember you; and be thankful to Me and do not be ungrateful to Me.
O ye who believe, seek help through perseverance and Prayer; surely, God is with those who patiently persevere.
Verily, in the creation of the heavens and the earth and in the alternation of the night and the day, and in the ships which sail in the sea with that which profits men, and in the water which God sends down from the sky and quickens therewith the earth after its death and scatters therein all kinds of beasts, and in the change of the winds and the clouds pressed into service between the heaven and the earth - are indeed Signs for the people who use their understanding.
2007-07-01 21:08:18 · answer #5 · answered by MUHAMMAD 3 · 0⤊ 4⤋
The sad thing is that "believers" will tell you their prayers have been "answered", even if whatever outcome they were hoping for does, by some RANDOM chance, come true.
If the outcome isn't satisfied, then it is "Gods Will".
2007-07-01 21:08:44 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 4⤋
Prayers go unheard except by human listeners.
2007-07-01 21:07:29 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 3⤋
yes thay live in a fairy tale world
2007-07-02 05:33:08 · answer #8 · answered by andrew w 7 · 1⤊ 1⤋
No it is not make believe. They are not made to believe. It is an honest belief even if it is wrong.
Kisses Betty B.
2007-07-01 21:06:56 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 4⤋
Make believe "gravity" will hold you to the ground then. There are those of us who knows prayer "works". Too bad you don't.
2007-07-01 21:05:29 · answer #10 · answered by Red neck 7 · 4⤊ 5⤋