Talking with a very religious friend a few days ago & he was on and on about "God knows everything". Know what is going to happen to the end, what you will do - you get the drift.
So I asked him - If God already knows what is going to happen - WHY PRAY for stuff to happen? Why pray for Rain, for whatever?
Your prayers will often be for something specifit - yet if God knows what is going to happen & you are asking for something else - what good will it do?
He walked away - & we didn't get into Pre Destined or such.
I don't think we will be having any more religious discussions.
Because God loves it when you beg? That's where he gets his considerable self esteem.
I just laugh about all the times I heard in church if you don't get an answer to your prayers that means the answer is "no". "No" of course being His go-to.
Never getting a "yes" was a huge wake-up call actually. Finally you just answer your own prayers.
Because for many people prayer is actually a source of comfort. I feel much better after I pray regardless of what it does ans doesn't cause elsewhere. It works better for me than drugs, drink or a shrink.
Prayer is simply a matter of statistical probabilities.
For instance. Over the eons I have no doubt that there has been a series of prayers for a sign from God. Then one day a meteor flashes across the sky and explodes.
Its a sign from God. You convince your fellow villagers that your prayer caused this. One of them writes it down including your embellishments and theirs as well.
It becomes scripture and people believe it for centuries forward.
But from day one. The event came down to a statistical probability that one day a meteor would enter our atmosphere, heat up, and explode. When and where, who knows, its just a statistical probability. Just like rain. The weather person(s) when it comes to extended forecasts......use statistical probabilities.
Then again. Did those from the past track exploding meteor events to develop odds based upon experience? No. Do we now track that? Yes.
Should we know better today versus way back when? Well we should. But we really don't.
There is a point of view that says prayer is the same as blowing out all the candles on your birthday cake.
The older you get, the harder it is to do it, not to mention coming up with an acheivable wish in mind that won't get you in trouble with relatives, friends, your boss, or the police.
" . . .it felt like I was praying to a fence post so I quit."
Perfect. And . . . looking back, even as a kid I realize now that I never expected an answer. Ever. Deep down you know you just have to allow the honesty in.
If you feel something that you interpret as a spiritual validation, that “proves” that the BoM is true.
If you feel nothing, that doesn’t mean that the BoM isn’t true-it means that you weren’t sincere enough, or that you have impure thoughts, or that you’re not sufficiently humble, and you need to keep trying until you get the right answer.
Voltaire's observation on prayer has shaped my understanding of what prayer should be - not a to-do list for the Almighty or a bartering or begging session, but a chance to open the mind to the unfathomable.
"The Eternal has his designs from all eternity. If prayer is in accord with his immutable wishes, it is quite useless to ask of him what he has resolved to do. If one prays to him to do the contrary of what he has resolved, it is praying that he be weak, frivolous, inconstant; it is believing that he is thus, it is to mock him. Either you ask him a just thing, in which case he must do it, the thing being done without your praying to him for it, and so to entreat him is then to distrust him; or the thing is unjust, and then you insult him. You are worthy or unworthy of the grace you implore: if worthy, he knows it better than you; if unworthy, you commit another crime by requesting what is undeserved. In a word, we only pray to God because we have made him in our image. We treat him like a pasha, like a sultan whom one may provoke or appease."
When my dad died I happened to drive by the local baptist church (I pass it often). It said something that made me think "I know my dad, I don't know God." So I talk to my parents, who both died 16-1/2 years ago. I find comfort in doing so as of course I know them better than almost anyone else.