People often complain about how their prayers always go unanswered, and I was just wondering what the AG community thought about this topic. I was also interested in where your opinions where on asking God for something.
You'll be an atheist then, and I pray God has mercy upon your soul.
I don't want the mercy of your God, whatever you might say or think or do, if I really have to then I'll say something dramatic like "I forfeit my soul to Lucifer and bask in his fallen Light" - just don't pray for me alright?
Faith cannot be proven. I've seen enough to believe. My sister was cured from a disease that has no cure after we prayed in family.
That doesn't have to be a miracle y'know - just because there are a few things that medical science can't accurately explain yet it doesn't mean it's a miracle. Also, I'd like to point out that for every supposed miracle of faith healing, there are many more people that go unhealed and suffer the consequences.
God has heard my family's cries for help, and I am very thankful.
Stop attributing things to God without proof. I had a pet fish that died, I don't know what killed it, I'm going to say that God did because I have no other ideas.
My nephew was in a coma last year. He was in a coma for 5 months. Ceaseless prayer gave us hope that he would recover. He is fine now and healthy as ever.
Either your god has a plan for you or not. If he has a plan for you, then why pray? It would just be pretending you know more than him. If he doesn't, then why would those bad things happen to you?
We still have choices. Yes God has a plan for us but we still have a choice to follow that plan. Your talking predetermination, which many denominations dont believe in.
Didn't work for any one, now has it? Or if it does, than go heal an amputee. It would be good for everyone.
Again it's worked for me and countless others. Argue all you want but the fact remains that I've witnessed it first hand. That's like the first people to hear about the Wright brothers flying and calling it shenanigans when someone saw them do it right there. If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move a mountain.
yea it helps for me, i prayed to get out of trouble at school for smoking and i never got called down to the office even though everyone else who was did. and one time i really wanted a bike so i prayed for it and the raffle guy called my name and i won the bike. so yea it works for me
You'll be an atheist then, and I pray God has mercy upon your soul.
Yes, I am an atheist, and scientific testing has proven prayer to be ineffective, so don't waste the energy.
Faith cannot be proven.
Because it is wrong.
I've seen enough to believe.
Objective evidence? No? Then that isn't enough.
My sister was cured from a disease that has no cure after we prayed in family.
What disease? What is the survival rate? Did she have medical assistance from doctors? I will assume the survival rate is high enough that people who don't pray survive just as often, and that you had medical science saving your sister, but no god.
God has heard my family's cries for help, and I am very thankful.
So this god, the one who gave your sister this disease? Why did he give it to her in the first place? It seems rather foolish "Here take this disease. But hey look, you prayed, so I am changing my magical plan that is perfect to fit the whim of some useless random mortal"
If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move a mountain.
If no such faith or mustard seeds present themselves then good ol' dynamite is a safe bet for shifting your mountain - or you could use a giant rock-drill and bore a hole through if the mountain is an inconvenience. What do mountains have to do with God again? Does he have some sort of mountain fetish?
May God have mercy upon you, and I pray for your souls!
Bugger that - I'm an Atheist and I'd prefer you didn't pray for me. You can send some money my way if you'd really like to help me but prayer is useless. Seriously, I don't believe in your silly soul stuff, I'll sign a contract in my own blood if it'd convince you.
My nephew was in a coma last year. He was in a coma for 5 months. Ceaseless prayer gave us hope that he would recover. He is fine now and healthy as ever.
Why not say something like "Medical science is doing its best to save him, and he has a decent chance of surviving. Thousands of years of humans working to the goal of prolonging human life, with the best around working to save your nephew" seems like a good hope raiser.
We still have choices. Yes God has a plan for us but we still have a choice to follow that plan. Your talking predetermination, which many denominations dont believe in.
So your god has a perfect plan, but he doesn't stick to it? Being omnipotent, he would know what would happen in the future so he would know what would happen. Or is he not omnipotent?
Again it's worked for me and countless others.
Countless others, who also happen to use a huge amount of medical science and don't have a better chance than any other religion or lack of so.
Argue all you want but the fact remains that I've witnessed it first hand.
Those aren't facts. The facts are that prayer hasn't had any effect, and when it does it is insignificant and actually negative.
That's like the first people to hear about the Wright brothers flying and calling it shenanigans when someone saw them do it right there
And guess what? They proved they where right and were excepted as correct. They proved it, so why don't you?
If you have the faith of a mustard seed you can move a mountain.
Funny that I have seen no mountains moved, except when a massive amount of science and human labor is involved.
Clever. Ignorance must truly be bliss. If you choose to believe that way that is your right. The OP asked for opinions on the matter and I have given mine. I honestly do hope you don't go through the entirety of your life be spiteful, but again if that's the way you would like to live be my guest.
I assume that's why you're living your life in ignorance then.
I honestly do hope you don't go through the entirety of your life be spiteful, but again if that's the way you would like to live be my guest.
I'm not the one who's supposedly killed millions of people, been the cause of many wars and advocated slavery - just look to your Bible and your God for those things.
Then have your way, God let us choose our own path. I'll continue to believe.
No he doesn't.
"For the children being not yet born, neither having done any good or evil, that the purpose of God according to election might stand, not of works, but of him that calleth. .... For he saith to Moses, I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy. For the scripture saith unto Pharaoh, Even for this same purpose have I raised thee up, that I might shew my power in thee, and that my name might be declared throughout all the earth. Therefore hath he mercy on whom he will have mercy, and whom he will he hardeneth. Thou wilt say then unto me, Why doth he yet find fault? For who hath resisted his will? Nay but, O man, who art thou that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say to him that formed it, Why hast thou made me thus? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honour, and another unto dishonour? What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make his power known, endured with much longsuffering the vessels of wrath fitted to destruction." -- Romans 9:11-22
So your god wants me to go to hell, nothing I could do about it.
Clever. Ignorance must truly be bliss. If you choose to believe that way that is your right
You seem to be the ignorant one, denying what is really there. And since when can you choose what you believe?
The OP asked for opinions on the matter and I have given mine.
It asked for scientific fact, not opinion. I gave fact, you gave opinion.
I honestly do hope you don't go through the entirety of your life be spiteful, but again if that's the way you would like to live be my guest.
Clever. Ignorance must truly be bliss. If you choose to believe that way that is your right. The OP asked for opinions on the matter and I have given mine. I honestly do hope you don't go through the entirety of your life be spiteful, but again if that's the way you would like to live be my guest.
To be honest, you seem to be much more spiteful (and ignorant) than anyone else at the moment.
Anyways, I personally don't believe prayers help you in any way, but if someone's going through a difficult time, I'd just let them believe it worked if it gave them hope. Basically, I don't think prayers themselves do a thing, but I think the belief that they work can give people hope. Just like believing a pill will help you might work because of that belief, even if the pill didn't do anything at all. I think it's called the placebo-effect.
