My young life was encompassed with church, Sunday school, prayer meetings, etc. My maternal grandmother admonished me before I was even school age, "Old Scratch(her name for Satan) Will Get You!" When I was naughty in any way she poured that on me. Looking back I'm glad that she did. As I grew older that just didn't seem right. Punishing a youngster(or anybody else) for mistakes while they were learning the ways of the world. By the time I was in my mid teens I had already read the bible and the book of Mormon. I wasn't baptized until I was in my early twenties. I always doubted that there was a savior, a son of god, an invisible man in the sky, someone who selected whose prayers would be answered and whose would not but after I married "Church" was a social necessity. I stayed in the church until I was about sixty years old but one thing which continued to pop up in my mind was the Wednesday evening prayer meetings in the 1940's and 1950's. Prayer lists were a foot long, every family had a member or a close friend who was dying of heart disease or cancer. In those days there was nothing medical science could do for them. Usually a first heart attack got folks because they didn't know to say something when they had chest pains before that. If they survived they suffered for a year or two and died then. Surgery for an obvious tumor was the only treatment and most of the time following the surgery the tumor metastasized and spread all over their bodies and then they suffered another 6-12 months and died. There were many "closed casket" funerals because they were down to "skin and bones" by the time they departed. Literally billions of prayers were either unanswered or ignored by the supreme being. Now that medical science has diet control, sophisticated diagnostic procedures and systems, stents, bypasses, transplants, chemotherapy, radiation, stem cell transplants, etc. the same kinds of patients live on into their eighties and sometimes nineties. Christians even ask for prayers when they're scheduled for a Colonoscopy. About three weeks ago an acquaintance of a friend asked everybody on their E mail list to pray that she didn't have colon cancer. The prayers didn't have anything to do with their dying back then and they don't have anything to do with them living now. If you doubt what I'm saying look at the average life expectancy in the 1940's and look at where they are today. Look at the insurance actuary tables for coronary disease and cancer back to the 1940's. If there is some invisible, supreme being in the sky somewhere he/she/it either doesn't give a damn or doesn't answer prayers. Did you know that the first born of a virgin, son-of-god, savior of the world, crucified stories were alive and well in ancient Egypt 3000 years before the Jewish version? Do you realize that the Jews wrote the new testament but do not even believe it themselves? If it were not for the brainwashing of innocent infants and small children from each new generation that "ancient god worship" would die on the vine.
I like what ol' George had to say about religion and prayer: [ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MeSSwKffj9o]George Carlin - Religion is bullshit. - YouTube[/ame]
The truth is in yourself religion has been intruded except for Islam , your just going through the human journey from your spirit or soul we are all human some hearts are just corrupted and follow the evil agenda I always wondered about the 7 planes in life
LOL! There are over 4000 ancient gods being worshiped on this planet when the south sea islands are included. There are more than 44,000 versions of the new testament. If it's so important why is it so complicated and confusing? Anybody who believes that a loving caring god dropped in during the stone age and left the only keys to the kingdom in the hands of ignorant primitives who believed the earth was flat and the universe revolved around it is pure, unadulterated bonkers!
sounds like you didnt understand the purpose of prayer. the modern day christian "ask and you shall receive" type of prayers are a bastardization of the prayer they adapted from their jewish brethren
I don't believe prayer is intended to heal people or get things or make things happen. It's to align your heart with God's will and ultimate plan and to build/deepen your relationship with Him. God answers prayers (more so supplication) and sometimes His answer is not what we want or expected. He has 3 answers: Yes, No, or Wait. It seems like you may have missed the point of prayer which lead you to this current belief
Maybe God didn't want to heal those who were already sick because it disnt fit into the plan, so he gave researchers the knowledge to find solutions in the future? But really I kinda agree with what meddlehaze said.
I believe if you have to rely on believing in a supreme being protecting you then you are too weak to live on earth and should die. Such weak minded people need to rely on something imaginary to feel safe, a word of advice if someones about to kill you "god" isnt gonna save you. You should be helping humanity move forward not believing in something you have never seen nor will ever see... Stop wasting your time uttering pointless words under your breath to yourself, and those shows were the host "banishes demons" and pushes your head back and all that shit is the best example of how stupid these goof offs look I can honestly say that i will never marry a woman who prays to any god I say fuck jesus, fuck the bible, and fuck god! People who believe in god Are like kids who havent shed their imaginary childhood friends Its time to grow up, accept that theres evil in the world and theres no one or anything that will stop it. Stop being a pussy and man up...... Damn i hate christians... They think they are better than others cause they pray and go to church. Lets just say the next jehova witness that comes to my doorstep is gonna have one hell of a time
that's the point. you don't ask G-d to change it. prayer is a meditative act: it puts you in the proper mindset to solve your own problems through focus and intent. the "still small voice" that us Jews call the "shekinah," which is the same as the christian "holy spirit" is often regarded as what psychology would call our conscience, or our inner voice. through quieting and focusing the mind, the shekinah has a chance to come through without all the normal background noise. now of course, your inner voice isn't always vocal...sometimes its just intuition. think of prayer like buddhist meditation with a mantra. not too much of christianity has set prayers, but at least in judaism many people memorize the prayer book, and the sing the prayers to reach a state of deep meditation. just like a mantra
Do you have any clue as to what old fashioned prayer meetings were? 50-60 years ago people prayed for those who were stricken with coronary disease or cancer to suffer less and live. They prayed till their knees were bloody. Guess What? The ailing suffered and died anyway. I guess you know more about what was going on in the 1940's and 1950's than those of us who were there praying. I'm 77 years old. When I was young our doctor was located about an hour away by automobile but when he received a call he had a standard reply, "Take Two Asprin With A Coke And If You Don't Feel Better By Tomorrow, Call Me Back." Prayer doesn't change a thing except the mind of the one doing the praying.
That's what it's meant to do. edit; and if it changes the mind of the one doing the praying it is, in fact, changing something
Yes! Yes! Meddlehaze put it very well too. The only form of prayer I engage in is Namah Japa, or the repetition of a mantra, in my case it is "Om Namah Shivaya". This, as was mentioned above, is a form of meditation. When I focus on the aspects of Shiva, and on surrendering to what life has brought and what life will bring inevitably, it puts me in a state of surrender, and fills my mind with ideas and images which reinforce my ability to live in a state of peace and awareness. When I chant this mantra, and focus on Shiva's qualities (as a manifestation of the perfect yogi, with complete control over mind and body) it helps me to manifest those qualities in my own life. It inspires me to be more like Shiva. I don't ask Shiva to do anything for me. Instead, I say "Om Namah Shivaya", which almost literally translates to "I surrender to Shiva"... "I accept whatever happens, I give up control and accept to take whatever journey is given to me". If you are an atheist, you could say that when I chant this mantra I am in essence saying "I surrender to Life" over and over again. That is only one aspect of it, but surely you can see why this would be beneficial. It helps to manifest an attitude of acceptance (which brings happiness and peace) rather than an attitude of resistance (which creates a whole slew of negative emotions).
Believe it or not, I'm about to quote Tommy Boy. The highest manifestation of life consists in this: that a being governs its own actions. A thing which is always subject to the direction of another is somewhat of a dead thing. -- Thomas Aquinas
Well the word "dead" brings in a lot of negative concepts which are attached to that word which makes the statement sound worse than it really is. Honestly, I feel the most alive when I'm aware of everything around me and surrendered to the flow of the universe. Idk maybe we are all different and certain things make certain people feel good...but maybe everyone can feel this blissful awareness if they would just truly honestly try, just for the sake of experimentation.