God answers prayer of paralyzed little boy

Simon

The answer was "no"

http://www.theonion.com/article/god-answers-prayers-of-paralyzed-little-boy-475

Obviously it's the Onion so it's satirical but it got me thinking how the religious view prayer and god. They only consider an answer to be the thing they want to hear.

If they win a tennis tournament or get a promotion then "god answered my prayers". If they don't then they claim that god hasn't answered, never that he may have answered and the answer was just "no".

What a self-centered ego-manic bunch they are to think that their imaginary god of the universe is their to only give them what they want, never to deny them.

Village Idiot

God is their cosmic butler.

"Immortality for dessert sir?"

Slave4_38y

To quote Edward Current - "If you pray for something and god thinks you should have it, you will get what you want every single time. Prayer has a 100% success rate."

Wild_Thing

What always bothered me the most is that when zealots claim that God answered their prayers, it is always at the expense of someone else.

If God "answered your prayers" and you won a game or award, it implies you are God's special chosen one over the other contenders.

If God "answered your prayers" and saved your child from cancer, it implies God had the ability to save other children from cancer, also, but chose not to.

I don't really think people understand what they are saying when they use that phrase. I think it's just become cliche` and something people say without thinking.

Bonsai

I (the JW in me) used to get riled up when I'd see all these slogans and bumper stickers of "God Bless America", or "God Save the Queen". How about "God Bless the World", or "God Save the people"? But then I realized that JW's are just as guilty. They pray for God to bless this organization, or God bless them individually. How about asking God to bless all non-destructive organizations and help them to find truth? How about praying for all charities and humanitarian efforts? God always becomes a tool for one's individual convenience.

Vidiot

One of the reasons I stopped bothering to pray long before I even faded.

x

In retrospect, it made agnosticism that much easier.