by czarofmischief 348 Replies latest jw friends
Little toe,
I really do enjoy your posts, and I gotta say, from what I've read of them, you seem to represent the best of Christian faith..
And if this all makes sense after we are long gone, I'll split my share of pie in the sky with you!
;-)
Huxley
Hux:
I hear the "new wine" is supposed to be good, so the beer should be better!
Maybe I'll get to crack open a jar, with ya
Well there ya go Little Toe,,,,,,,,,, I have never tried peanut butter and coal on pizza.....it might be the taste I have been searching for all of my life.....lol. Or it could break a few of my teeth out.
Huxley said:
So why does god answer someone praying about something trivial like getting a new job, but ignores (seemingly) the prayer of an abused child?
That is what I have trouble with too Huxley........why some have prayers answered , while the abused children have no one to save them. They are too young sometimes to even pray , yet others do. So sad.
If we were made in God's imagine, and he loves us as his own children.........all of us, especially the little children,,,,,,,,,why doesnt he stop it. If I saw my child hurting, I would stop it. I would die rather than them go thru pain,,,, no question.
But I do realize that some things dealing with the mind of God and how he deals with us,,,and his plans for us...........maybe we just can't explain or understand as humans........But then why were we made in his imagine? Just some of his imagine but not all of it?
* reaches for the asprin*
So Al Qaeda praying for Allahs blessing and immediate entry into paradise for the "martys" as planes flew into the WTC was obviously God answering prayers also
Dede:
But then why were we made in his imagine? Just some of his imagine but not all of it?
That's a delicious typo!
IMHO it get's to perhaps the heart of the matter.
What really is prayer?
Is it a shopping list of requests to a big sky-daddy?
If not, then what is it?
What is prayer, what is it for, and how do you do it?
Since answer to prayer is often the believer's answer to the critics, and there's evidentally a different definition being used here, what the heck really is prayer?
Czar,
Thanks for sharing.
One point you made is one I repeatedly tried to make, i.e. discussion about "God" is only meaningful on a subjective level -- starting from one's own experience and way of expressing it within a given tradition of belief and language. Prayer as an essential phenomenon of humanity, overlapping the borders of monotheism, polytheism and even atheism, is the starting point indeed.
I don't believe in "God" actually, but I do take prayer seriously. It's been a part of my life which I can't deny, even if I now have to account for it in "atheistic" terms.
Take care,
Narkissos
LOL LT,,,,,,,,, I must have been singing a John Lennon song or something.
Image,,,,,,,,, Image.......that is the word..........right????? lol. my brain is tired already..........see the typo's as proof.
So there you have real tangible proof........in the writing. But maybe I didnt write that..... I admit I did,,,but maybe someone eles did,,,,,,,,maybe they typed as I spoke it to them , for me, and THEY got the word wrong..........changes the whole meaning of the darn sentence..... as I meant it to be.
Pass me a peanut butter and coal on a slice of pizza!!!!!
Thanks for sharing your experiences Czar. I'm glad that you and your wife are happy with your current belief structure and that it overall has a very positive influence on your life.
IMHO it get's to perhaps the heart of the matter.
What really is prayer?
Is it a shopping list of requests to a big sky-daddy?
If not, then what is it?What is prayer, what is it for, and how do you do it?
Since answer to prayer is often the believer's answer to the critics, and there's evidentally a different definition being used here, what the heck really is prayer?
Whatever prayer is, I do wish pray-ers would all decide that, rather than "thanking" God for their food, they'd petition, implore, yay even beg God to feed the people for whom food really isn't a "given". Maybe even a little peaceluvandharmony while we're at it
That's what's been on my mind about prayer lately... especially this obsession with praying over meals. Food is no more essential than air or water (in fact less), but no one prays over every breath, or every glass of water. What's more, the food really should be *there*, for there to be any quality of life, and for most of us in the west, it is. Once you are appreciative of the essentials, is it really essential to keep reminding God that you're apreciative? No. We do it cuz our mommies and daddies and priest and priestessessess did it. We humans are a bunch of mindless copy-cats. Now I'm depressed.
I don't really believe it would bring about a supernatural feeding of the starving children, but if there is anything at all to prayer, anything, it seems to me that this would be a better channel for the collective spirituality of the world than the waaaaaaaaaay overdone prayers that God has been hearing for the last several thousand years of egocentric (read: selfish) judeo-christianity.
Perhaps God is just waiting for people to step up to the plate and actually care as much for their neighbor as they do for themselves? The Supreme being of leisure may just be up there tapping his creative fingers, sighing "one day, my little experiments-in-conciousness are going to wake up and freaking get over themselves"?
I recently saw the most ridiculous sight of my life take place in a fast-food joint; two men, not gay men either, wearing some sort of matching casual work attire, sat down with their whataburgers (and presumably diet-cokes, since even I will allow that that is a gift from the Gods) a few tables away from my own. Out of my subconcious the voice of one of them caught my attention as my ears began to pick up the unmistakeable drone of a person in prayer. I looked over, and these two men were holding hands, eyes closed as one prayed for the both of them. The pray-er even did that old familiar "prayer shuffle", searching around for words to make his supernatural thank you card more original, less rote (we all know what that's like), and at some point in the shameful display I'm sure I heard the words ".... and all good...uhmm....stuff" come spilling out. I so wanted to go witness to them.
btw, peanut butter and soy bacon sprinkles; now that's nutty.
Czar,
Nice post. I agree with you on all but the Divine inspiration of the Bible and God's name being Jehovah- but the latter is inconsequential, IMHO. Thanks for sharing your reasons for believing.
Yep, prayer is indeed powerful, and necessary for our salvation, understanding, and relationship with God.
Cheers,
Love_truth
