: Does anyone know how prayer is supposed to work?
It's simple. You pray to God for something. If you get what you prayed for, God answered your prayers. If you don't get what you prayed for then it's your fault, not God's.
Farkel
Does anyone know how prayer is supposed to work?
by onintwo 11 Replies latest jw friends
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Farkel
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AlmostAtheist
Actually, prayer is one of the things that turned me on to the idea that the Bible had to be a joke. It's very big into the idea that prayer for others is effective, even saying, "The prayers of a righteous man when at work have much force." I always thought that was cool until one day it dawned on me that -- exactly as the poster suggested initially -- it is essentially a democratic process. When enough people pray for it, God will do it. Huh? Does that make sense?
Prayer for yourself and your own needs at least makes sense, except that it never actually accomplished anything. One item I enjoyed from Dan Barker's 'Losing Faith in Faith' book was a bit about a huge auto accident. One family "miraculously" survived unharmed, attributing it to the prayer they said before their trip. Dan pointed out that if they hadn't prayed, they would've been a mile further up the road and unaffected by the accident in the first place!
You've gotta be a blind nut to think God physically protects people from calamity, and though Witnesses officially teach that 'unforseen occurrences befall them all', they still pray at meetings that God protect them on their trip home. Oddly, some still die in wrecks. Probably the weak ones.
(Sorry, feeling a little cynical tonight)