Saturday, December 13, 2008
Question to Ponder
I was reading Truth and Beauty by Ann Patchett, which I highly recommend, and I came across a quote about prayer. I've already turned the book back in, so I can't quote it directly, but it was alluding to the fact that prayer is just another way to worry. She also touches on how true prayer is carried out through deeds. I just found this fascinating, especially since I live in Eastwick where strangers always want to pray for you. This always makes me uncomfortable because prayer seems like it should be a very private thing. Anyway, what do you guys think? Is prayer just another type of worry?
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8 comments:
Depends how it's used. From the right person, "you're in my prayers" is a very beautiful thing. From a random person that sounds odd and almost like mass telemarking to god.
You have summed up my thoughts. There are some people who seem sincere, and then there are those who don't.
Aren't prayers of request a manifestation of existing worry?
I rarely discuss this issue. My beliefs about religion usually get me in trouble, because I ask a lot of questions.
We are taught predestination, and that God is in control of everything, no matter how large or small. Then we are told we should pray to God for things that we want or things that we want changed. Wouldn't asking God to give us what we want or to change things, be asking to change God's ultimate, unfaltering will. I got into this with my pastor pretty hard when our daughter was dying. I asked him how prayer can save her? If God has decided through predestination and his will that she is going to die, how is my asking him to change it going to help? He said that when he prays, he asks for God's will to be done, and to thank God for the grace bestowed upon him and others. I respected that, and it made sense. Then he asked me not to tell anyone at Church his response. Since he has preached several times on how to ask God for things through prayer. This made me lose a lot of respect for him. It made me realize that he either does not preach his beliefs or he did not tell me the truth.
Anyway. To answer your question. I somewhat agree is mindctrl. I feel that prayer is a way to get a release from worry and guilt. If they prayer for something and lay it in God's hands, then these people can stop worrying or felling guilty. If something does not happen from that point on, then it can be laid on God. Either he answered the prayer or not, and either way it can be seen as the correct answer. This means that the quilt or worry from that problem can be passed to God through prayer. I have found that the most worry free people are those that say, I leave everything to God. So in other words, God is used as a bucket to pour their worry into.
Needless to say. I have some issues to deal with concerning prayer. That's all right. My church just created a prayer team, that you can contact with prayer requests. I guess they have God on speed dial.
Sorry for the long response...
Thanks for your thoughts, T. You make me feel like less of an outsider.
I've always felt that prayer, and belief in a higher power, are ways to help people cope with the things they do not understand. By being about to turn to or blame things on a higher power, the unexplained now has an explanation. Suddenly the universe isn't so scary...
IMO, orthodox religion doesn't hold up to any amount of reasonable questioning or scrutiny. Kinda like the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. If a man walked around the world today and proclaimed his divinity, he'd be committed to the closest mental facility.
I just know the existence of anything at all is a mystery. I don't know that humans will ever figure it out. Much like a dog's back is a whole world and universe to a flea, where the flea has no clue about existence beyond that limited space, the universe as we know it is the same to us. For all we know, the universe is a ball of lint in someone's pocket in another universe.
Here is a neat illustration of how miniscule we are. Notice when it starts getting near the end how it looks like another universe again.
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