Part of God's Plan?
I'm always amazed at this (thanks to Almighty
Atheist): Convenient how when the
prayers of #theists go unanswered
it was simply not part of "Gods plan".
The religious will say that prayers are
necessary. They will also say that God
hears all prayers. And they say that
prayers are answered but sometimes the answer is 'no'.
And still, they continue to pray to a god that,
according to the Bible, has killed millions, allows millions to starve and
allows diseases like cancer to kill millions more. Why?
What does a supplicant get from the act of
prayer? What benefit? Does the act of begging absolve someone from
responsibility? Perhaps, it allows
someone to forget their problems for a while.
Everyone needs inner peace. It's essential to a
progressive productive society. Walking around constantly worried, shamed or
enraged can never allow a society to reach its full potential.
Here's the problem: Throwing all responsibility on to
a god, imaginary or real, allows a person to feel special. But, it also allows that person to think
that what they did will be forgiven or what they need will be supplied.
Forgive a crime against humanity (When you think of
it, all crimes are crimes against humanity)?
Get that new gaming system? Get
enough to eat today?
Stay alive another day while cancer ravages your
body?
I challenge anyone to prove to me that prayer
works. God's plan indeed!
Walk the Path in Grace
I think we make the mistake of making God in our image. Think big, think creator of the universe and then think even bigger.
ReplyDeleteTo think that way, we become one of two things. insignificant or too full of ourselves. Either way, we are on our own.
DeleteI wonder about putting our faith in humanity. As you suggest God "allows" evil things to happen but we are the perpetrators. If we take God out of the equation what do we gain. What then? Go yee into the darkness and remember you are alone and there is no hope??
ReplyDeleteWe make our own light to push back the darkness. Some of us never find the way to do that. As with all animal species, we have different levels of sanity throughout ours.
DeleteMake our own light? How? With what? I don't get it.
ReplyDeleteanother topic--how do you console or comfort those that have experienced or are in the middle of hellish times. Maybe a rape victim, someone living in a brothel in India, suffering debilitating illness, or an alcoholic?
We make our own light of intelligence and love of our fellow man.
DeleteWe console others with a shoulder to cry on or a hug. We offer advice when asked. We find professional help when necessary. I have no idea how to help someone living in a brothel in India. My responsibility is to my sphere of influence.
Tell me how praying for someone in the brothel will help? Or praying for/with a rape victim? To me, prayer might make you and the afflicted feel better for a short time, but I've never seen a physical answer to a prayer.
I'm not suggesting prayer would deliver them from their suffering; although, I would pray for them. I'm suggesting that there is something better for them. The women who will die in the brothel in India can cling to heaven. She can know there is something other than the hell on earth she is in. Death is not all there is in store for her. She is significant. She won't have lived and died for nothing. There is hope.
ReplyDeleteHow do you decide how big your sphere of responsibility is? How do you decide whom to be kind to? Whom to help? How do you decide whose life is worth living? Is it your inner conscience? What is that? What is conscience and how do you prove what it tells you do do or not do?
Agh...so many questions...sorry to ramble on...