(continued)

I don't know what to say about those kinds of answered prayers either. There are many things in the world that are counted as a sign from God. Crying and bleeding statues are one thing that I've heard and don't know what to think about them. I don't think that God couldn't do these kinds of things, but I don't know why He would. For that reason I just kind of leave those kinds of events as a possibility that could have occurred, but not as something I would hold my faith by. I don't agree with praying being the same as magic though. When you pray it should be between you and God. And if praying a request or telling of a need or worry, it's basically putting it in God's hands. Saying it's like magic makes it sound like if you pray the right way, or perform the right ritual then you get to control the result. In my opinion a prayer request isn't like that. It's asking for God's help.

AJ, my wife "T" is for a better term a "universal believer", supporting all gods and religions. She does not differentiate between the Christian god, her Maori gods, and all the other gods one can name. Her reasoning being if one god is to exists, then all gods exists. She also believes there are strength in numbers, and all gods are compatible with each other, there is no competition of any kind between the gods. The gods exists in complete harmony with each other. She also believes in astrology, angles cards, and the power of crystals, among other thing. A true universal believer.

She just asked what am I doing, since I'm talking about her she passed me this for all on OLO.

"Think positively and masterfully with confidence and faith and life becomes more secure, more fraught with action, and richer in achievement and experience." SWAMI VIVEKANANDA.

and

"We are shaped by our thoughts. We become what we think." BUDDHIST TEACHING.

Yes, Not_Now.Soon, I understand that that’s the theology.

<<Not all prayers asked are answered. Or at the very least, some are answered after a long period of time.>>

I would remind myself of that every time a prayer didn’t seem to be answered.

<<If [starving children] prayed for food, believe it or not I'd expect God to answer.>>

Fantastic! I’m glad we see eye to eye on that much. The next question is why He doesn’t? There are millions of starving children in the world; many of whom live in Christian countries, or at least countries that have been worked over by Christian missionaries for a long time now. There would have to be far more prayer than there is starving people receiving.

Perhaps an even more important question is why He doesn’t just feed them anyway? It is questions such as these that have inspired memes like this:

http://imgur.com/a/YKGEVVs

These are also pertinent here, too:

http://imgur.com/a/vlhqcdK
http://imgur.com/a/sf1wgAL

<<… there is a need for us to look after those in need.>>

Yes, and I find that to be most telling, and not in the least bit surprising.

<<Mankind is not innocent of the hardships our world goes through.>>

Actually, we are. Ultimately, at least. God made us flawed beings, knowing in advance what would happen. He could have chosen a completely different reality - a reality with far less suffering - but he instead chose this one.

<<Blame God if you want that there is hunger, poverty, and illness, but if you don't go out to help in any of those needs, what good is your complaint?>>

Good point. The Christian god clearly doesn’t care either way.

<<Until God fixes the world though, there is always going to be more issues.>>

Again, though, what’s He waiting for? He could fix it all now. He doesn’t have to actually come back now. He can still save that surprise for later, and doing so won’t prevent him from fixing the world’s problem now. Why does he limit himself to tinkering in the lives of people already living in wealthy countries?

http://imgur.com/a/L7iK0mq

Continued…

…Continued

<<Prayers are answered though. That much I know.>>

I know you believe this. But how can you know, no matter how liberally you may be defining ‘knowledge’?

<<I don't think you and I are similar in this thought. Either when you were Christian or now.>>

Not even when I was a Christian? How could you know this? I can assure you, going by what you have said, that my views on prayer were absolutely identical to yours.

<<When you say reliable evidence I assume you mean repeatable situations.>>

Not necessarily. Not even I know what I mean there, to be honest. As I have said before, I don’t know what evidence it would take to convince me of the existence of a god. I think it would be arrogant of me to assume that I did. But anything that could qualify as a god should know what it would take to convince me.

<<This is essentially what you're position is AJ. To doubt and then criticize any answers that might come up.>>

Only if they are deserving of criticism.

I can assure you that the moment you provide reliable evidence of God, I will sit up and be all ears. So far, however, you have not come up with any reliable evidence, so you cannot know this. All you are doing is rationalising your lack of reliable evidence by transferring the blame to me. Not a very healthy way to think. How can you ever grow if you continue to blame others?

<<To be honest, I'm not impressed by your position.>>

Well, I never expected you to be impressed by it. But I would be surprised if you thought unfavourably of it.

<<… give who ever you're doubting a chance to prove themselves.>>

Hey, if you ever come up with some good evidence, I’m still here. Unlike the Lord, I don’t close doors.

<<God is stronger then the doubts I've had.>>

God is? Or your need to believe? Did you ask yourself this question, and, if so, how did you determine that the answer was indeed God?

NNS, I believe you are a genuine Christian of some denomination. I am not trying to undermine your beliefs or practices. But I am an historian and have been juggling with my Roman Catholicism for decades. Personally I don't think abortion is correct, I think in some circumstances it must be applied and no way would I avoid restrictions on its use. So long as it is not used as a contraception measure. But human life is sacred to me, even in a fetus or embryonic form. But I have to agree with stem cell research. These come usually from aborted fetus' under three months gestation, either naturally aborted or by a doctor. They have not formed any antigens yet. This aids acceptance and no rejection in a host system.

But I believe you are wrong. Prayer is a form of magic. Yes, you are summoning an external power to grant you your wishes. A good spell.

When I was studying my BA in ancient history, religions played a lot in conflicts or power grabbing. We compared the ancient Roman patriarchal social set up with the modern day mafia. Fair Dinkum.

Tithes in the Roman Catholic church were to be used by the priest,(collections) they are donations, as a lot are not rich although many are well heeled or from families that were. But collections after a service is hardly a tithe. Most people only put in half a crown or so in England anyway.

I donate to the Salvation Army, I.F.A.W., St.Vincent's de Paul, or any disaster here and overseas. Sometimes I donate to local charities, etc. It's quite legal and tax deductible, and some registered religions exist on donations, especially Scientology. They do get tax relief because they run so called charitable services. But I want to say, that human's cause most tragedies and evil deeds in the world, and somehow the good wins in the end. But not always unfortunately.

To AJ Philips. Sorry for the long delay but I still wanted to answer one of your questions. I said that God is stronger then my doubts, and I mean that He can take my doubts and take care of them.

But your reply.

[God is? Or your need to believe? Did you ask yourself this question, and, if so, how did you determine that the answer was indeed God?]

For me one doubt was regarding if God was answering the prayers I thought He was, or if it was my inner perceptions and my mind playing tricks on me. Though this doubt wasn't enough for me to disbelieve yet (so far all it was was a rebuttal to Christians that I heard), but still God did something for me and these criticisms. He responded to a variety of prayers in a variety of different ways. Some requests were answered, which could be counted as coincidence. Others were answered and felt which could be though of as mind games and the brain playing tricks. One was an odd abnormally of a rainbow (that so far I don't know any counter rebuttal for), another was asking to be awake while driving and a dramatic change in wakefulness, (something that isn't properly countered in my opinion). One that was relationship related between two other people that was helped. And a few others were a conversation through emotions. Giving thanks, sharing joys, privately giving praise, and sharing concerns.

The diversity in the kinds responses to the kinds of prayers resolved any doubt to me that the prayers were just in my head and had no effect in real life outside of the brain playing tricks on a person. This same diversity of responses is also a testament against coincidence and other rebuttals to prayers.

(Continued)