Consider that you might not ever get a raise in pay if you never asked for one. This essentially is the basis for prayer in that one can hope a prayer petition is answered simply because it was initiated and that there was a serious personal recognition of the higher power or supreme being or whatever the belief. When you say humans imploring the changing of God's mind you are implying that any situational problem is a result of or has direct influence by the will of God. Most likely everything that occurs here is directly linked to the actions of humanity. I find it a complete absurdity that some sports teams will actually pray to God to help them win the game, as if God has some interest in the outcome of sports. IF prayer is somehow connected to the energy in the cosmos that makes things occur, then by all means one can try to focus in on that energy in order to bring about desired change. I'm always talking about how I come upon things by simply focusing on my need or in some cases just focusing on things just coming along whether I need them or not and then they just come around. Whether this is similar to prayer petition is another question. What I find mostly is that the items that I acquire are needed by people I come across in the future and so it may be that I am coming across items simply to give them to the people that really need them. This is a bit off the prayer bit but the point is that perhaps there IS another force of energy out there that does effect change. The question is "does the energy effect change as the result of a prayer petition?" Do we as humans have any influence, directly or indirectly on the incidence of cosmic change within the universe? Personally I don't view focusing on cosmic energy as prayer but a utilization of mental ability to attract or effect change. I'm sure there is some defining needed here in order to continue principle analysis.
On Apr 19, 5:00 pm, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > Prayer puzzles me - even in my years as a believer, it puzzled me. I > don't understand what it's for - even for believers. Does God react to > things differently if he/she is prayed to? Does knocking on heaven's > door evoke a different answer to that which would have been > forthcoming if one hadn't knocked? Is God's immutable will capable of > being influenced or bribed? > > Prayer - and it is central to almost every religion known to me - > seems to be an essential part of the religious impulse. Modern > ("enlightened") believers usually explain its importance as a way of > staying in contact with a personal God - communication as the basis of > relationship. This often seems to me to be the religious reflection of > intellectual preoccupation with communication/media prevelant > worldwide since the middle of the 20th. Century. But even this > tendency reinforces my suspicion that prayer is an indication of the > deeply anthropological basis of all theologies - a prime example of > the anthropomorphing bias (ineluctably) prevelant in human thinking > structures. > > But the instinct is stronger, deeper and more primitive than happy > encounter theories of "God my partner, with whom I must remain in > communication if I want our relationship to develop and grow." As a > (relatively) convinced agnostic/atheist, I still occasionally find > myself (usually in difficult situations) mentally muttering, "Oh God, > please don't let this happen, please don't let this be true ...!" The > rational part of me insists that this is ridiculous. Even the part of > me which remains theoretically open to the possibility of some sort of > theological foundation to things reasons that there is no way in which > human imploring could possibly move God to change his/her mind. > Sometimes the hindbrain just isn't listening and shoots off > invocations regardless.. > > Brendan Beehan once made a comment to the effect that there were no > atheists at three in the morning, when worries clamour and sleep won't > come. In such states there remains the agnostic's prayer; "Dear God, > if there is a God, save me from hell, if there is a hell!" > > Francis > > On 19 Apr., 11:33, akshay <[email protected]> wrote: > > > I am only earning person in my family which consist of 8 people. I > > have to stay away from my family for my job. > > > Pl. pray for me for prosperity and stability in my job and good > > position and peace for me. God bless you with happiness and peace and > > prosperity. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
