No comment on prayer but I will say I've noticed women like to fight when they're half naked. Why is that?
dj On Thu, Sep 10, 2009 at 12:25 PM, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > > I'm taking the liberty of starting a new thread on this one, taking up > a theme which cropped up in the "Homage to Neil" thread as a result of > a half throw-away comment I made about my extreme skepticism about the > efficacy of prayer. > > First, definitions: > http://freedictionary.org/?Query=prayer&button=Search > > For an initial working model I'll take the following Webster [1913] > definition, "The act of addressing supplication to a divinity, > especially to the true God; the offering of adoration, confession, > supplication, and thanksgiving to the Supreme Being." > > There are a number of aspects here which are - for believers - > relatively unproblematic; adoration, confession and thanksgiving. Even > from the point of view of a non-believer, I can accept the idea of > positive psychological feedback from such action, a kind of inner > positive loop which need not be dependent on the actual existence of > the deity being prayed to. The issue I want to address here is that of > prayer as supplication; asking God for something, requesting God to > influence specific outcomes of specific processes. > > The major Abrahamic monotheistic systems all posit a God who is > omnipotent and omniscient and who is involved in an individual > personal relationship with all human beings (or, at least, those who > profess belief and commitment to him/her). To me, the idea that this > God would concretely intervene to change the course of events as a > result of a particular request by a believer seems to be riddled with > contradictions. Does God change his divine plan as a result of the > prayer? If, following the conventional religious models, God loves the > believer and directs things for his/her ultimate good, will he/she not > do this regardless of whether the believer prays or not? > > And, while you're thinlking about this, a little musical > contribution :-) > > http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=He4NFXIKQkk > > Francis > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
