Does God Answer ALL prayers?

[Wandered Off]

Selective intervention raises more questions than it answers. For example, at pretty much every high-school football game I have attended, there is a prayer asking god to watch over the players and keep them safe. We are talking about kids who, on a global comparison scale, live like kings - never wanting for food, education, entertainment, or just about anything else. If god answers that prayer affirmatively by actually protecting them from injury (which one could conclude from the lack of injury), that's great! Until you realize that children of a similar age in Darfur are being raped and murdered, likely while also praying desperately for their very lives.

If this kind of selective intervention is what we get, then the most charitable conclusion I could draw is that this particular god has some pretty screwed up priorities. If you also attribute this same god with omnipotence, it only gets worse.

 

[gree0232]

Selective intervention raises more questions than it answers. For example, at pretty much every high-school football game I have attended, there is a prayer asking god to watch over the players and keep them safe. We are talking about kids who, on a global comparison scale, live like kings - never wanting for food, education, entertainment, or just about anything else. If god answers that prayer affirmatively by actually protecting them from injury (which one could conclude from the lack of injury), that's great! Until you realize that children of a similar age in Darfur are being raped and murdered, likely while also praying desperately for their very lives.

If this kind of selective intervention is what we get, then the most charitable conclusion I could draw is that this particular god has some pretty screwed up priorities. If you also attribute this same god with omnipotence, it only gets worse.

People are being raped in suburbia.

You do not have to go to Darfur to find evil.

And the idea that material stuff means you shouldn't have ethical or moral qualms?

God will not interfere with the exercise of free will ... even a rapists. Even one in suburbia.

 

[Wandered Off]

And the idea that material stuff means you shouldn't have ethical or moral qualms?

I was taking issue with the implied priorities. If protecting someone who already has all sorts of "human" protections takes precedence over protecting someone who has none of those, then there are clear moral conclusions to draw from that priority, and they would reflect directly on the character of the entity in charge of prioritizing those protections, were there one.

God will not interfere with the exercise of free will ... even a rapists. Even one in suburbia.

So this god respects the free will of a suburban rapist, but has no problem with seeing the victim deprived of free will rather severely? If free will is as important as you imply, why the complete disregard for the victim's free will? Why doesn't it deserve the same protection from outside interference?

 

[Thief]

If God has a set plan in motion and is all knowing then everything is already predetermined. Your merely an actor reading written lines. You will pray or you will not. If a God is all knowing than the true quest is in actually understanding our surroundings and reflecting on outcomes. Taking in the actual experience.

Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer.

I just thought to point out.....
God can shame your best effort on your best day.....with the least of His own.

Any two hands are greater than prayer of a thousand?

The Carpenter did say....
If two or more have gathered in My Name...I am there.

I don't hear that as a prayer answered.....
but can you draw the Spirit by your own work of your hand?
Scripture would differ with you on that point.

 

[BruceDLimber]

I've heard it said that God answers prayers with three replies:

• yes,
• no, and
• not yet.

Peace,

Bruce

 

[Kilgore Trout]

Oh selective answering of prayers is the same thing as NO GOD answering any prayers at all ... some answered ... equals none answered ...

... sometimes the leaps in atheist argumentation are down right entertaining

Entertaining, enlightening, and insightful, yes. Unlike so many theistic arguments which are boring, nonsensical, and illogical.

 

[viole]

nice try but god(s) could easily answer no and therefore answer your prayers.

Well, the question was not whether He answers my prayers, but wheher He answers all of them.

Therefore, if He answers my prayers, He could not have possibly answered my first one without vaporizing Himself into a contradictory cloud.

Ciao

- viole

 

[metis]

Gandhi had an interesting take that I adopted almost 40 years ago, and it goes like this: he said God didn't speak to him in words but, instead, in feelings that he should do something. Therefore, he said that if you have a feeling you should do something, first check to make sure it's morally sound, then act on it, making no excuse not to do so.

I took his suggestion, and I could write a very long essay, which I'll spare you, on just how much that has meant to me over all these years. It was by far the best single religious advice I ever received over my 69 years of living.

 

[Triumphant_Loser]

I do not believe that he does. Isaiah 1:15 says concerning the true God: "And when you spread out your palms, I hide my eyes from you. Although you offer many prayers, I am not listening; Your hands are filled with blood."
What does God require for our prayers to be heard and answered?

I do not believe that he (It) answers ANY prayers, because I believe he is not capable of doing so. Even if he did answer prayers, that would mean he certainly does not have his priorities in order. There are innocent people living in poverty and dying of disease and hunger and illness, waiting for their prayers to be answered, but they get nothing... yet he somehow remembers to answer grandma's prayers to help her find her car keys in the morning, so she can sit on her nicely cushioned front-row pew on Sunday morning.

 

[NobodyYouKnow]

I do not believe that he does. Isaiah 1:15 says concerning the true God: "And when you spread out your palms, I hide my eyes from you. Although you offer many prayers, I am not listening; Your hands are filled with blood."
What does God require for our prayers to be heard and answered?

To be honest, the answer to that is so vague, as to be entirely indistinguishable as to whether God actually exists or not.

Some say that He 'answers prayers' but the way He answers them may not be in accordance with what we may expect.

For example, somebody is very sick and we pray to God for Him to 'take mercy' and 'remove the suffering from our beloved' hoping that He will allow them to live...so that person dies and their 'prayers are answered' - but guess what? They were going to die anyway, so what's the point and purpose of the prayer?

Another example is that somebody may be very poor and they pray to God 'please remove my suffering' - so their father dies (who they were very, very close to) and they are left with an inheritance of $10,000 and God goes 'there! happy now?'

So, why pray to a God at all? scratch that...why even believe in a God, or 'free will' or anything like that; because if things are 'meant to happen', they'll happen anyway, regardless?

 

[9Westy9]

Well, the question was not whether He answers my prayers, but wheher He answers all of them.

Therefore, if He answers my prayers, He could not have possibly answered my first one without vaporizing Himself into a contradictory cloud.

Ciao

- viole

I'm not getting you. If you pray for god not to answer any of your prayers then he could very easily answer you with no (which is an answer). He's then free to answer all of your other prayers.

 

[viole]

I'm not getting you. If you pray for god not to answer any of your prayers then he could very easily answer you with no (which is an answer). He's then free to answer all of your other prayers.

Oh well. If "no" is an answer, then you are right.

So, how do we make it for god impossible to answer at least one prayer?

I have to ponder on this.

Ciao

- viole

 

[viole]

I'm not getting you. If you pray for god not to answer any of your prayers then he could very easily answer you with no (which is an answer). He's then free to answer all of your other prayers.

How about this one:

1) God please answer my next prayer with "yes"
2) God please answer my previous prayer with "no"

Or, in a more compact form

3) God please answer this prayer with "no"

Ciao

- viole

 

[9Westy9]

How about this one:

1) God please answer my next prayer with "yes"
2) God please answer my previous prayer with "no"

Or, in a more compact form

3) God please answer this prayer with "no"

Ciao

- viole

That's better

 

[Sha'irullah]

I make a distinction between prayer, worship and supplication and I do not like the idea that prayer becomes supplication under all circumstances. I do not believe God will answer your prayer because he will not change the law of his design. Supplication as far as I am concerned only effects the afterlife and "realms" other than the one we are given. We have no control over this reality so it is futile to pray to change it when we must learn and grow by the help of this world.

 

[roger1440]

I do not believe that he does. Isaiah 1:15 says concerning the true God: "And when you spread out your palms, I hide my eyes from you. Although you offer many prayers, I am not listening; Your hands are filled with blood."
What does God require for our prayers to be heard and answered?

According to the Bible, God requires from us the desire to be like him. “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44)

 

[roger1440]

Gandhi had an interesting take that I adopted almost 40 years ago, and it goes like this: he said God didn't speak to him in words but, instead, in feelings that he should do something. Therefore, he said that if you have a feeling you should do something, first check to make sure it's morally sound, then act on it, making no excuse not to do so.

I took his suggestion, and I could write a very long essay, which I'll spare you, on just how much that has meant to me over all these years. It was by far the best single religious advice I ever received over my 69 years of living.

How does one decide what is “morally sound” ? Where would one search for the answer? Witches still get burned at the stake in the 21 century. Gays still can’t get married in many states in the United States.

 

[rusra02]

According to the Bible, God requires from us the desire to be like him. “I am the LORD your God; consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy.” (Leviticus 11:44)

That is true.

 

[rusra02]

How does one decide what is “morally sound” ? Where would one search for the answer? Witches still get burned at the stake in the 21 century. Gays still can’t get married in many states in the United States.

I believe the source of sound morality is revealed by God in the Bible. The morality of humans is flawed.

 

[roger1440]

I believe the source of sound morality is revealed by God in the Bible. The morality of humans is flawed.

Hmm, which Bible? The Jewish Bible or the Christian Bible? If it’s the Christian Bible, which one? Christians are not in agreement on how to interpret the Bible. There are over 10,000 flavors of Christianity. Whose interpretation should I trust? Jews are not in agreement how on how to interpret the Bible either. All the Jewish sects do not see eye to eye on the concept of the Messiah.

30 Then Philip ran up to the chariot and heard the man reading Isaiah the prophet. “Do you understand what you are reading?” Philip asked.
31 “How can I,” he said, “unless someone explains it to me?” So he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. (Acts. 8:30-31)
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