Interventionist God

[Spaced]

To the religious: To what extent do you contribute day to day events and major occurences to God. If one does not believe in an interventionist god, then what purpose does prayer serve?

[negatifzeo]

What do you hope to learn from this question? The opinion of the insane? You're only hurting yourself, brotha!

[Spaced]

I'm not interested in hearing from those who would contribute every action and occurence to an act of god, for they are likely to be insane.
I want to know generally what people who believe in a 'supreme being' attribute to god, and what they don't. Do some belive he/she/it is largely an observational being after the initial creation of the universe?

[negatifzeo]

They don't fucking know! How could they! You might as well ask some 4 year olds what color of underwear Santa Clause wears.

[vordabois]

Originally posted by Spaced
To the religious: To what extent do you contribute day to day events and major occurences to God. If one does not believe in an interventionist god, then what purpose does prayer serve?

Some may disagree with me on this, but I personally believe prayer is mostly a self-help thing. Sort of meditation.

[vordabois]

Originally posted by negatifzeo
They don't fucking know! How could they! You might as well ask some 4 year olds what color of underwear Santa Clause wears.

My, I'm sure glad to have an expert on religious beliefs here.

:rolleyes:

[Spaced]

Originally posted by negatifzeo
They don't fucking know! How could they! You might as well ask some 4 year olds what color of underwear Santa Clause wears.

Thanks for stating the completely obvious, but since I was asking about religious beliefs, isn't somewhat self explanatory that I am asking poeple what they believe, and not what they know?

[negatifzeo]

:lol:

I guess the point I was trying to make, with my OBVIOUS statement, is why do you care? Caring what they think is akin to caring what color a 4 year old thinks Santa's underpants are. I apologize for getting involved in your thread, and not providing the answers you were looking for. But allow me to indulge myself as you are doing here, and ask: Why do you care?

And maybe, just MAYBE, by asking this question I've answered my own! In asking Why you care, I was forced to ask myself why I care why you care! The answer: Curiosity as to what the hell is going on through a person's mind.

[Spaced]

Originally posted by negatifzeo
:lol:

I guess the point I was trying to make, with my OBVIOUS statement, is why do you care? Caring what they think is akin to caring what color a 4 year old thinks Santa's underpants are. I apologize for getting involved in your thread, and not providing the answers you were looking for. But allow me to indulge myself as you are doing here, and ask: Why do you care?

And maybe, just MAYBE, by asking this question I've answered my own! In asking Why you care, I was forced to ask myself why I care why you care! The answer: Curiosity as to what the hell is going on through a person's mind.

And in answering why you care, to some extent you may undertand why I would care. That is to understand the machinations of the mind. But to further this, there is more motivation than that. You see I did once attend church and could've counted amongst the religious. I remember a sermon once where the priest declares that "we don't believe in an interventionist god, etc etc"
This struck me as odd, as a large part of the religion seemed to involve asking god to grant us this and that. I fail to see how the two positions reconcile

[sad machines]

Originally posted by vordabois
Some may disagree with me on this, but I personally believe prayer is mostly a self-help thing. Sort of meditation.


Religion and prayer is definitely a self-help method. People pray because they can't find answers otherwise.

It's so funny that when something great happens, religious people say, "Wow, that was a miracle!" Then when something shitty happens, they say, "Well, bad things have to happen in order for miracles to be possible." So when you pray, and something comes true...it must have been Godly intervention. So then, if you pray, and things don't work out well, does that mean God just shit on you?

Though I don't believe...it really does help some people stay "sane". (But this depends on your definition of sane.)

[negatifzeo]

Originally posted by Spaced
And in answering why you care, to some extent you may undertand why I would care. That is to understand the machinations of the mind. But to further this, there is more motivation than that. You see I did once attend church and could've counted amongst the religious. I remember a sermon once where the priest declares that "we don't believe in an interventionist god, etc etc"
This struck me as odd, as a large part of the religion seemed to involve asking god to grant us this and that. I fail to see how the two positions reconcile

Alright, I'll try and contribute something worthwhile then. The issue of prayer was brought up. Prayer only works if you believe it will work. When the mind believes something, it can get/create almost supernatural power. This is why you have all these "Chaos Magick" praticioners just making shit up, and believing it, and getting results. THis is why those firewalkers can walk on fire, endure great deals of pain, etc.

It's all in the mind. And if you believe it strongly enough, you can make it come true. All of us are God, divided. We are little slivers walking around with the power of God and we don't even know it.

[Jackal]

Sickly enough, I agree with that to an extent. The mind believing something can make it true. And I think you will never do what you think you can not. Even Yoda will tell you that.

"There is no try, there is only do."

[Spaced]

So it appears prayer is in the same league as horoscopes. Believe in them, and they will come true

[negatifzeo]

Yep. Ever hear of the placebo effect? I'm sure you have...

[vordabois]

Originally posted by Spaced
So it appears prayer is in the same league as horoscopes. Believe in them, and they will come true

Prayer is not only about asking God for something. Prayer can also be about praising God and thanking Him. And again, it can also be utilized as a self-help thing... self-contemplation.

True, the most commonly-held image of what prayer is meant for is to ask for God's help, but that's only one part of it. I can't remember or recall all of the things, but I remember learning about a half-dozen types of prayer, all different. Those are only three.

In reality, if you look at and consider ALL of the things it can be used for, you would realize that prayer, essentially and most basically, is about a person attempting to the best of his ability to become one with God. All of the other things come from that.

[floatingdown]

i agree with whomever said that it is somewhat similar to meditation. sort of a focussing of energy, which may or may not work-but allows the person praying to feel pro-active.

just my two cents, but i am hardly a religious person.

[Saxton]

Originally posted by vordabois
Some may disagree with me on this, but I personally believe prayer is mostly a self-help thing. Sort of meditation.

This makes me uncomfortable, but I think I might ultimatley agree.