Prayer & being between a rock and a hard place

@fmf said
What is the point of someone praying to the Christian God when they do not believe in the Christian God ?

We are not talking about the star wars force here, where we control what God does or doesn't do by acts of our will or the virtue of our faith. It isn't that we have gathered our spiritual force of faith within ourselves, and then God is moved to act; that isn't how it works. He has compassion; the starts and stops in this life happen to us all, the hurt and devastation we all go through He understands. A simple prayer, even admitting I don't believe but help is honest, and I believe even more so than someone who thinks they can call down fire at their words, or whatever else they think they can make God do because they say so.

@kellyjay said
We are not talking about the star wars force here, where we control what God does or doesn't do by acts of our will or the virtue of our faith. It isn't that we have gathered our spiritual force of faith within ourselves, and then God is moved to act; that isn't how it works. He has compassion; the starts and stops in this life happen to us all, the hurt and devastation we a ...[text shortened]... call down fire at their words, or whatever else they think they can make God do because they say so.

It would be entirely bogus of me to claim I share these kinds of beliefs you are espousing here.

A simple prayer, even admitting I don't believe but help is honest, and I believe even more so than someone who thinks they can call down fire at their words...

A simple prayer would have been "honest"?

@kellyjay said
We are not talking about the star wars force here, where we control what God does or doesn't do by acts of our will or the virtue of our faith.

Who is talking about "controlling what God does or doesn't do"?

@fmf said
Who is talking about "controlling what God does or doesn't do"?

He isn't a genie in the bottle; just because we ask for something doesn't mean He has to give us what we ask for the way we want it; that will always be up to Him. That said, even a no doesn't come without His aid; nothing in this life is permanent; it is all decaying, winding down; the eternal is what matters.

@fmf said
It would be entirely bogus of me to claim I share these kinds of beliefs you are espousing here.

A simple prayer, even admitting I don't believe but help is honest, and I believe even more so than someone who thinks they can call down fire at their words...

A simple prayer would have been "honest"?

A cry from the heart, yes.

@kellyjay said
He isn't a genie in the bottle; just because we ask for something doesn't mean He has to give us what we ask for the way we want it; that will always be up to Him. That said, even a no doesn't come without His aid; nothing in this life is permanent; it is all decaying, winding down; the eternal is what matters.

You are talking to me as if I believe in the same Christian God figure as you do. Why are you doing this?

@kellyjay said
A cry from the heart, yes.

There is no "Jesus" in my "heart". I believe he has been stone dead for about 2,000 years. There is no "cry" I could make that wouldn't be bogus.

@divegeester said
Most scientists are atheist and most are, I’m guessing now of course, more intelligent than you.

Scientists, I would say, are intelligent in their own specialized niches but not necessarily outside of them. And they lack wisdom because any intelligent person - and certainly a person with wisdom - realizes his feelings could be wrong and that God cannot logically be disproven.

Therefore, an atheism lacks intelligence and certainly lacks wisdom

@fmf said
There is no "Jesus" in my "heart". I believe he has been stone dead for about 2,000 years. There is no "cry" I could make that wouldn't be bogus.

<<I believe he has been stone dead for about 2,000 years.>>

Where’s His body?

@pb1022 said
<<I believe he has been stone dead for about 2,000 years.>>

Where’s His body?

There is no way of knowing.

@fmf said
There is no way of knowing.

Why could no one find it back then and disprove the claims of Someone and His followers whom they despised?

@pb1022 said
Scientists, I would say, are intelligent in their own specialized niches but not necessarily outside of them.

As you say… you would say that.

@pb1022 said
Why could no one find it back then and disprove the claims of Someone and His followers whom they despised?

I have no idea. There is no credible historical account of the events. There is only Christian literature written decades after what supposedly happened and that was written by people who were consciously creating a new religion.

@fmf said
I have no idea. There is no credible historical account of the events. There is only Christian literature written decades after what supposedly happened and that was written by people who were consciously creating a new religion.

The Gospels are credible and reliable.

You ought to look into their trustworthiness before flippantly dismissing them.

@divegeester said
As you say… you would say that.

So in your view an intelligent person believes either his feelings are always right or that God can be disproven?