quote:To explain further... outside of time, God knows He will answer some prayers and not answer others. He also knows that someone will from time to time attempt this study. Since He is ordering the entire universe, He can simply arrange for a set of prayers He chooses not to answer to fall in the course of this study in order to confound it.
He certainly does not, as wicket implies, have to "do the opposite" for anyone who is trying to test him.
Didn't want to let this go uncommented...
That's pretty much my understanding as well, though I tend to think of difficult things allegorically, so I see him as a great weaver at an enormous loom with living threads. He can see the tapestry in its entirety. As the threads move themselves, he manages the overall integrity of the tapestry, ensuring the pattern remains whole. Sometimes this means moving a willing thread here or there. He could force all the threads in place, but enjoys the dance of integrating the will of the threads into the overall pattern of his design. Fanciful thoughts, but it helps me understand the role of prayer and free will in God's plan. No idea if it's accurate. But I like it anyway.
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think I pointed this out in the last thread of this kind we had : That means that, by studying the effect of all prayers, you can ensure none are answered. This would seem to conflict with the idea of a non-manipulatable god.
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
I think you did point that out... but there's a host of problems with studying all prayers like that, not the least being that many people (like me) would refuse to participate.
But if you want to do a study, how about this: if something bad happens to someone who believes in a God, it's a fairly good bet that, at the very least in the instant before it happened, there was a prayer that it wouldn't. It's an exaggeration, but not too far from the truth to say that every bad things that happens to someone is an unanswered prayer, or, more correctly, a prayer answered "no".
There is plenty of reason to be skeptical of prayer... even by His own book, the Christian God denied His own son's (or His own, if you prefer) prayer.
Posts: 121 | Registered: Jan 2006
| IP: Logged |
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
