What is the Christian logic behind prayer? God is omniscient, omnibenevolent, and omnipotent. He has a plan, and Phil will die or not die according to that plan. Where does prayer fit it? Is it like American Idol, where if Phil get enough prayers the outcome changes? Doesn’t that conflict with either omnipotence or omnibenevolence?
2 Likes
God is omnipotent in ways humans can never understand. God said we should pray. So we pray.
That’s not very satisfying. Makes Him sound like kind of a prick.
1 Like
I’m not a Christian, but the only Christian prayers I know aren’t “God please give me what I want”. But, obviously, many many people who call themselves Christian don’t really adhere to the teachings of Christ in any other areas, so I don’t know why this one would be different.
1 Like
https://twitter.com/ValentineShow/status/1415822077022687242
https://dailycaller.com/2021/07/14/johnson-johnson-sunscreens-benzene-cancer/
Narrator: it was not in fact, the last tweet from the self-proclaimed “not anti-vaxxer”
1 Like
But what is the function of prayer?
Because of omniscience, you can’t tell God anything He doesn’t already know.
Because of omnibenevolence, He can’t change his plan because of your prayer (He was already ensuring we are in the best possible world).
Suzzer seems to imply that I pray for Phil for my own sake, i.e., I can’t affect Phil’s fate, but I can show God I have faith in him because I do what He tells me to do.
So prayer is mostly about self-interest? Do I have that right?
Have you seriously never thought about this before? You’re expecting logical consistency in an all-loving deity that let the slavery, the Holocaust, and the Rape of Nanking happen?
It has nothing to do with making sense. It’s about faith because that faith fills a need.
Like imagining a world wherein only good things happen fills a need
1 Like
I’ve thought about it quite a medium amount and have taught sections of courses on the problem of evil. But I have mostly read philosophical treatments, not specifically apologetics. I would be shocked if the Christian response is really just, “We don’t believe in logic.” I’m sure there’s a logic, even if it’s a bad one.
1 Like
We could accelerate all these with two choices.
Get vaccinated or get injected with Covid.
We can do away with all the waiting and wondering.
1 Like
72% of anti vaxxers take dodgey (how do you spell that) supplements no doctor has ever reviewed.
2 Likes
News Flash: None of life’s big questions have answers.
7 Likes
It’s an expression of emotional support.
1 Like
Pretty much all religion ends in a logical conundrum.
No clue how you don’t end up at predeterminism. Of course then you can be a selfish asshole. You can’t help it.
As far as I know prayer only works at sports events.
Don’t forget it also worked for the 2007 WSOP Main Event champion.
1 Like
Maybe we need a separate theodicy thread.
Anyways, theological argument is that the existence of evil and suffering is a natural consequence of giving humans free will. A world without suffering is one where we do not have free will.
2 Likes
The typical answer here is that God gave us free will because free will is more good than the Holocaust is bad. God switches the track in the trolley problem.
Pretty shit answer iyam.
1 Like
Do you find that convincing? The world couldn’t still have free will and be even 1% better? What about AIDS and covid and tsunamis?
I think that if I were I were God, the world I create would contain human suffering.
1 Like