"Answered" Prayers

Farrell Till jftill@midwest.net
Fri, 17 Apr 1998 23:30:41 -0700 (00892902641, 2.2.32.19980418063041.0072d848@midwest.net) 

At 03:42 PM 4/17/98 -0500, Terry wrote:

>TERRY

>You may think this strange but I do agree with some of your thoughts, on why

>your are an Atheist,

>but of course not all of them.   You mention not having your prayers answer,

>some people have had

>there prayers answer,  but like I said I agree and understand some of it but

>not all of it.

>


TERRY
Have some people had their prayers answered or is it just that some people
have had things turn out the way that they prayed?  If we could suppose that
in a group of 1,000 people who do not pray, there will be a variety of
desires and wishes that these people have, which turn out the way that they
wished or hoped, whereas some in the group won't have their wishes and hopes
fulfilled, what could we conclude except that in life some people realize
their hopes and wishes but others don't.  Now substitute the word "prayer"
for "wishes" and "hopes," and you are left with the obvious fact that in a
large group of people who pray, some of them will have life turn out for
them the way they prayed, whereas others won't.  How do you determine
whether prayer or just chance and circumstance was responsible for some
getting what they prayed for?

To put this in a specific perspective, let's suppose that we have 1,000
students concerned about final exams who hope but don't pray that they will
make good grades on their tests.  Of this number, there will be some who
will get what they hoped for (good grades), but there will be some who
don't.  Did the wishing and hoping have anything to do with some getting
good grades?  If so, then was wishing and hoping responsible for some NOT
getting good grades?  

Now let's imagine another group of 1,000 students who are concerned about
final exams, but these are all students who pray for good grades.  In this
group, we would expect that some who pray for good grades will get good
grades, but we would also expect that some who pray for good grades will NOT
get good grades. In this scenario, it would be typical of those who get the
good grades to think that God answered their prayers, but it would also be
typical of those who didn't get good grades to rationalize that God answered
their prayers but had a better perspective of what the students needed, and
so his answer was "no."  So whether one gets what he prays for or not, he
concludes that his prayer was answered.  This is exactly the way that many
Christians reason.

Go figure.

 
Farrell Till
Skepticism, Inc.
jftill@midwest.net