"Answered" Prayers

Sara and/or John Hamilton Sara and/or John Hamilton" <sarajohn@pacbell.net
Fri, 17 Apr 1998 21:49:53 -0700 (00892896593, 01bd6a85$6d994dc0$82a1abce@sarajohn) 



>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.



JOHN HAMILTON
I once drew a flow chart I labeled the "Cycle of Prayer"  written out it
would go like this.

1-Person prays.
        2-Does thing prayed for happen?
                3-yes
                    4-person decides to pray more (go back to 1)
                 5-no
                    6-person decides he didn't pray enough (go back to 1)

As you can see there is no escape.