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I know more than one Christian who responds to someone in need with, "I will pray for you." Then they walk away believing they have done their part to help that person.
And probably don't even carry through with that. I guess the real value in their actions is that they 'walk away'.
And probably don't even carry through with that. I guess the real value in their actions is that they 'walk away'.
They have not read their guide book:
James 2
14 My brethren, what shall it profit, if any man say that he hath faith, but he hath not works? whether faith shall be able to save him?
15 And if a brother or sister be naked, and have need of each day's livelode [of each day's lifelode], 16 and if any of you say to them, Go ye in peace [Go in peace], be ye made hot, and be ye filled; but if ye give not to them those things that be necessary to the body, what shall it profit? 17 So also faith, if it hath not works, is dead in itself.
I know more than one Christian who responds to someone in need with, "I will pray for you." Then they walk away believing they have done their part to help that person.
I know more than a few that use that to get out of actually helping anyone. It's intentional.
I know more than a few that use that to get out of actually helping anyone. It's intentional.
I had an account on Facebook. There were many folks on there with whom I had worked years ago. There were some friends and some family. It got to the place that every time I logged on somebody was either requesting prayers or offering them for everything from a bad cold to a sick pet. I finally disabled the account.
I live in the Bible Belt and around a lot of people that really do pray for each other. One girl on Facebook is just like that. She's constantly asking us to pray for something or someone. I don't think some people realize how silly that come across, sometimes. My personal favorite is praying before a sports event. It's one thing to pray for no injuries, but people pray to win. Do they not see that the other side is doing the same thing? Um...
But my mother says she will pray for you and then smirks. She wants you to know that she isn't going to do a darn thing for you but she hides behind her religion and thinks she is quite clever. I've never seen anyone use her religion quite like she does.
I live in the Bible Belt and around a lot of people that really do pray for each other. One girl on Facebook is just like that. She's constantly asking us to pray for something or someone. I don't think some people realize how silly that come across, sometimes. My personal favorite is praying before a sports event. It's one thing to pray for no injuries, but people pray to win. Do they not see that the other side is doing the same thing? Um...
But my mother says she will pray for you and then smirks. She wants you to know that she isn't going to do a darn thing for you but she hides behind her religion and thinks she is quite clever. I've never seen anyone use her religion quite like she does.
Religious folks are arrogant and naive. Face it...to believe the concoctions developed by ignorant, primitive mankind which was basically the continuation of ancient god worship just how naive does someone have to be? To believe that one has a close relationship with the creator of the universe just how arrogant does someone have to be? Christians are more arrogant than any others because they believe that anyone who embraces any faith except theirs will suffer eternally in the flames of hell while they walk streets paved with gold.
That terminally ill "Christians" suffer more than, let's say, non-"Christians" was brought up as a fact in a couple of books I read that researched the subject.
Add to that a couple of other factors, and we might be coming closer to understanding this phenomenon, which I believe has nothing to do with anything supernatural but a human phenomenon just the same.
A number of Christian sects brainwash their congregations into believing that disease and personal disasters are God's punishment. A step above that is that bad things happen because of sin.
Given that a "Christian" believes these concepts and agrees to the conditions whereby he is deserving of God's punishment and it is because of his sin that he suffers, then any prayers offered by this "Christian" is pretty empty. Psychologically, he has already "zeroed" out any effect (or affect) that will benefit him.
Prayers by others will have a near-zero effect as well. You all can pray for me, for example, but if I put up enough resistance against your prayers, then nought will be the result.
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I agree that prayer is more self-supporting than anything else, such as RAS (did I get that right?) and a self-inspirational talk.
There was a kind of theory awhile back that is still used by many members of the military. They would put the insignia of the next rank in their desk drawers (or other convienient places) and stare at the insignia for no more than ten minutes at a specified time of the day. Supposedly, this was to form a meld between one's desires and futuristic outcomes.
Other versions of this practice suggested that one draw a picture of one's desires (or pictures cut out of newspapers and magazines), to be safely stored out sight and brought out only for viewing at specified times.
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I get the feeling that so many people feel that time moves in a horizontal direction, rather than, perhaps, an omni-directional direction.
People struggle against the past much harder than they struggle against the present and the future.
There is a deeply entrenched skepticism about one's ability to change the present (which albeit that this is the true time that we live we do not pay much attention to it) and certainly not the future. After all, we cannot change the past--in a literal sense but certainly in a figurative sense--so we are nothing more than characters in a story that already has a beginning and pretty much a sad ending.
That people do have a great potential for changing the present and the future is a hidden asset--a denied asset. An asset denied by the "authorities" and pschological denied by the individual, for he has not been taught differently.
Mark Twain (Letters to the Earth) probably scared the bejesus out of the establishment until they realized that Mark Twain would have near zero impact on the deeply rooted and deeply seated psychological dilemma present within our brains. We are the makers and shakers of our own lives and destinies. We need not a god to help make our lives a living hell. We do that quite nicely on our own.
Prayer, meditation, or even wishful thinking is a facet of higher brain functions. It recognizes that the current situation is less than desireable. It energizes the motivation to do something about the situation. And, when the situation has improved even a little, there is reward and satisfaction that one's prayer did work, even if it worked only in the dreamworld of reality in one's own private universe.
Prayer, meditation, or even wishful thinking is a facet of higher brain functions. It recognizes that the current situation is less than desireable. It energizes the motivation to do something about the situation. And, when the situation has improved even a little, there is reward and satisfaction that one's prayer did work, even if it worked only in the dreamworld of reality in one's own private universe.
You nailed it. All god stuff comes from the mind. Always has...always will.
Once a child has been totally brainwashed with that line of thinking anything contrary is valved out and makes no sense to them. That's why you see them on television by the tens of thousands waving their hands, singing and shouting. That's why they send social security checks to con men and scam artists who use the airwaves(ether) to promulgate lies in abundance and prey on the least capable among us.
I recently overheard colleagues at work talking about how Jesus helped one of them to find the perfect house to buy. They were referring to it as a "God thing!" Meanwhile, I am wondering why the prayers of the homeless and starving are not a "God thing."
Hard to believe.... it's like scenes from an Idiocracy-type black comedy.
That "God wants to work for ME!" feel-good schtick is really disturbing. Leaves people prey to the Glenn Becks of the world.
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