Why Isn't Human Society A Paradise?

[Ivan Denisovich]

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Religionists are forever yakking about the power of prayer.  You know the sort of thing - ask and it shall be given, all things are possible through prayer, etc.

It's a safe bet that people who believe in prayer actually pray, and pray sincerely.  And I don't doubt that well-meaning religionists pray for the good of other people ('Lord, please cure auntie Leticia's cancer') more than they pray for themselves ('Lord, please tell me the winning lotto numbers').  Since this is obviously the case, why hasn't 'the power of prayer' yielded any results?

Millions of people right round the world are at an almost constant risk of starvation.  Weather events destroy hundreds of villages - and cost tens of thousands of lives - every year.  Hundreds of thousands of people live with curable diseases that will eventually kill them, because they have no possible access to decent medical care.  The list of human horrors goes on and on and on.  The constant praying also goes on and on, and things continue to get no better.

Robert Heinlein once opined, 'You can pray hard enough to make water run uphill.  How hard?  Hard enough to make water run uphill, of course.'  He wasn't touting the power of prayer, but the pathetic answer that theists always give to explain the failure of prayer - you simply didn't pray hard enough.  Well, since prayers are 'answered' at a rate no better than that of chance, it seems rather pointless to pray at all, no matter how hard you do it.  Auntie Letty's cancer is going to get better or not, irrespective of your appeals to a deity.

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Given the (literally) never-ending cacophony of prayers offered up for every thing from an end to war to a cure for AIDS, it seems clear as crystal that prayer doesn't work.  I don't think it's because gods don't listen to prayers, I think it's more like ringing the doorbell when there's no one at home.

Boru

Blasphemer. Prayer work, I lost my keys yesterday then and prayed hard and god helped me find them .

Also you know creating the universe is somewhat exhausting so it is no wonder that space wizard don't have enough mana for ending the wars or something like this. He still help to find keys or score touchdown though.

[ignoramus]

Meh. It's the little things that count, right?

He just helped Thena through a mod. How much more direct proof do you want? Jesus H Christ!

[robvalue]

I think I have the answer.

This is just a shitty test for God to decide who he wants to play with and who he gets to torture later. There's no reason he'd make this place actually good, any more than someone would feed you grapes while you're doing a maths exam.

Except of course, he generally seems to know the outcome of the test before he even starts it, making the whole thing entirely pointless. He could have just made people he definitely likes, and put them somewhere nice in the first place. But that wouldn't provide an "explanation" since this place is clearly not that place. Especially since God is nowhere to be found.

[scoobysnack]

Below each thread there is a section called possibly related threads, which is where this one was. Rather than creating another to recreate the wheel I posted on what existed to expand on what was there. Sorry to the mods if that broke the rules.

And...

At the top of each post is an indication of how long ago a post was made. At the end of each page of a thread (full version only) is a red warning banner advising you to start a new discussion rather than digging up the dead ones.

What I use as a rule of thumb:
If the thread is only a few pages, I'll leave it in it's shallow grave. If it's hundreds of pages long and has post going back months or years before the last post date then it'll probably fit the stated exception.

yeah I understand that now. Most forums want to avoid multiple threads on the same topic and encourage you to search for a previous discussion and add to it, rather than regurgitating, and reinventing the wheel. I'll follow the rules though from now on. It's too bad though because there are quite a few threads on VR that are too old to post in, so I'll have to start a new one to talk about. Rules are rules though, and I'm just a visitor here so i'll respect that.

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I think I have the answer.

This is just a shitty test for God to decide who he wants to play with and who he gets to torture later. There's no reason he'd make this place actually good, any more than someone would feed you grapes while you're doing a maths exam.

Except of course, he generally seems to know the outcome of the test before he even starts it, making the whole thing entirely pointless. He could have just made people he definitely likes, and put them somewhere nice in the first place. But that wouldn't provide an "explanation" since this place is clearly not that place. Especially since God is nowhere to be found.

Life is kind of like a school. It has the nerds, jocks, bullies, etc. It's a place where we can all exist. Some of us choose to do good things with our life like helping people, and others choose to do bad things like hurting people. All of us do both, so really we are all to blame for human society not being a paradise. If people understood the power of their words they would choose silence over ever speaking anything negative. People underestimate the power of their actions also and how they spread through society. For example, helping someone will make them happy, and they will go on to help others and it will spread like wildfire, creating a better world. The same happens with hurting people. People will become angry and be angry towards others and harm them in retaliation both mentally and physically, which will also spread around the world.

I think if people actually took the time to study the teachings of near-death experiences, this would be a better world because people would start to understand the collective consciousness better, and the reasons why it truly is important to love all of humanity because we are all interconnected at a spiritual level and a physical level because we are all the same species.

You you want to create a paradise it's up to the individual through your actions and thoughts which in turn will affect others in a positive way and they will do the same to others and it will spread.

There's a lot of great info to be learned about ourselves. Good information in these links:

Purpose of life:
http://www.near-death.com/science/research/life.html

Purpose of humanity:
http://www.near-death.com/science/resear...anity.html

Purpose of earth:
http://www.near-death.com/science/research/earth.html