Experiences with Prayer

[Jonah]

Yeah, if you need god answering your preyers to pass an exame, that means you need god to act like a Satan and screwed all the people who really knew the stuff by tempering with the score curve in your favor. But the cognative dissonance that allows a person born in the scientific age to believe in the literal truth of the bible probably wouldn't allow them to think too effectively about this quandray.

I can just hear the juicy obscurantist obfuscation now.

According to Christian beliefs, isn't it unethical to ask God to play the role of Satan on your behalf? Would that qualify as tempting God? If it does, then God wouldn't intercede in the matter anyway.

And Jesus answering said unto him, It is said, Thou shalt not tempt the Lord thy God.

So either there is no god, or god won't listen to you. All of a sudden it seem like Pascal's hustler wager is not just a flip of a coin anymore, is it.

Hehe, I guess not! I hadn't thought about Pascal's Wager until you mentioned it.

[thesummerqueen]

I was 10 years old when I last prayed. It was then I realized there wasn't someone up there listening. Too bad it took another 13 years before I really became comfortable with being "bad".

[Jonah]

I was 10 years old when I last prayed. It was then I realized there wasn't someone up there listening. Too bad it took another 13 years before I really became comfortable with being "bad".

That's how I felt for the longest time. While I knew I wasn't a believer like everyone else, I was afraid of the social taboo of the "evil atheist." Now that I have a better understanding of atheism, the social taboo doesn't bother me anymore.