What Is The Point Of Prayer?

[Wallaby]

*Channels Drich* Christians don't pray to make formal requests to god or to kiss his ass, they do it change their own minds and will and desires into something in line with god's will. *Channels Drich*

I know you meant this as a joke, but I'm sincerely curious about this idea.

Sometime when faced with hard decisions, theists (my only exposure is to Christians) will "pray about it." I heard it all the time growing up. Since there really isn't a God to tell you exactly what to do, I wonder what the actual process does for a devout person's decision making. My guess would be that the decision would be made in-line with a more conservative, safe-thinking mindset; God is a father-like figure, and even if your biological father isn't, God is presented as a stern, loving, gentle person.

So when we say "pray on it," are we in effect saying "do whatever it is your dad or whoever comes closest to being your dad would do"? I'm curious to hear what people think.

---

<stuff>

Brian, I didn't quote your post because there was a lot of it to go through, but I think you've raised some very interesting points. I'm going to go out on a limb and postulate something. This postulation comes in two parts:

1) God is very powerful, but is not all-powerful, despite what Christians tend to claim. He is really just another term being used to reference the universe in general.
2) When Christians pray, they are not actually praying to God. They are praying to Jesus.

Prayer makes a lot more sense in this context. When you pray to ask God for something, you are not begging an all-powerful, timeless entity to change his eternal plan. Instead, you are praying to an intermediary (Jesus, or one of the saints) to lobby on your behalf to a great being who has his hand on the steering wheel of the universe. God may or may not be impressed with your devotion and may or may not re-steer his course based on your request.

This puts Jesus in an interesting light, because Christians typically describe him as being "one with God," logically interchangeable with Him. But this is not the practice, is it? Christians identify Jesus as a figure separate from God, begotten from Him, but not controlled. This makes for a much more interesting story than the one typically told. What if God's impregnation of Mary was not part of a divine plan, but a whim? Then Jesus' struggle to convince the rest of humanity to worship Him and view Him as a loving entity is partially a way of staving off retribution from a potentially angry and vengeful God, as is shown in the Old Testament. This is the kind of view that sees God as a child squatting over an anthill. She could step on them and squash them all, or she could become amused by their frolicking to and fro. Maybe if enough of the larger ants bring her candy, she'll decide it's better to leave the colony be, or bring them some sugar. Without any intercession, she might decide to go find a magnifying glass and see what entertainment springs from that.

People in this thread have shown a clear disdain for others who vocalize that they are "praying for them," but I don't think this deserves the vehemence its been given. Prayer, in general, is an incredibly easy thing to do. You just imagine you're talking to God. To be a Christian (who is expected to pray) and to NOT pray for somehow who could potentially benefit from divine intervention is, in the Christian sense, deplorable. Some poor person is dying, and you're not willing to take 15 minutes out of your day to commune with God and beg on behalf of this person's life? Prayer, for the Christian, is like holding a door open for a pregnant women who's carrying two sacks full of groceries. You're of course going to do it, because it's the only decent thing to do. Of course, letting people know that you're doing it is something else altogether, and against the teachings of the J man himself. I think it's fair to categorize that as passive coercion, in the sense of "I'm doing something by praying, maybe you oughta consider it too."