(October 11, 2015 at 5:36 pm)robvalue Wrote: Indeed! I'd be very interested in any theist explaining away this problem. If God does answer a prayer, that means he did in fact have a way to improve his plan; or else he is now making his plan worse because of accommodating the prayer. I suppose the nearest thing to a solution here is that God changes his plan to another equivalently good plan that accommodates the details of the prayer. That's a bit ridiculous, I wonder if anyone will go with that? If by changing the prayer that makes the person happier than they would otherwise be, then surely that makes the plan better in of itself. If not, he must add a negative factor in some other area to compensate for this happiness bonus. So you're asking God to shift stuff about; this still amounts to telling him how to do his job.And even if z person only prays "Thy will be done," that's still suggesting that god's will won't be done unless we pray for it to be done. Otherwise what is the point? As in any other area, the theists only solution is a fiat insistence that no contradiction exits.
If he is changing his plan repeatedly because of prayers, then his initial plan is pretty pointless huh.
I think what we're dealing with is the contradictory beliefs that God answers prayers; yet has an unchanging master plan. The cognitive dissidence allows the theist to believe both at once.
The god who allows children to be raped out of respect for the free will choice of the rapist, but punishes gay men for engaging in mutually consensual sex couldn't possibly be responsible for an intelligently designed universe.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.
I may defend your right to free speech, but i won't help you pass out flyers.
Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
--Voltaire
Nietzsche isn't dead. How do I know he lives? He lives in my mind.