Prayer?

[Anomalocaris]

It's amazing how a person stupid enough to believe in god could also imagine himself smart enough to speak on behalf of god.

If god has a plan for you, man's child, it would be to prove he is a nitwit by creating you.

[Cyberman]

GC, no disrespect intended, but your post reads as though two people with diametrically opposed viewpoints wrote it. God doesn't work that way, yet simultaneously listing rationalisations why it does.

[Thor]

God does not work His will in that way, the cancer of one child would not have an effect on God's greater plan

Then why do children (or anyone, really) get cancer in the first place?

however God does have plans for individuals

So a child getting cancer is part of his plan. Your deity is a retard.

God may not heal the child in your example, if He does not it's for a reason that only God understands at the time.

How convenient! So your deity gets a pass because you think we're too stupid to understand his reasons for allowing a child to suffer with cancer and die? Why doesn't he try explaining it to the parents?

Then He may heal the child and again if He does it would be for a reason only He would know at the time.

So your deity may or may not heal a child with cancer. Sounds like you may as well pray to a garden gnome.

God is not required to give explanations of His actions,

Don't you mean, "God is not able to give explanations of his actions"?

though He has revealed them to many people in situations where he does or does not answer prayer as it is asked.

What a load! Where has this occurred? Who are these "many people"? How were his reasons "revealed"? Because I'm quite sure he didn't appear and talk to anyone.

Then there's something else to consider He may answer in a way that is far better, in a way no one has even considered.

Or..... he won't answer at all. I think this is much more likely.

[Annik]

God doesn't heal people. Modern medicine does (and your immune system).

[Anomalocaris]

God doesn't heal people. Modern medicine does (and your immune system).

God heals people of any intelligence, knowledge, or genuine regard for their fellow men, that they may have contracted.

[Cyberman]

Good point. After all:

[Whateverist]

God doesn't heal people. Modern medicine does (and your immune system).

I wonder how many prayer warriors you'd need praying for you to equal the effect of penicillin?

[Drich]

Yes, I am curious as to how you are going to use special pleading to justify something that you approve of.

We start by looking at the Lords prayer as a model of Prayer and not as a prayer itself. It can be found in Luke 11 You can take this model and apply your own words.

Our Father in heaven,
Hallowed be Your name.

It starts with acknoweledging God's Power position and Authority.

Your kingdom come.

Here we ask that God's Kingdom come or rather we ask for the end of this age of man to come to an end.. (armegedon, The end of Days, the Second comming.)

Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

we are here instructed to ask for God's will to be the only thing followed. in short the end of sin/choice to sin.

3 Give us day by day our daily bread.

This is the only point in this whole prayer we were are to 'make a wish' and that wish is limited to our daily needs.

4 And forgive us our sins,
For we also forgive everyone who is indebted to us.

This is an interesting tid bit most of us/Christians glance over ourselves. In that we pray that our forgiveness of sin debt we owe is tied to our ablity to forgive other who have sinned against us. Meaning if we can not forgive those who sin against us, we are to Pray that our sins are not forgiven either.
(there is a parable that better illustrates this concept if you are interested.) In short just simply going through the motions or 'plan of salvation' is not enough. For our salvation is very conditional, and is tied to our ablity to forgive others.

And do not lead us into temptation,
But deliver us from the evil one.”

It ends with a plee to keep us from being tempted.

As you can see in the Lord's Model of Prayer we do not have room for the personal wishing most have been brought up to believe Prayer was about.

That said, one may ask, is it a sin to petition God? No. No where in the bible does it say we can not petition God. but know simply asking God for stuff is not praying.

For some of you who's faiths faultered becuse of 'unanswered prayer' you may want to take another look at what prayer actually is. and ask yourself were you praying or just making wishes.

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Open the door to invite a sermon? How can I refuse?

No, thanks anyway.

Say no, and stop reading this thread.

[Lion IRC]

Theologically, sin is a form of cancer.
Prayer cures that.

Besides, if there were no correlation between prayer and health, you would have to think of another reason why religious people live longer.

[C.W. Sims]

Drich, darling, is there a reason you ignored my entire post about this? Did you feel it was too detailed to answer the questions or did you not mean that you wished to discuss the points you had made and only wanted to discuss the Lord's Prayer?