God's Will

[enzo@af]

Okay, so the evolution topics kind of led me to this. I'm often troubled by things I hear in church, the main thing being God's desire for us to pray about everything. Pastors (I've heard it from at least two) say that God wants us to pray about not hitting red lights, and praying that milk will be on sale, or praying for a parking spot. Why? This completely confuses me. Why would God want to trivialize himself like that?

Secondly, I've heard a lot of people say that all you have to do is accept God, or accept Jesus or whatever (depending on denomination) before you die. Of course, there's more to it, but that's the basic jist of what's necessary to be saved. Why? It seems to me that God would care for those who have lived a life of morallity than simply those that believe in him. I mean, it seems kind of arrogant of him.

Thirdly, the statement "The lord works in mysterious ways" just pisses me off. Even forgetting the fact that we were created (or evolved into) his form, this still seems like BS. I just dislike this statement. It's so close to the whole "God has a plan for everyone", or "God had something better in mind for you"....Well, then, why pray?

Okay, I don't think I phrased any of this very well, but I just wanted to get some different discussion going...other than just evolution and the validity of the bible.

Cheers,
Enzo

[MBTN]

Hitting red lights? Don't you mean running?

"Pastors (I've heard it from at least two) say that God wants us..." What, THEY say the he wants us to do something. Who tells them, god directly? Why is it only them that he tells, why not the regular Joe?

Nothing makes sense.

[Bean Bandit]

I belive in something(I call it God) but more that God is a valuable source for hope. I don't know how many of you saw Stigmata in the end of the film there's a good sentence. God is within us and all around us not the church. And that I am beliveing. I still go to the church (we call it synagogue anyway) but more because it's like a convention of people with similar belives than a place were God is. God is everywhere where you want him to be. About his will. Well as we can't see the future it's difficult to tell which action was faith or not and if it really changed our future but there are many of strange that happend to people which I can't belive that the simply happend without some strange guidance.

Simple example you missed the train 'cause of some BS while waiting you encounter a person you knew long time ago. There are several such things happening every day...

think about it:bandit:

[Adam]

maybe if things like that are really important, like not hitting a red light on the way to a hospital, but I don't really believe in praying for a good spot in the parking lot... etc....

[Porsche]

Adam, That's because you don't have a car!

[igor@af]

Guys,
I am sorry to spoil this for you, but I do not believe in God, and I have no concern for him/it/her.
I simply do not understand why a person has to rely on *GOD* to have a happy life. I hate to use this, but
"Be all you can be" is true.
You can become the person you want to become, all it requires is effort. In my opinion, people that strongly believe in God do not believe in themselves enough, and are searching for something in their lifes. But I do not understand why they should believe in God, why not just believe in yourself, and do the best you can. It's like the person is avoding himself, and trying to look for an easy way out: "If I believe in God then I will have a happy life, all it takes is believing God, so I can do it"

This is just my opinion,
Please do not take this as offensive material, i am just saying what I think, and thats it. No flames please

[JD@af]

igor, OH, I see how it is, you get to be the evil all-powerful web master who can say whatever he wants free of consequences, right?!?! HA!! I say BURN IN HELL, sinner!! I hope that it is blatantly obvious that the preceding message is plastered with sarcasm, and is 100% in jest.

enzo, I understand what you are saying, and I agree your stance as stated above. I too think it is ridiculous to pray for every little aspect of your life to be planned out to your benefit. That's not the way I thought it was supposed to be (within the partial knowledge acquired from my small extent of a religious up-bringing I did have with my grand parents). Praying is supposed to be reserved for the important things in life, like keeping food on the table and staying healthy, and other keys to survival. I understand why the belief that Jesus must be accepted as your Savior before your death has become popular, but, like you enzo, I think that moral living is a larger piece of the puzzle that seems to be upstaged by this belief nowadays.

I do, however, have a stong belief in the statement "The Lord works in mysterious ways." Maybe this is more of a personal belief. Perhaps it does seem to imply that praying is not necessary. That's where faith comes into play in my book. Why not believe that it can't hurt to pray? I think, if nothing else, praying makes you feel that things will get better. For those that believe, it is a source of hope, and therefore comfort. A great example here (sorry to site yet another film...) is this scene in Inner Space when Martin Short is speaking to Dennis Quaid who is in this pod inside him, and says "give me the strength of ten men," and then Martin proceeds to kick the crap out of a bad guy who confronts him. Well, what Martin doesn't know is that at this point, Dennis and his pod are now inside of Meg Ryan, but he didn't know this - the belief that he was given the strength of ten men was all he needed to prevail in the face of opposition. Call it a lame example if you wish, but I believe that this carries weight in the real world, and is actually feasible in a real world situation.

Thanks for reading-

-JD

[MBTN]

I also have to add that I don't believe in "god", but you all already knew that?

I believe, however, if there even is a "god", and he wanted us to do things, he should tell us directly, not some priest.

[Lizard King]

I never thought that Inner Space was so deep.

[Adam]

igor.. you think people who don't believe in God believe more in themselves? I think that many who don't believe in God believe too much in themselves... they believe they can get away with anything, with nothing to stop them ever and nothing EVER to punish them.... not true.. it's not that ppl who believe in God don't sin, it's just that ppl who believe in God -- well... their sins are pardoned....

[igor@af]

Adam:

Who/what is God?

[MBTN]

Gos is the human races scape goat or explaination for the unknown.

[igor@af]

Think about this guys,
thousands of years ago people could not explain things like thunder, tornado, bad harvest, etc..
So when a there was thunder, they said "It's God being angry." and so on because they had no explanation for it, they just made one up to ease their minds.
Today, we can explain *almost* everything in the world with science. But still some so-called *miracles* exist. That does not mean its God, or a Saint, it means we still have to learn about our mother earth and our human race. It's all science. Everything we can't explain today is either God or Aliens. There is a scientific answer for everything, we just have to find it, just like we found that lightning is caused by electricity in air.

[Lizard King]

Originally posted by Adam
igor.. you think people who don't believe in God believe more in themselves? I think that many who don't believe in God believe too much in themselves... they believe they can get away with anything, with nothing to stop them ever and nothing EVER to punish them.... not true.. it's not that ppl who believe in God don't sin, it's just that ppl who believe in God -- well... their sins are pardoned....

What, so the psycho killer who happens to be a christian is pardoned? Hmmm lets hope that the big guy in the shower room isn't so forgiving, since he is reality.

You aren't fighting a good case for religion.

[MBTN]

Exactly like I said, God is the scape goat for us. If we do something stupid, we can ask for forgiveness (never get a response for some reason...), and everything will be all fine and dandy.