tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post2977761779069731463..comments2023-10-19T11:27:25.565-04:00Comments on Nutwood Junction: The danger of prayerBethhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05149068921334726430noreply@blogger.comBlogger9125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-91571259788586125592010-06-26T18:23:22.801-04:002010-06-26T18:23:22.801-04:00Compelling piece Beth, and an equally moving video...Compelling piece Beth, and an equally moving video. We do need to believe in ourselves and each other. We also need to make action more of our lives than fantasy.Kyle Leachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13369076904327452139noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-2595382286925831922010-06-22T12:48:21.782-04:002010-06-22T12:48:21.782-04:00I have nothing against prayer per se, but the trul...I have nothing against prayer per se, but the truly spiritual people I know believe in active prayer. I find that a concept much easier to understand.<br /><br />Very well written piece. ~MaryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-53933682246828614022010-06-22T12:27:38.316-04:002010-06-22T12:27:38.316-04:00If you live it the way God taught it, you have mor...If you live it the way God taught it, you have more responsibility AND more freedom at the same time than you can imagine. Your own feelings toward God and prayer scare/sadden me much more than legislators trying to solve a crisis made by greed and corruption through prayer.Barbara In Caneyheadhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06053601327400989802noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-77205015562429581682010-06-22T10:24:59.505-04:002010-06-22T10:24:59.505-04:00Prayers are for the lazy and unimaginative.Prayers are for the lazy and unimaginative.Toonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02867993460493875221noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-67891605604308885992010-06-22T00:15:21.942-04:002010-06-22T00:15:21.942-04:00I like DB's comment, too. Reminds me of somet...I like DB's comment, too. Reminds me of something I heard, "Prayer does not change the world; prayer changes people and people change the world. Let us pray." If there's a god, if there's a miracle, then it is the miraculous working of the human brain--miraculous both in its capabilities and in its tenacious inabilities and disabilities. Still, I don't consider brains or tulips or pearls to be created miracles; I consider them to be evolved and miraculously beautiful. <br /><br />As to the suffering of sensate creatures, I recommend Bart Ehrman's God's Problem.Nancehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15166865250789996825noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-85181825344168282972010-06-21T23:13:32.195-04:002010-06-21T23:13:32.195-04:00When I first saw this "day of prayer", I...When I first saw this "day of prayer", I was incredulous. Glad you made an entry on it :o)Ken Richeshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09425810816600512504noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-25189130589248264112010-06-21T23:09:26.123-04:002010-06-21T23:09:26.123-04:00DB, you are so right.DB, you are so right.Donna. Whttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18393352099473686196noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-6796265307492789732010-06-21T22:13:57.974-04:002010-06-21T22:13:57.974-04:00'God is dead... and no one cares... if there i...'God is dead... and no one cares... if there is a hell... I will see you there' -Hersey, NIN<br /><br />The danger in relying on God is that it allows for responsiblity to be shrugged off. When those BP dollars start to flow and people being to make a new life for themselves, I wonder how much that their faith will be responsible for then?<br /><br />'The opiate of the masses', to paraphase Nietzsche. And like most drugs, one of the effects of religion is a surpression of vital functions of the human body, like objective and rational thought.<br /><br />Honestly, I don't have a problem with people ascribing to deism a power over the things that they don't see and that science and psychology can't give a concrete answer for. I happen to think like we are to fish or to a species somewhere in the jungle, it is posible for another higher 'reality' to exist in a dimesion outside of ours.<br /><br />But even in that example, the realities occur simeoutaneously without there being a conscious awareness, where the two (or more) realities have any knowledge of each other.<br /><br />Not only does 'no one care' if there is a God, I don't think that HE really cares much about us. Explains a lot of the suffering that he allows to go on in this life. Again, along with not getting an good enough explination for why biblical actors did not resemble who I thought the characters in the Bible should look like, God's indifference towards us and his son; his anger and his petulance, made me as a child, decide to find something else to believe.<br /><br />I think real hopelessness begins with the faithful. They want to have the reality of their imagination so they indulge in dangerous 'magical thinking' that leads to things like changing textbooks to suit the needs of those who cannot concieve of why the world moved on certain principles and the principles that they believe in don't work which is why they failed in the first place.<br /><br />Praying is giving up if it is done without a corresponding action to make something else happen. Faith is an action that says to me, 'I have done something and anticipate a result from my action.' Now, if one so choose, they can pray.<br /><br />I guess prayer gives you something to do while science and others who believe that their choices and the consequence of their decisions will have more of an effect on the Gulf and the world in general, go about their work. After all, if you aren't part of the solution, then you are part of the problem. Getting out of the way is a good compromise, and if prayer gets it done, then pray away.<br /><br />Whew.! Haven't unloaded on the 'religilous' like that in quite a while! But 'Ulysees' invokes Gods in his speech... but it is for his choices and his actions that he asks for consideration.Big Mark 243https://www.blogger.com/profile/10974573439218884164noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-736448434152217111.post-2989208393279228502010-06-21T20:40:34.462-04:002010-06-21T20:40:34.462-04:00you are so spot on about how the owning 'it...you are so spot on about how the owning 'it' has to be on us.<br /><br />*snaps*<br /><br /><br />xxalainaxxmrs.missalaineushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08542984504965262088noreply@blogger.com