Originally posted by Shakyamunison
Prayer is not only a Christian thing. You don't have to believe in the supernatural to get the benefit of prayer. All Nichiren Buddhists pray a set of prayers every morning and evening while doing Gongyo.
fair enough, I was using it the way Mr. Dog was, but ya, prayer probably means a lot of different things. I was simply stating that an athlete with a 16h/7 day a week training regiment was not lazily hoping for God to win a gold medal for them.
Originally posted by Bicnarok
Some of my prayers have been answered, quite amazing really seeing as I´m on the Agnostic side of things.
Not really amazing, imo. It sounds about right. Plenty of prayers will be answered, simply as a result of statistical likelihood. Combine all of the prayers offered to God each day, then factor in that multiple outcomes to the problem can be seen as being "answered." It's a statistical certainty that a fair number will be "answered." It's also just as certain that at various times, extravagantly unlikely outcomes will happen that produce answered prayers. In fact, it would be FAR greater evidence for the divine if no prayers were ever answered. That bit of information never seems to convince those with a "Chicken Soup For the Soul" type of personal story that affirms their faith, but remains entirely true.
Also, this isn't a direct response to your post. It just seemed kinda pertinent, and I wanted to share my thoughts.
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
I never thought of that.
Yeah, it would be so statistically unlikely as to be essentially impossible, which would necessitate some kind of supernatural intervention. It's a fun way of thinking about it, and really puts into perspective all kinds of little "unbelievable coincidence" anecdotes that people sometimes use to affirm their faith in God.
Originally posted by Digi
Yeah, it would be so statistically unlikely as to be essentially impossible, which would necessitate some kind of supernatural intervention. It's a fun way of thinking about it, and really puts into perspective all kinds of little "unbelievable coincidence" anecdotes that people sometimes use to affirm their faith in God.
I'm sure you've heard it before, but given the number of people on the planet, 6 1 in 1 000 000 000 events occur each day, and each year, at least one event with 1 in 2 190 000 000 000 odds against it will occur.
It is interesting, not necessarily statistically correct, but interesting.
For instance, if people only prayed for things with almost no statistical probability, it wouldn't be surprising at all if none of them came true.
Originally posted by Symmetric Chaos
*Given that you follow certain terms and conditions as detailed in the User End License Agreement.
Nah, even those who break the rules will get answers.
When you make a request you can only ever get three responses:
Approved
Declined
Pending
Some people use this fact to try and prove that prayers are not answered at all- I'm thinking of the milk jug example. However, the answers are always one of those three.
Originally posted by inimalist
I'm sure you've heard it before, but given the number of people on the planet, 6 1 in 1 000 000 000 events occur each day, and each year, at least one event with 1 in 2 190 000 000 000 odds against it will occur.It is interesting, not necessarily statistically correct, but interesting.
For instance, if people only prayed for things with almost no statistical probability, it wouldn't be surprising at all if none of them came true.
I've heard similar stats, though it might not have been those exact numbers.
But yes, it would of course depend on the prayers themselves. We could easily construct a scenario in which my earlier observations aren't true. But we also both know that that kind of worldwide scenario can only exist as a hypothetical, and the actual circumstances in our world support my viewpoint from a statistical standpoint, and they support it to an absurd degree. Likely-fabricated numbers like those you quoted do have a kernel of truth to them. Even if the numbers themselves are wrong, the general principle remains true.
Originally posted by UKR
A guy as big and important as God, who is busy with the friggin' universe...paying attention to complaints made by bacteria? It wouldn't make any sense.
Bar the fact he is omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient. Every tiny minute happening in the universe has his fullest attention.