A Better Understanding About Prayer

What does prayer tell God

Why do we pray? We pray because we are trying to convey our needs and thoughts to god. But isn’t god all knowing?? If so then he already knows everything we are saying..If we are praying because we are feeling depressed or insecure or frightened..then god already knows how we are feeling..when we pray for god to heal someone who is close to us from a problem or some illness..then god already know that we want him to heal that person…so I wonder..what is the point of praying to god for these things???

God knows best

God knows best..of all the choices of action or inaction..God knows best..because an all knowing god knows everything right??? And these facts cannot be changed by any human being..and no one can change the fact that god knows best on what course of action is to be taken..and because god knows what is best..no human can change the will of god..God is an eternal being, perfect and all powerful, so he always knows what is best..If god wants to do something then he will do something..if he doesn’t want to do something then he won’t do it..So what would happen if you pray for a loved one to be cured from a serious illness?? God knows when the best time to cure that person, if god wants to cure that person then he will, if he doesn’t then he won’t..so what are people thinking when they pray to god to change his mind??

Is Praying against Gods will?

When we pray to god for something to happen is like telling god that we know better than him…we are indirectly telling god that we do not agree with the course of events that god has laid out..So when we pray for something we are indirectly going against gods will..We are asking god to act at a time that is convenient for us when god has already planned everything out..your prayers will not change the facts that god already had everything planned out..When we pray we are indirectly opposing god and his will, we are also harassing him and trying to tell him that we know better than him..When we pray we are being insolent, ignorant, misguided, and confused and mainly arrogant..

Jesus once said to one of his apostles “Get thee behind me, Satan”..he said this to an apostle who thought he knew better than gods plan even though the apostle was bemoaning suffering and meant well..so when you try to sway gods mind thru prayer you are behaving in the same way as that apostle..”With Satan beside you” when you think about what it means to pray, hope or wish for things..you will find out that you are not doing what god wants you to be doing!!!!

Is Praying Selfish?

Now that we understand that prayer is irrelevant to an all knowing god..why do theists do it?? The answers is probably that praying is for ourselves..The function that prayer plays is as the facilitator of introspective reflection..Theist religions call it prayer, eastern religions call it meditation..But psychologically it is introspection and reflection..In all cases it is connected to the internal states of the person involved..I think it seems dishonest to call it prayer..giving it a magical name will merely confuse impressionable people..

Prayer or meditation, whether it is Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish etc…, is all for the self and not for god..because god doesn’t need it. But still most Christians and theists do not admit that is essential a very selfish action..

Pray in Private and Secretly?? Or in Public??

Matthew 6 : 5-6 lays out some rules about praying. It clearly says that you should pray in private.., "but thou when thou pray, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut the door, pray to thy father in secret, and thy father which seeth in secret shall reward thee".

It says that Christians are to pray privately..with their room door closed..Matthew is implying that Christians should do this because Christians that god knows their secrets..and rewards their trust in him..Matthew goes on to say how hypocrites pray in public where other people can see them praying, “that they be seen in public”. When we pray to god we are trying to appear good kind of like saying I am wearing the good guy badge..in order to gain social esteem.

Many Christian scholars and most Christians simply ignore these instructions..They have been praying in public, for display to everyone, on television and all other types of media..It seems very ironic to me that a Christian prays in public, displaying their affiliation to god, yet they ignore the very instructions that they believe their god has sent them. They are pretending to be serving god but in truth they are directly ignoring his instructions..

Just in case there is any doubt about the instructions given by Jesus to pray in private, these instructions are also repeated in Matthew 6:1-4 and Matthew 6:16-18..

These three passages show that Jesus considered prayer, fasting, and alms giving as being a matter only between god and man..and that these actions should only be performed in private and without any witnesses..Jesus does not tell his disciples what not to do but he is quiet explicit about what he expects them to do..

By reading the gospel of Matthew we can see that the author did not only write down Jesus’ teachings but also his actions..and even mark Luke and john all mention Jesus praying exclusively from the public.. We read that 'he left them', 'he departed', 'he went a little further', 'withdrew himself' to pray (Matthew 26:39, 26:42, 26:44; Mark 1:35, 6:46, 14:32, 14:34-35, 14:39; Luke 5:16, 6:12, 22:41)Jesus also prayed in the presence of his disciples and not publically.. John 11:41-42, 12:27-28 and 17:1-26.

Bible’s rules on repetition

Matthew 6:7 - And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

Most protestant theologians use this verse to beat the Roman Catholic with.. The endless litanies of the Catholic ritual, the rosary repetitions, and the prayers recited as penance - all these practices are condemned by these words of Jesus.

How much faith is enough???

John mentions that is the words of Jesus remains within a Christian then his prayers will come true..Now this may sound a bit odd and difficult to digest but there are more verses that go ahead and clarify about when it is that a prayer will come true..The bible says that it simply requires that you ask in the name of Jesus and that all you need is a tiny bit of faith in order for your prayers to come true..

“Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.” ..Matthew 21:21-22

Considering the amount prayers made by Christians in the world doesn’t it seem that surely by now all hatred would be gone? All diseases cured, and that all people would be converted to Christianity.???And that gods will be done everywhere??? It seems pretty clear that either Christians aren’t praying for these kinds of things to happen or that prayers are not being answered after all..Now some Christians might say that the verse above says “if” you have no faith and “if you do not doubt” and that all humans had some doubt and that’s why those prayers didn’t come true..But if you read the bible properly multiple verses state that all we have to do is “ask” it doesn’t say that the bar is placed very high so that it is difficult or almost impossible for the average Christian..All four of the gospels in the New Testament tell exactly the same story..

Mark 11:24-25 (NIV)

“²⁴Therefore I say unto you, What things soever ye desire, when ye pray, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them.

²⁵And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.”

Matthew 7:7-8, Luke 11:9-13

“⁷Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you:”

⁸For every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall be opened.”

John 14:14

“Jesus said: If ye shall ask any thing in my name, I will do it..”

Matthew 18:19-20 says that wherever two or more Christians gather together, Jesus will be there in their midsts granting whatever they wish for..the bible infact says that you only require the smallest amount of faith in order for our prayers to come true..

Luke 17:6

⁶He replied, "If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, 'Be uprooted and planted in the sea,' and it will obey you.

Matthew 17:20

²⁰He replied, "Because you have so little faith. I tell you the truth, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you."

Here are more verses with similar sayings.. John 15:16, 16:23-24.

Prayers of Christians

Jesus clearly states many times that prayer should not be done in public but in private and behind closed doors..and by reading the 4 gospels we can see that Jesus practiced what he preached..he always prayed alone in private and a few times with only his disciples. Matthew also mentions that prayer should not be repetitious “with much speaking” “as the heathens do”..this criticism has been made many times of those people who bring attention to their own prayers..Jesus clearly states that prayer should be made in private..and these instructions appear no less than 17 times in the new testament...so Christians who make their prayers vocal for others to hear are rebelling against gods wishes. And even those who pray in repetitive chants or routines are rebelling against god..both of these are pretty common in Christian liturgy and in most of Christianity..

there are quite a few more verses about prayer in the bible..according to Jesus, if Christians have just a tiny bit of faith then their prayers will come true..including such miracles as moving mountains and trees..we can see clearly that these verses seem to be untrue..these verses show us that the bible is not a literal text full of literal truth. many Christians believe that when the bible says that prayers will come true it means that they will come true in the afterlife or in heaven..the problem with that is that Jesus specifically states that he is talking about prayer coming true physically in the real world..(e.g..regarding moving mountains and fig trees).the bible is therefore not even full of symbolic truth..we can see that those 17 or so verses involved are pure fantasy. Now it is easy to imagine how verses like these make believers very happy about the power of their religion and their god..but I am guessing that this source of happiness is rarely taken seriously by the believers themselves..

Conclusion

In conclusion Christians believe that god is all knowing and all powerful..so every prayer that is made, god already knows, so the point of prayer cannot be to reveal things to an all knowing god..the wishes of prayer can only be against god’s will..because god already knows our prayers and needs and he will act upon them when he feels it is the right time..so who are we to keep bothering god every single day with our prayers???are we trying to make him change his plan and make exceptions just for us even though he knows when the best time is??

One might also ask that how do prayers come true whenever they do..well if prayer works then it is either coincidence(where you prayed for something that was going to happen anyways) or that you knew better than god so then god intervened..the latter is impossible..

If a supernatural concept such as prayer goes against gods will then it is satanic..so prayer is either useless or satanic..so what business then do theists got in praying…???I just want to warn all you Christians out there that you must be very careful of your own motives whenever you get together to pray.

The Catholic Church and Satan

Now the pope is in the spotlight for his own role as architect of the cover up and therefore as facilitator of countless additional child rapes that could have been prevented if he and his church hadn’t been solely concerned about their own reputation. A reputation that now couldn’t be any lower..I’ve often thought that if Satan were a Christian he would be a catholic. So it came as no surprise to be told last week that Satan is in fact ensconced in the Catholic Church, is working directly out of the Vatican controlling operations from a big old captains chair. Ok I made that last bit up but only because it’s the image that always comes to mind whenever I think of the Catholic Church.. and the churches chief exorcist, (yes such a post really does exist..i don’t know if its higher or lower than say a wizard but its pretty high up in the mumbo jumbo department).. And he says that Satan is living in the Vatican.. Well I don’t think much of Satan’s choice of company but if Satan really is a catholic then it might help to explain some of the events over the last 2000 years.

Before the reformations about 500 years ago all Christians in Europe were Catholics.. Until the church became just to corrupt and debouched even for Christianity to stomach. But it is the original church of Christ that says it is upon this rock I will build my church referring of course to saint peter, the first pope, (whose nickname apparently was rock.) Unfortunately human nature being what it is, the moment the church was established it became a political organization which meant that the consolidation of power and influence quickly became much more important than the message.. message??What message??ooohh that message…haha. And inevitably this lead to bickering about status and who got to wear the big ring and the fancy hat (you know the really important stuff..haha)until before long, rival popes were facing each other with mast armies on the battlefield, in the name of Christ naturally. Now even at this point if Jesus had come back he would have said “what are u people doing?? I haven’t been gone 5 mins and already you’re hacking each other to pieces like a bunch of savages.. you’ve missed the point so completely he would say, wouldn’t he, your so far away to the mark here this is wayyy beyond embarrassing he would say.. I feel like I’m talking to chimpanzees he would say..(no offense by the way to any chimps who might be reading this) and this is early days don’t forget..Jesus wouldn’t yet know anything about all the other horrors that were about to be enacted In his name in the coming years, the crusades the inquisitions, he wouldn’t know about the systematic suppression of knowledge and free thought that would characterize his church for the next 2000 years, he wouldn’t know about the conquest of the new world where the sacred cross of Jesus slashed and burned their way thru entire populations in a way that modern jihadis can only dream about..imposing itself with unparallel cruelty on civilizations half a world away that even today still don’t know what quiet hit them.. This is the church that claims credit for keeping civilization during the dark ages, but the truth is that clergy were the only people who knew how to read and write and they made damn sure that it stayed that way for hundreds of years..when the printing press was finally invented in Europe,( 700 years after the Chinese invented it,) the church condemned it as a work of the devil,(takes one to know one I guess) the first man to translate the bible into English was burned at the stake for his trouble, along with any astronomers and free thinkers they could round up when they weren’t too busy making money from selling places in heaven.. or rolling boulders of dogma into the path of science at every opportunity from Galileo all the way up to the present day.. This is a church that condemned the small pox vaccine as a violation of gods will, it opposed Anastasias in child birth because a woman is supposed to suffer pain as punishment for eve’s sin..Not Adams but eves sin..The sin of being a woman..thats one of the main sins in the entire Christian faith and the other being, yes u guessed it, the Jews killing Jesus..

You know if the Jews really killed Jesus they didn’t do a very good job because apparently he is still alive.. The Jews got all the blame.. And about 70 years ago they took the blame 6 million times as a direct result of the catholic churches rabid anti-Semitic teachings..Europe is often referred to as a judeo Christian culture but historically it’s always been more of a Jew hating Christian culture thanks entirely to the Catholic Church..For centuries the church in Europe preached opened hatred against Jews.. Assiduously imbedding Jew hatred into the very fabric of society just as it is in many Muslim countries today…they made it virtuous to despise Jews and it became politically correct to be anti Semitic..And this was no lapse of judgment or some flash of insanity by some crazy pope, this was centuries of Institutionalization and deliberately focused hatred..When the popes still had executive power, one after another they passed laws to victimize and humiliate Jews and steal their property, Jews weren’t allowed to hold public office or to mix on equal terms with Christians. They were obliged to wear yellow hats in some cases to identify themselves..Ring any bells?? They were restricted to certain occupations and certain locations and they were massacred on a regular bases by faithful pious and righteous Christians with the churches approval.. So when Hitler came along it was easy for him to pick on Jews because the Catholic Church had already made them such an easy target by consistently fingering them as hated Christ killers..Hitler knew he would have a lot of support because he knew that generations of catholic children had been taught by their religion to hate Jews just as many Muslim children are today..How could they not be influenced? How could society not be poisoned? And Hitler by the way was a catholic, not an atheist as people often claim..He was baptized a catholic and he was never excommunicated for his crimes..No Nazis were ever excommunicated by the Catholic Church although every commonest on the planet was..Indeed the catholic actually provided documentation to help many Nazis escape to South America or to certain Arab countries who wanted to exploit their expertise in exterminating Jews. If you believe in Satan and if you believe that Satan is responsible for all the evil in this world. Then the Catholic Church is surely his most fiendishly brilliant creation..Because when you look at its record, it’s hard to imagine how the Catholic Church could have had a more negative influence on human history than it has..And it’s even harder not to conclude that any other organization with this track record would be legislated out of existence as an enemy of humanity..If the Catholic Church hadn’t so consistently and verdantly condemned the Jews for killing Jesus there would have probably have been no holocaust, there would have been no reason for anyone to think about picking on Jews..And that means that today there might be no Jewish state and no Middle East conflict..

That’s quiet a lot to have on your conscience isn’t it?? How fortunate for the Catholic Church, that it doesn’t possess a conscience..but at least it gives ordinary Catholics an opportunity to feel guilty about something real for a change if they feel so inclined, and to reflect on the reality that the Jews didn’t kill Jesus at all, the catholic church killed Jesus, and has spent the last 2000 years dragging his entrails thru the dirt and if he came back tomorrow, he would be the first to say so..You know its true..We all do..

Religion & Rationality: The Great Divide

It is said that man first started believing in “a higher power” when he came out of his cave and saw storms, and lightning, and hail, and other actions of the weather, and how these changes were completely random and affected him healthwise and otherwise, with him having no control over them. Our rationality, sensibility and reasoning have been skewed from ancient times, and common sense has never been common, as too many examples in world history prove. One fine example of blind belief in an idea is the belief of certain South American tribes that the sun appearing on the earth was a miracle that needed sacrifice on a daily basis to keep going. Their elaborate rituals of sun worship, and equally elaborate and gory sacrifices show how blind faith kills all sense of understanding of the nature of reality. The belief in a higher power made people see everyday life as something that should be filled with irrational acts, powerful spectacles, omens, symbols, and interpretations, instead of accepting their lives with what it really was, and trying to make it better. People started attributing their successes to a higher power, and their failures to themselves, and invented the notion of this being a punishment bestowed on them by the perceived higher power for some deed that was widely accepted as below human conduct. Self-analysis has always been part of our nature, and is partly bred by fear of the unknown, for we are forever bracing ourselves to meet the future, but belief without any real basis makes us invent rules and norms that have no basis themselves, and then follow these rules and norms, again for no proven reason. But the sad truth is, the multitude wins. Ten thousand people having the wrong idea gather together, agree with each other’s notions, and then set out to convert every non-believer in their ideas to copies of themselves. Blindness of perception is seen in the fact that people don’t really see these other people whom they’re converting, nor care about their lives or their happiness or sorrows, but only about their beliefs. They say we’re all bound by our beliefs. It’s more likely that we’ve bound ourselves against progressive thinking with the bonds of ancient ideas and views that are considered de rigueur for a blameless, clean society. However, all this is a community act, with individuals forever in doubt about what they believe, but trying to force a patina of faith into themselves by following the ‘path’ laid down by their holy books, their preachers and other religious teachers, their parents, and all other figures of authority that they’d pay attention to.

A way to understand things anew is to stop believing, to perform the actions that are not considered “proper” as per your religion’s views, with a clear understanding of the consequences of these actions. Religion is supposed to be a guide to leading our lives, but our lives are guided by our instincts and not by rules written down by people thousands of years ago. Yet people attribute their sense of ‘meaning in life’ to the teachings laid down in these works, and propagated by these authorities. In an age when everyone *should* be disillusioned as soon as possible, in order to really understand the world and succeed in it, people want to follow a “moral path” that is supposed to lead them to an afterlife that is so much more important that one need not pay too much attention to one’s present reality, only meditate on God and one’s passage to heaven, and wait for death. This negates the whole idea of existence and survival, and makes us one with plants, vegetables, and other inanimate life forms that have no active life, and only grow internally and die. The material world is not necessarily pleasant to live in, but each one of us has been bestowed with enough perception to find a place in it, and grow in it. But rather than expand our conscious, we’d limit it by interpreting every experience in religious and spiritual frame, and ascribing a degree of guilt and personal redemption to everything.

Think for yourself... Question authority

Throughout human history, as our species has faced the frightening, terrorizing fact that we do not know who we are, or where we are going in this ocean of chaos, it has been the authorities, the political, the religious, the educational authorities who attempted to comfort us by giving us order, rules, regulations, informing, forming in our minds their view of reality.To think for yourself you must question authority and learn how to put yourself in a state of vulnerable, open-mindedness; chaotic, confused, vulnerability to inform yourself.

Think for yourself... Question authority.