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Do unanswered prayers cause atheism?

Praying to God works like requesting songs on a radio station. Radio stations have a set playlist that they are going to follow and don't really take requests. Most people who call in requests just ask for the same old crap that the station plays all the time anyway. So what usually happens is: caller requests a song; DJ says, "sure, we'll get that on for ya"; song eventually comes around in the normal rotation; DJ announces the song as having been requested, thereby perpetuating the illusion that the radio station takes requests.
 
Psi Baba said:
Praying to God works like requesting songs on a radio station. Radio stations have a set playlist that they are going to follow and don't really take requests. Most people who call in requests just ask for the same old crap that the station plays all the time anyway. So what usually happens is: caller requests a song; DJ says, "sure, we'll get that on for ya"; song eventually comes around in the normal rotation; DJ announces the song as having been requested, thereby perpetuating the illusion that the radio station takes requests.
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I found that if you requested the song that was currently playing, they would ask you what you were smoking, and what was currently playing, and play what you "thought" was playing calling it the song that you requested. :D
 
Professor Yaffle said:
The problem for me wasn't really about god not answering my prayers, but what started to disturb me was the idea that praying would lead god to help you out. I mean what sort of god sees someone in need or pain and ignores them until they, or other people ask him to help out and that changes his mind. A pretty warped one IMO.
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And I'm disturbed about how it seems like a popularity contest. If you're cute enough and get a lot of people praying for you, you're more likely to get some intervention from God?

I picture it like a telethon...a chart showing how many prayers have been prayed, and how many it takes. And God waiting until the goal is reached before healing so-and-so of their cancer.

More personally, yes the prayer thing was part of the problem, although I don't know how much. I did try praying regularly a few times growing up. I think I was disappointed mostly by the complete lack of any sense that I was being heard. It seemed like no matter how hard I tried to direct my thoughts to God -- aim them right at him -- instead they just went out into a void. It wasn't about having individual prayer requests answered. It was more that the promise I always heard, about how comforting it is to develop a "relationship with Christ" and all that, didn't pan out. Whatever comforting sense of relationship other people experience, I never did.
 
My brother's death was a year ago, yesterday.

I remember that a few days before he died, someone from his church came to pray for him. Now, people had been praying for him for two weeks, since his heart attack on Hallowe'en evening, but after this person prayed, he came out of his coma and began to respond.

Of course, the family called it a miracle, an answered prayer, god heard them, god was healing him, and they were all so happy, and praising the lord and...

..then he died. They were bathing him, changing his sheets, getting ready to move him from CCU to a regular room because he was so improved, and the nurse turned him on his left side...and he just turned grey and died. Just like that.

I didn't hear another word about god from them for months. I wondered just how betrayed they all felt, secretly. I mean, how many choices did they have to explain it to themselves? God was healing him, but suddenly, cruelly changed his mind? God hadn't healed him at all, hadn't done anything, but just as cruelly let them believe he had? God wasn't there, and this is just something that happens sometimes to heart attack patients? The last is what I thought. I wonder if it ever occurred to any of them?
 
slingblade said:
My brother's death was a year ago, yesterday.

I remember that a few days before he died, someone from his church came to pray for him. Now, people had been praying for him for two weeks, since his heart attack on Hallowe'en evening, but after this person prayed, he came out of his coma and began to respond.

Of course, the family called it a miracle, an answered prayer, god heard them, god was healing him, and they were all so happy, and praising the lord and...

..then he died. They were bathing him, changing his sheets, getting ready to move him from CCU to a regular room because he was so improved, and the nurse turned him on his left side...and he just turned grey and died. Just like that.

I didn't hear another word about god from them for months. I wondered just how betrayed they all felt, secretly. I mean, how many choices did they have to explain it to themselves? God was healing him, but suddenly, cruelly changed his mind? God hadn't healed him at all, hadn't done anything, but just as cruelly let them believe he had? God wasn't there, and this is just something that happens sometimes to heart attack patients? The last is what I thought. I wonder if it ever occurred to any of them?
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What did they say if anything? God works in strange and mysterious ways or something to that effect? My first cousin died of cancer and there was non stop prayer for her that didn't work. She died anyway. Unlike your brother she had no false healing. She went from bad to worse and died.
 
Do unanswered prayers cause atheism?

Answered prayers certainly would cause Theism.

Many are capable of never realizing in a lifetime that their prayers are not being answered.
 
I Ratant said:
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Is that through grief, or selfishness?
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Or exposure of selfishness?

I'm driving around at the mall praying for a good parking stall. I pray that I do well on my presentation to gain favour with my boss. I pray for the cold I seem to be getting.

During the whole time I was making those prayers, 100 kids somewhere died of starvation.

I don't know what's worse, a god that WOULD answer my prayer for a good parking stall and not my prayer to feed those kids, or a god that wouldn't answer either.

And what does that say about me, praying for that parking space?

I know someone who is a pedophile. They haven't acted out on it since they were pretty young and got caught. They were Christian then and for a long time after, always praying to be delivered (or praying to die at some points), of course with no answer. But Bob got his good parking spot, so god must answer prayer.

I mean I guess I can understand in some strange way how someone can justify god not healing them and them being in a wheelchair, it builds strength of character, they can be an example to others all that stuff they say to justify the answer of no.. but how do you rationalize god not healing a pedophile.. what possible good can come of it???
 
The problem is, you're praying to a fantasy and waiting for an answer when you should be taking action yourself. It's just another method humans use to avoid taking responsibility for things.

My niece, a devout Xtian, just got laid off. I asked her how the job hunt's going and she says, "Oh, I'm not worried, God will take care of me." She's in for a big surprise if she doesn't get off her ass and find a job.
 
I've occasionally argued with theists about the existence of god, and their "best" argument was, "Did something horrible happen to you to convince you that there was no god? Did you pray for a pony for Christmas when you were six and didn't get it?"

They've convinced themselves that can be no rational reason to reject their religion, so it must be an emotional/irrational reason. The poor baby didn't get what he wanted for Christmas, and is now rebelling against god in revenge.

It's an argument so insulting that I can only put it down to projection.
 
temporalillusion said:
Or exposure of selfishness?

I'm driving around at the mall praying for a good parking stall. I pray that I do well on my presentation to gain favour with my boss. I pray for the cold I seem to be getting.

During the whole time I was making those prayers, 100 kids somewhere died of starvation.

I don't know what's worse, a god that WOULD answer my prayer for a good parking stall and not my prayer to feed those kids, or a god that wouldn't answer either.

And what does that say about me, praying for that parking space?

I know someone who is a pedophile. They haven't acted out on it since they were pretty young and got caught. They were Christian then and for a long time after, always praying to be delivered (or praying to die at some points), of course with no answer. But Bob got his good parking spot, so god must answer prayer.

I mean I guess I can understand in some strange way how someone can justify god not healing them and them being in a wheelchair, it builds strength of character, they can be an example to others all that stuff they say to justify the answer of no.. but how do you rationalize god not healing a pedophile.. what possible good can come of it???
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A pedophile doesn't need to pray to some guy in the sky. He can do what the majority of pedophiles do. That is not act on his or her impulses. Stay the hell away from children. If god existed then pedophiles wouldn't.
 
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I imagine the fact prayers have no real effect hasn't helped the theist cause. But until science came along demonstrating successes no one knew how useless prayer really was.

Some in the science community don't like to make an issue of it because it isn't productive to point out people's beliefs are false, but science does present a challenge to most theist beliefs. Theism is challenged as modern dogma is revealed to be as mythical as past religious beliefs that have long ago been recognized as myth, like Zeus and Thor stories.
 
Wrathernaut said:
Exactly.

God hates amputees.
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Wrong reasoning. He LOVES them. That's why their numbers always increase, never become less. (Except if they are dying.) God thinks amputees are cool.

Or he is lazy. It is harder to grow back a limb than to do nothing.

So what is it? Freak or deadbeat? Inquiring minds want to know.:confused:
 
Cainkane1 said:
I'm 63 and I've been plagued with asthma all of my life. Ok when I was five during my asthma spells while being comforted by my sweet old Grandmother she told me how wonderful jesus was and how I should pray to him for my sins and to be healed from the stinking disease that was plagueing me.

Ok the prayers didn't do their magic. I had a childs faith in the supernatural so lack of faith wasn't why I was still sick and as I grew older and developed other problems from time to time I'd try prayer and it didn't work then either.

Ok my developing self realized that praying in an effort to stop the sicknesses wasn't working. So I quit.

Time passes on and I become an atheist and I never felt more free in my life.

Prayers for peace don't work. If you have a sick friend or relative and you pray for him or her it doesn't work so why waste your time?
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Well as I heard one preacher say, God does answer all prayer, he just sometimes says No (also the time might not be right for the prayer to be answered). And we are all going to die no matter how hard you pray for as the bible says:

it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment,

Also, I've heard it said that if you are not living a good life God is less likely to give you your desires. In other words if your committing sin one minute and praying the next, it is likely that you won't receive your desire.
 
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