Anyone Believe In God Still And Pray Daily?

[southjerseygirl36]

If you are not a Christian, do you believe in God and pray daily?

[Realist]

If you are not a Christian, do you believe in God and pray daily?

 

.... wish all things were this easy to answer! NO and NO!! :-)

[The-Captain]

Sometimes I entertain notions of a God, along the lines Einstein considered one. That's about as far I go though. As for prayer, I wouldn't really see the point if there was a God, he would know right?

[Vixentrox]

Why would I pray to imaginary beings?

[buffettphan]

No.

 

No.

 

But I do talk to myself sometimes (not out loud though. I'm not THAT crazy) ...... and I give myself the exact answers I want to hear. Kinda like preying.

[florduh]

If you are not a Christian, do you believe in God and pray daily?

Which God?

[luvless]

When I first started changing my beliefs, I would pray something like this:

 

"If there is a God out there and I am truly your creation, please show me the way to you. Thank you for everything you have done for me and direct my foot steps to finding the truth. Amen."

 

That stopped a few weeks ago. Now I just pray before dinner because my husband is still a Xtian and I show respect for his beliefs, but I don't think that counts as a true prayer. It took me about a 9 months from my first doubts about my beliefs to actually get over prayer.

[Tabula Rasa]

I usually don't pray. I feel like that if God exists(I believe it does, as for what kind, I'm thinking just some sort of Supreme Being that is the source of creation.) why should I ask it for anything since there are people who have lots more problems than I do, and why should God, play favorites. Still, I will sometimes give in and pray every once in a while,but if it isn't answered, I just accept the fact that it wasn't.

 

Ironically, I have been dabbling in magick, and trying to figure out how to tap the power of the universe. Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes it doesn't .

 

All I know for sure, is whatever is behind reality, it's not a soul burning asshole named Yahweh.

[florduh]

Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes it doesn't .

To the uninitiated that would seem as if it never works, but random events sometimes coincide with your wishes.

 

Seriously, doesn't that sound more probable?

[WhyBaby]

I know what I don't believe anymore (hence the EX part of Ex-Christian), but I'm still trying to sort things out. It's left a hole inside where prayer and church life used to live. That empty part of me still prays and hopes someone is listening.

 

However, rationally, I don't really believe there is an anthropomorphic god with his/her own personality and an interest in me. If such a god existed and had truly spoken to us, there wouldn't be so much confusion and contradictory information in the world about it. Perhaps there is a creative or life-giving force in the universe that we could loosely call "god", but that is a philosophical observation, not scientific.

 

At the moment, I believe spirituality is a human quality that sometimes gives me a sense of well-being, meaning, and possibly a sense of connection with others and/or "god". I still "pray", but it's more like a way to look outside of myself in a search for perspective or insight. I'm very aware that the experience takes place in my own head and is deeply personal to me.

[par4dcourse]

I pray daily that y'all sinners will find The Truth^TM and send a luv offering to my newly founded Church of the Fat, Middle Class White Guy. The Church of the FMCWG prefers cash, as we ain't no freakin' bank.

Ill prey for you, and mazel tov.

 

To the OP, I hold true this definition of prayer: a way to appear concerned without actually doing anything.

[Guest ephymeris]

No god, no speaking to imaginary entities.

[OpheliaGinger]

I don't believe that any particular god or deity truly exists, so I also don't pray to any of them.

[Thurisaz]

If you are not a Christian, do you believe in God and pray daily?

 

1. Which one of the two pantheons do you mean?

2. No

[Antlerman]

However, rationally, I don't really believe there is an anthropomorphic god with his/her own personality and an interest in me. If such a god existed and had truly spoken to us, there wouldn't be so much confusion and contradictory information in the world about it. Perhaps there is a creative or life-giving force in the universe that we could loosely call "god", but that is a philosophical observation, not scientific.

 

At the moment, I believe spirituality is a human quality that sometimes gives me a sense of well-being, meaning, and possibly a sense of connection with others and/or "god". I still "pray", but it's more like a way to look outside of myself in a search for perspective or insight. I'm very aware that the experience takes place in my own head and is deeply personal to me.

I would say this fairly well represents how I believe. What for me was directly helpful was to remove the man-in-the-sky, volcano deity aspects of it. To put it bluntly, Christianity too easily manages to get in the way of "God". I do believe there is some true connection that looking beyond the surfaces of object/subject can expose in us, and some ultimate source and unification of all.

 

On a good day, religion can help facilitate that happening, that movement towards "God" through symbolic representation, on bad days - which for many is most of them, it actually worsens that sense of division through the symbols becoming more about sociocentric representation, leading "believers" to focus on the "us and them" aspects of it - "we are special, they are lost". One hand is spiritual, the other is about creating a sense of unity through social identity. and consequently working against that connection with 'God' and others through that.

 

So in short, you could say I 'believe' in 'God', in all those 'spiritual' aspects that 'God' represents, but balk at the use of it to bolster some ideological 'Truths' in the name of a god to validate some social identity. One is spirituality, the other religion.

[hereticzero]

I meditate on what bothers me until it no longer bothers me. I don't believe that praying to someone's version of god, or what god may be, does any good. If there is a god then he is as much aware of my problems as observed by my real father on earth. I wouldn't think someone would have to ASK a god for help. If he were that caring, then he would act without having to be asked.

[Tabula Rasa]

Sometimes it seems to work, sometimes it doesn't .

To the uninitiated that would seem as if it never works, but random events sometimes coincide with your wishes.

 

Seriously, doesn't that sound more probable?

True, considering when I've "done magick" it's too help me sell savings cards at work, so it could be argued that it's merely psychological; a form of psyching myself up.

[BlueGiant]

I also have to echo: 1) To which deity-construct or set of constructs are you referring? Also, my belief in whatever gods may or may not exist frequently depends on the phase of the moon, possibly a die roll, and definitely what sort of mood I'm in.

 

2) Nope. Just prayer to them doesn't do a whole lotta good.

[lunaticheathen]

Antler, I find myself saying and sighing "YES! Damn it, YES!" to so much of what you say. And totally, dogmatic religion does more to remove humans from "god", or how I think, their own divinity, than to unify it.

One might say that I "pray", but it's not in the sense or with the purpose that I think most christians approach it. And I don't speak to their god. I don't like him, even if he exists.

I do sometimes address intentions to specific deities from other traditions. I try not to treat it like a cosmic Santa, but, if anything, it helps put my mind where it needs to be at the time. If it's all just mental constructs, that's fine with me.

[MultifariousBirdLady]

If you are not a Christian, do you believe in God and pray daily?

 

I honor Gods which are not the Christian God. Whether they literally exist or not, the practice has nevertheless been meaningful to me, which is why I do it. I do pray at times, though I do so along the lines of the way a few others here have described it, not in the way I used to as a Christian. (In fact, the last time I did pray like a Christian, the error of that method was pointed out to me.) Again, this type of praying has been helpful/meaningful to me, and if it weren't, I wouldn't do it.

[qec]

Praying to "God" is a lot like praying to yourself, because that's pretty much exactly what you're doing. Self worship gets a bad rap, and rightly so, even if the vast majority of humanity engages in it. Why pray to yourself mistaking your own thoughts for "God" or some deity? Sure it provides comfort, but I think human beings are probably better off having Humanity as their higher power.

[Skankboy]

Praying to "God" is a lot like praying to yourself, because that's pretty much exactly what you're doing. Self worship gets a bad rap, and rightly so, even if the vast majority of humanity engages in it. Why pray to yourself mistaking your own thoughts for "God" or some deity? Sure it provides comfort, but I think human beings are probably better off having Humanity as their higher power.

I akin it to mental masturbation. It can be fun, you feel a bit better afterwards, but in the end, you're just playing with yourself.

[ElrondHubbard]

However, rationally, I don't really believe there is an anthropomorphic god with his/her own personality and an interest in me. If such a god existed and had truly spoken to us, there wouldn't be so much confusion and contradictory information in the world about it. Perhaps there is a creative or life-giving force in the universe that we could loosely call "god", but that is a philosophical observation, not scientific.

 

At the moment, I believe spirituality is a human quality that sometimes gives me a sense of well-being, meaning, and possibly a sense of connection with others and/or "god". I still "pray", but it's more like a way to look outside of myself in a search for perspective or insight. I'm very aware that the experience takes place in my own head and is deeply personal to me.

I would say this fairly well represents how I believe. What for me was directly helpful was to remove the man-in-the-sky, volcano deity aspects of it. To put it bluntly, Christianity too easily manages to get in the way of "God". I do believe there is some true connection that looking beyond the surfaces of object/subject can expose in us, and some ultimate source and unification of all.

 

On a good day, religion can help facilitate that happening, that movement towards "God" through symbolic representation, on bad days - which for many is most of them, it actually worsens that sense of division through the symbols becoming more about sociocentric representation, leading "believers" to focus on the "us and them" aspects of it - "we are special, they are lost". One hand is spiritual, the other is about creating a sense of unity through social identity. and consequently working against that connection with 'God' and others through that.

 

So in short, you could say I 'believe' in 'God', in all those 'spiritual' aspects that 'God' represents, but balk at the use of it to bolster some ideological 'Truths' in the name of a god to validate some social identity. One is spirituality, the other religion.

 

I could not have put it better myself, and the irony of leaving religion to find "God" is not lost on me. Some mystical traditions (which always appealed to me far more than orthodoxy) start to embrace some of these somewhat paradoxical ideas, but most of them eventually get bogged down in the weight of their parent religion's dogma.

 

Wow, thanks for distilling several years of intellectual and spiritual meandering into a few paragraphs of elegantly concise prose. I should have started posting here a long time ago

[Antlerman]

I could not have put it better myself, and the irony of leaving religion to find "God" is not lost on me. Some mystical traditions (which always appealed to me far more than orthodoxy) start to embrace some of these somewhat paradoxical ideas, but most of them eventually get bogged down in the weight of their parent religion's dogma.

 

Wow, thanks for distilling several years of intellectual and spiritual meandering into a few paragraphs of elegantly concise prose. I should have started posting here a long time ago

You're welcome. It's taken several years of thought of my own, sifting and sorting through the tangled mess in the pile of what is called religion to see certain existential, and transcendent truths. None of these systems are all just one thing, but layers and layers of complexities, from social orders, to morality tales, to mystical experience and symbolism.

 

I find to be a real critic of it, you have to start to try to tease it apart and look at all the different parts. In the case of traditional Christian religion, what you have is a weaving together of these various strands into a quilt-like mythology supporting an organized religion. The 'canon' of scripture as a single delivered truth, is itself a created myth, from many earlier layers of supporting myth structures for their own reasons in their own contexts, etc.

 

You may enjoy this topic here. It bogs a bit in the first 3 pages but starts getting to the point on the third page of it. You can jump to hereas a good place to pick it up.

[Composer]

Strangely enough I do still believe in an Intelligent Designer I call (for want of a better name) GOD.

 

However after some 50 years of intense biblical study I have absolutely NO respect for it as a ' Loving God '

 

The biblical Jesus is a fraud, especially the alleged trinitarian Jesus person.

 

I have complied a pretty concise information pack on the fundamental reasons proving why the story book Jesus is a fraud.

 

Here it is -

 

Jesus the biblical fraud.

 

The earliest Orthodox Jews (Pharisees & Sadducees) recognised from their TORAH (First 5 books of the bible), the fraudulent claims of this biblical Jesus.

 

The Christian understanding is that the messiah, Jesus, died for the sins of the people. The messiah is supposed to be a human sacrifice that is the blood sacrifice necessary for the forgiveness of sin.

 

But we are taught in this proven self contradicting bible that no one can die for the sins of another. -

 

In Deuteronomy 24:16 (KJV) it specifically says this:

 

The fathers shall not be put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the father. Every man shall be put to death for his own sin. (Online Source: http://whatjewsbelieve.org/) - What Jews believe Point 1.)

 

cf.

 

Fathers must not be put to death for what their children24 do, nor children for what their fathers do; each must be put to death for his own sin. (Deut. 24:16) NET

 

This was later confirmed by -

 

Ezekiel 18:20 RSV

 

"THE SON SHALL NOT SUFFER FOR THE INIQUITY OF THE FATHER. NOR THE FATHER SUFFER FOR THE INIQUITY OF THE SON; the righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself."

 

Ezekiel 18:20 also "pulls the rug out from under" Christianity's main premise, that all generations of mankind are burdened with sin and death stemming from Adam's act of disobedience. Only Christ's redeeming shed blood can end this never-ending cycle of sin and death. Quite clearly Ezekiel refutes this notion. "The son shall not suffer for the iniquity of the father." (Online Source: http://www.bibleorigins.net/MoabiteBloodMessiah.html)

More so -

 

Jews correctly also, do not believe in original sin.

 

IN SHORT... Jews do not believe in the existence of Original Sin. The concept of Original Sin simply states that because Adam and Eve sinned in the Garden of Eden, they brought Death into the world. Every human being dies because Adam and Eve committed a sin, and for their sin, all humans are punished with death. However, the Bible describes something entirely different. Adam and Eve were kicked out of the Garden of Eden because if they remained, they could eat the fruit of the Tree of Life, which would make them IMmortal. If Adam and Eve had to eat the fruit of the Tree of Life to become IMmortal, then they were created mortal to begin with. They did not bring Death into the world, and we don't die because they sinned. As a matter of Biblical fact, the answer to Question One shows that one person cannot die as the punishment for the sins committed by another. We die because Death is a natural part of existence, and has been since from the moment the first human beings were created. That is why God told the animals, before Adam and Eve ate the fruit from The Tree Of The Knowledge Of Good And Evil, to be fruitful and to multiply, since they needed to replace themselves. God also told the same thing to Adam and Eve before they ate that fruit as well. (Online Source: http://whatjewsbelieve.org/) - What Jews believe Point 5.)

 

As it turned out therefore, the biblical text unambiguously proves that the Pharisees and Sadducees were correct and this biblical Jesus rightly recognised as a fraud.

 

Composer