Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

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Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Poll ended at Sat Oct 02, 2021 8:57 pm

Yes?
4
80%
No?
1
20%
Maybe so?
0
No votes
 
Total votes: 5

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SomeInternetBloke
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Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by SomeInternetBloke » Thu Jun 24, 2021 8:57 pm

I'll try anything out once or twice or thrice or perpetually unless I forget. Tough to forget consistently positive correspondences.

I'm not saying that prayer's magic, like a genie or nothing. But there's something to it ya know.
Image

I only allotted one vote, but I'm not hanging my hat only on a "Yes" because that's smoke and mirrors. The key is a desired outcome that aligns with a narrative is my best guess. I mean that's practically the point I guess.

I'm not gonna get all Sinny-logical or nothin' but, there's been some fairly evidentiary instances of stuff and things that've worked in my favor.

I was my early twenty-somethings (so a teenager mentally speaking lol) just walking the streets of P-town, Oregon. Went into a bar. Drank a drink. A perv was eyeballing me. I get this sixth sense sensation that's always served me well. I'm marching back home and the pressure gets to me. Imagining what that guy would do to me. I prayed. I recite a verse, it's not axiomatic but it's about to be after this point. I look up and see these low-hanging cumulostratus clouds horizontally hovering in the silhouette of angels.

I'm in P-town, Oregon again, and this time with roommates. The one's Dad is getting gobbled by the cancer. Things are looking grim. I get online and send out a couple of hundred prayer requests via the internet to various churches. Shortly thereafter, a couple weeks roommate's Dad is in remission.

Another time I was with Mom in an old grocery-getter barreling down Jennings road of Stanislaus County (shout out to my herpetology nerds - Jennings road Central Valley, Stanislaus County, California was once home to a massive snake population. There'd be dead snake carcasses lining the road all the time growing up). Mom's scans showed her ovaries had grown to the size of grapefruit. Her belly was a bit distended. There's the hottest part of the day's 100 plus degree Fahrenheit temp blasting us from overhead. The car stalls and we're on the side of the road. Mom's trying to get to the hospital. I'm ill. Mom tosses up a swisher. Out of nowhere, this old Mexican jack-of-all craftsman pulls up. The only dude that could help us. He's no reason to be out that way. Man pulls up, fixes our rig. We get to the hospital.

Before that when Pops was still around we were in Fresno at a religious event, SDA convocation: a special event with a speaker and special soloist singing gospel genre songs. We exist post-event and Dad gets a funny feeling. So we hitch a ride with someone else. Later on, a mechanic would diagnose something about how there was a mishap with the fuel line, and engine overheating and a possible opportunity for spontaneous combustion.

The list goes on and on and on. What denominations? Well, let's see. For me, most of 'em within Christendom.

Why am I posting this. I gotta buddy named Trevor. He's not doing so well. I'm gonna perform another test in my life-longitudinal experiment, as it were. Send out some more kites to the nunneries and such and believe that a positive change is going to come on his behalf. He's a sweet guy.

You know how intuition and a need for connectivity hop into a flask and get all shaken up? Just take a sip. It won't hurt you. Any experiences with this stuff? Not so much interested in your stories, but what's your honest take on the construct of prayer?
"My favourite song from one of my favourite albums, Nena asking you to please, please let her be your pirate. So smooth and joyful, I have to listen to it three times if I listen once" - ashi

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ashi
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by ashi » Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:57 am

Your question is insufficiently specific, so: Yes, I believe the claims that prayer exists as a practice. :|

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SomeInternetBloke
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by SomeInternetBloke » Fri Jun 25, 2021 4:14 am

"My favourite song from one of my favourite albums, Nena asking you to please, please let her be your pirate. So smooth and joyful, I have to listen to it three times if I listen once" - ashi

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SomeInternetBloke
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by SomeInternetBloke » Fri Jun 25, 2021 5:02 am

ashi wrote:
Fri Jun 25, 2021 2:57 am
Your question is insufficiently specific, so: Yes, I believe the claims that prayer exists as a practice. :|
Image
"My favourite song from one of my favourite albums, Nena asking you to please, please let her be your pirate. So smooth and joyful, I have to listen to it three times if I listen once" - ashi

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Senseye
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by Senseye » Fri Jun 25, 2021 8:11 am

I'm with ashi, on this one.

I'm certain people pray. Probably by the billions and multiple times daily. It no doubt provides them with some psychological comfort.

I'm pretty sure the various mythological entities they pray to are not intervening in whatever outcome they are praying for. IE> The outcome comes about regardless of whether prayers are issued or not. But don't tell that to anyone who gets what they are hoping for.

Julius_Van_Der_Beak

Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by Julius_Van_Der_Beak » Fri Jun 25, 2021 12:06 pm

just like a dream, you are not what you seem.

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Madrigal
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by Madrigal » Sun Jun 27, 2021 5:43 pm

Here is the thing, there is no justice in this world, divine or otherwise. The atrocities suffered by innocent people on a daily basis prove that quite plainly. In the face of such lawlessness, the mysticaly-minded feel compelled to curry favor with their respective gods through flattery, prayer, sacrifice, gifts, etc., so that they may perhaps be summoned from distraction or indifference to intervene in the business of mortals.

What can I say, it seems like a strange way to make oneself available. Or maybe it is all too human.

In any case I have been told by two different santeros that the goddess Yemoja wants my head, and she sits discreetly atop a bookshelf where you will sometimes see a small bottle of white wine. :ph34r:

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ashi
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by ashi » Mon Jun 28, 2021 1:02 am

If we are being serious, then per my inherited tradition: there is no sky father to beg on knee for favours, only our degree of harmony with the world, our internal balance between order and chaos, and a ritual of focused thought and selflessness.

And I have found that I am OK with that. If you are asking if I think that makes me a better person than the breying sheep stumbling through life blind and hapless, I am of course far too humble to say yes.

So I won't.

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SomeInternetBloke
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by SomeInternetBloke » Mon Jun 28, 2021 9:31 pm

Madrigal wrote:
Sun Jun 27, 2021 5:43 pm
Here is the thing, there is no justice in this world, divine or otherwise. The atrocities suffered by innocent people on a daily basis prove that quite plainly. In the face of such lawlessness, the mysticaly-minded feel compelled to curry favor with their respective gods through flattery, prayer, sacrifice, gifts, etc., so that they may perhaps be summoned from distraction or indifference to intervene in the business of mortals.
The older I get the more sense you make than you used to. I can actually comprehend like your opinions on stuff not converging with politics.
"My favourite song from one of my favourite albums, Nena asking you to please, please let her be your pirate. So smooth and joyful, I have to listen to it three times if I listen once" - ashi

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Spartan26
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Re: Do you believe in Prayer? Do you care?

Post by Spartan26 » Sat Jul 17, 2021 5:09 am

I do believe in prayer. I believe there's a God who created and loves humanity, people. I think there's more than one answer to what prayer is or what does it do. I would give credit ultimately to God than merely the practice or devotion of prayer. But I do strongly believe there is life in prayer.

People prioritize it or view its efficacy in different ways. I believe prayer is an affirmation that God is love because in prayer God demonstrates and imparts one of the most basics keys to love somebody and that is to just listen to them. Despite whatever personal pains I have or whatever despair throughout the world that I may not face but that still weigh down on me, I know God hears me. Maybe I should have more "managed expectations"? Though I honestly don't believe I am better or any more special than any of the other 7,674,000,000 =/- souls living on earth at any given moment as I walk and breathe, I know God listens to me. Heh, maybe my biggest frustrations in praying over the past 5-10 years is akin to yelling at an unruly upstairs neighbor refusing to stop making incessant noise in the wee or early hours of the day, "I know you hear me!! Why don't you care?! I know you hear me!!"

I am definitely including myself when I say this but we don't pray as we should, for what we should, when we should, or for as long as we should. No, I don't think we have to be "better" to get, or for it to work, or for us to understand. I just believe there could be more to prayer than how we prematurely limited it to be. Whether intentionally or unintentionally.

When I think about what has been taken away from me and others, when I think about what has been healed in me and in others, when I think about the illogical powers, for lack of a better word/term, given to me and others that I know, I feel more than a hint of shame because I still don't pray quite pray for what I need. All too often I focus, angerly, on what I missed, don't have, or still want. Many or maybe most of which are noble in intention and desired outcome. But my focus will dwell there and that I know is a killer of prayer.

For as arbitrary and confounding the results of prayer may be, I guess one thing that God or prayer has done for me is given me the ability and desire to keep praying. Just keep praying.

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