I'm unclear what is meant by this phrase.
Are you saying that god is an individual? Or are you saying that god has an existence which is unique to each believer?
What I mean by it, is that God is a sentient being, having a mind, will and emotions of His own. This is distinct from, say, the Buddhist view of Karma, which is an impersonal force of cause and effect that rewards good deeds with good and bad deeds with bad (which honestly seems a strange notion, since impersonal forces like natural laws can't discriminate between good and evil.)
Is it really a relationship when the communication is all one way?
How is this relationship any different to writing to your diary as if your diary was a best friend, or perhaps talking to your teddy bear or talking to an imaginary friend? Kinda like the castaway talking to his coconut friend Wilson.
Because people do get response? Some people see visions, some hear inner voices, some experience events that is directly related to the prayer. And if they're not sure whether or not those responses are actually from God, there's the Bible to verify the fact.
This isn't an either-or thing. Just because God isn't a wish-granting genie who is obligated to fulfill everything a prayer asks for, doesn't mean He never does.
Does god need to have people worship it? I would think a perfect being has no such needs.
Does the believer need to have something to worship? Something to recognise as an authority, a need to be subservient to something? Does the believer gain value from being in a submissive and subservient position? Does prayer help them to achieve subservience? I suppose prayer helps give the impression of having a personal relationship with god and if performed in a certain way helps the believer think they are honoring it and putting their hand up to say "hey, i'm in your team 100%". Or something like that perhaps???
It's all about the person doing the worshipping, the god gets nothing out of it and probably doesn't intercede as a result.
True. God is already perfect and doesn't benefit from people's worship. But "God is love" (1 John 4:8), and one of the most vital aspect of love is to "give". However, this "gift-love" can only be expressed in full when there are recipients who would need and appreciate them.
This could be glibly compared to a parent-child relationship. What does a parent gain from having children? Raising kids is tiresome and, in most cases, the expenses of feeding, clothing, entertaining and educating them would be far more than what they would be able to give back in return. Sure, one might argue that the kids can help take care of their parents when they're old and sick, but for most parents I know, that's not their sole, or even their main, intention of bearing children.
The word "worship" comes from "worth"-ship. I.e. the act of worship is an acknowledgement of one's worth. God, as revealed in the Bible, is the all-powerful, all-knowing, everlasting Creator and Provider of the universe. Thus, He is objectively transcendent to human beings and deserves worship.
How worship, by itself, benefits people might not be visible through a naturalistic point-of-view, but C.S. Lewis makes a good point about how human needs goes beyond basic survival and cost-benefit analysis: "Friendship is unnecessary, like philosophy, like art, like the universe itself. It has no survival value; rather it is one of those things which give value to survival." (
The Four Loves)
Are we
obliged to give worship? Well, if we accept God as creator and sustainer, then yes; because that would mean that everything we enjoy from life itself, no matter how small, and how little, is a gift from God for which He deserves praise and thanksgiving. And quoting again from Lewis: "I think we delight to praise what we enjoy because the praise not merely expresses but completes the enjoyment; it is its appointed consummation. It is not out of compliment that lovers keep on telling one another how beautiful they are; the delight is incomplete till it is expressed." (
Reflections on the Psalms)
Such as a person gains comfort, inspiration, strength from verbalising their situation and thoughts with a good friend, a good listener.
I think, often people look for permission or approval with regards to taking action or continuing with action. IF they verbalise to a friend and that friend doesn't tell them not to do something (or doesn't show disapproval) then they may feel inner strength or rejuvenation towards their own course of action. Perhaps prayer is somewhat like that. Talking to a great friend, a great listener that doesn't interrupt and doesn't make judgments other than the judgement one already holds on oneself. Prayer could be a way to organise your own thoughts (as you would need to when conveying those to a friend) and once organised, one can hear one's own thoughts in an organised and somewhat logical manner.
So the value of prayer could be introspection resulting in personal strength and rejuvenation or perhaps abandonment of a bad idea or being able to break away from mulling something over and over. Perhaps the god, takes the place of a good friend or even a psychiatrist who patiently listens and leads a person to set their own values and make their own decisions after having organised and considered their own thoughts?
That's one way to look at it, I suppose. There's quite a number of research that states that religious believes are associated with better mental health and quality of life in general. One Psychology/Social Science article says that, "More deeply religious respondents were more likely to see friends, and they had better self-rated health, fewer depressive feelings, and were observed by the interviewer to find life more exciting compared with the less religious."
The study in question focuses on general religiosity, rather than any particular religion, and I'm not going to delve too deeply on Christian apologetics, since that doesn't seem to be the point of this thread. But in any case, belief systems do play a significant role in creating both individual and cultural values. Psychologically, people would be able to have a more positive outlook on life, particularly in difficult times, when they can see a good (God-directed, one might say) purpose for their sufferings beyond their own happiness/comfort/convenience/etc. And socially, it's less likely for people to compromise their values/conscience, if they believe that they're accountable for their actions to a higher power that is morally perfect.
If there is an influence favouring a specific demographic. e.g. god favouring Christians getting the job over non Christians, then statistically we would be able to see that Christians are more likely to get the job. This would (somewhat) prove that the Christian god exists and gives Christians an advantage. It would somewhat be hard to prove, because perhaps the employer is Christian and gives favour to Christian candidates, or perhaps in some countries (e.g. India) the Christians go to Christian schools which happen to give better education. So you would need to adjust for other factors.
But if we could prove a particular god's existence and favour then wouldn't this take away the requirement of "Faith" for the Christian religion? If this is the case then wouldn't the Christian god's intervention be limited to things that aren't measurable, even statistically?
I actually think it's the opposite. In a setting where Christians are generally favoured over non-Christians, then chances are the Christian can get the job even if he doesn't pray for it. Sure, there's a statistical data, but the correlation of "getting the job" is set against "calling yourself a Christian/having a Christian upbringing", and not "prayer". In fact, if a Christian managed get a job despite living in an environment that discriminate against the religion, I would argue that's actually a more visible evidence of God's answer to the prayer, and the "Faith" comes in from placing your hope and confidence is something that's improbable or even impossible (Hebrews 11:1).
A personal example: I applied for a visa to attend a discipleship program in Australia that starts in mid-October, less than 3 weeks after I submitted my application. According to the official Immigration site, 90% of the applications would take 80 days to process, and at best, it would take 50 days. I was quite sure that it wouldn't be able to come out on time, so yesterday I asked the school if I should withdraw from the course. They said they would pray for it, and the visa got approved last night.