Aye. We are freed from the ways of the old banana by the coming of the new banana, who overturned the old banana law and gave us new life in potassium-rich snack foods.
I am an orthodox Bananian, I reject your god for mine, HE really knew how to get things done. Raining cherries, whipped cream, and hot, scorching chocolate on ancient cities he did not approve of. Thus resulting in what we know as the Bananian Split, our favorite religious dish.
I am an orthodox Bananian, I reject your god for mine, HE really knew how to get things done. Raining cherries, whipped cream, and hot, scorching chocolate on ancient cities he did not approve of. Thus resulting in what we know as the Bananian Split, our favorite religious dish.
You know, in a strange way, that would make something like the destruction of Sodom and Gommorah more credible.
Being drowned in a rain of cherries and chocolate, that would take direct intervention from a deity, not something that can be explained by something natural like a volcano.
...Thus resulting in what we know as the Bananian Split, our favorite religious dish.
Well, to put it simply:
I do not believe God answers prayers in conventional senses and a lot of modern Christianity has been confused since many sects, especially the modern American sects of Christianity, have no real tradition to go off of and are theologically unsound in many parts.
Prayer is more about a meditation on God than on anything else.
We should also know to never pray for essentially anything that is material or superficial and in our prayers we should already recognize the notion that whatever is happening already is God's will and whatever will happen is His Will.
I think it is hard to understand that God might have a profound view of world events. Heavens forbid, even more profound than the individual atheist's shallow understanding.
Which also regrettably, led directly to the birth of the infamous "Reformed Bananain Church".
Boy, those liberal Bananains really brown my peel!
According to beliefnet.com
God answers prayers in 1 of 5 ways:
1. No, I love you too much.
2. Yes, but wait.
3. Yes, but not how you expected.
4. Yes, and here is more.
5. Yes, I thought you'd never ask.
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According to John Piper, in this video:
http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=716b02ec0da35256a998
God does not even answer all prayers.
It would appear that the Christian god has an answer for everything.
- When you pray for a chance to see your grandmother this summer, but you do not manage to raise the money for a plane ticket before school starts; God has clearly answered with "no"
-When you pray for a chance to go on a mission trip in Europe, but do not get the opportunity for 6 months; God has clearly said "yes, but wait."
-When you pray for a chance to witness to millions of poeple and you get into a crippling, near-fatal accident and become a Christian motivational speaker; God has clearly said "yes, but not how you expected"
-When you pray to be able to pay your bills on time and you recieve an inheritance and an alimony check within a week of your bills being due; God has clearly said "Yes, and here is more"
-When you pray for the ability to support your favorite charity/organization and you win the lottery; God has clearly said "yes, I thought you'd never ask."
-When you pray for anything and it does not happen; God has said "no" by not answering...(or "no, I love you too much" )
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Well that's all good and well but look at MY god:
I pray to this banana. This banana answers all of my prayers. Well, sometimes it doesn't. But, that's ok. I am not this banana's master. This banana is MY master.
- When I prayed for a chance to see my grandmother this summer, but I did not manage to raise the money for a plane ticket before school started; Banana clearly answered with "no"
-When I prayed for a chance to go on a vacation trip in Europe, but did not get the opportunity for 6 months; Banana clearly said "yes, but wait."
-When I prayed for a chance to talk to millions of poeple and I got into a crippling, near-fatal accident and became a Banana motivational speaker; Banana clearly said "yes, but not how you expected"
-When I prayed to be able to pay my bills on time and I recieved an inheritance and an child support check within a week of my bills being due; Banana clearly said "Yes, and here is more"
-When I pray for the ability to support my favorite fruit company: Dole and I won the lottery; God clearly said "yes, I thought you'd never ask"
-When I pray for anything and it does not happen; Banana has said "no" by not answering
Surely, you can see my god answers all of my prayers. Why not pray to Banana? At least you can see Banana.
..or am I just insulting your intelligence by asking you to do that? What if I said you will be punished if you don't have faith in Banana? Surely, you can see that this is no joke.
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Hmm, now what might be some effects of a society that believes that it's prayers will be answered in one way or another; no matter what?
1. A society that follows a rigid belief system through thick and thin, regardless of all rationality, because it's prayers are being answered 100%
2. A society that will not desire to seek truth because it has "already found it"
3. A society that spends an average of 45 minutes a day, 5.25 hours a week, 21 hours a month, 10.5 days a year unproductively/unrecreationally talking into space (regarding only personal prayer time)
In other words: a society that will do as the bible and it's authoritarians command it to do, because it honestly believes it is getting something in return.
Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah . . .atheism rote . . .blahblahblahblahblah.
How often is prayer answered in the Bible for the people mentioned in it?
Plenty of times.
I'm basing my argument purely on what biblical authorities say.
If someone brings an argument against you, do you think that it's actually effective or convincing to brush it off with "Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah . . .atheism rote . . .blahblahblahblahblah."
Don't you have some credible defense?
Who?
Rather, when I here queries of the atheist persuasion, I usually pass it off like a bad smell in a room full of polite people.
Just keeping my pearls where they'll not be trampled.
I'm not some Christian that sees "miracles" happneing in a world with so much sin and evil.
Other than the miracle that a Christian cares about those that are non and anti Christians enough to die for them, I'm not expecting anything but natural reality.
I see enough miracles happening there for me to know that God is a fact.
The Israelites (Now known as "Jews") have not had a Prophet in over two-thousand years. And who's to say that Jesus hasn't cured me of disease and afflictions already hundreds of times? A good parent takes care of thier children and never makes it known so many, many times.
I rest my confidence in Christ Jesus as God and the Creator on the evidence that can be seen and felt. Science is no bogey man to the Gospel and Apostolic witness.
-----Atheism just has no new concepts. Oh well. At least their nicer now, than back in the 20th century.
Blahblahblahblahblahblahblah . . .atheism rote . . .blahblahblahblahblah.
How often is prayer answered in the Bible for the people mentioned in it?
How often is it answered for the people not mentioned in it? How often do miraculous things happen the protaganists in MOST books in our society? All the time.
I rather like this true story of unanswered prayer. Or perhaps careful prayer. I really don't care which.
Long ago when going to a Bowl game really meant something Boston College was on the verge of their first undefeated regular season and a Bowl. All they had to do was beat Holy Cross. They were overwhelming favotites. The one part I can not verify is just what the pregame prayers were. But it is safe to bet at least some of the players asked for victory.
They not only lost they lost badly. No undefeated season. No Bowl. They all felt pretty crappy at that point. They canceled the victory celebration. No one wanted to celebrate anything.
They woke the next morning to find the local headlines were about the Coconut Grove night club fire. Still the worst nightclub disaster in U.S. history. For those of you who are a bit slow, yes that is where their celebration was scheduled.
EDIT: If you trust Wiki this is now easy to verify. It even mentions the Boston College football party.
PC_F,
I absolutely demand you take that quote of mine OUT of your signature. It's completely out of context, and you know it. If it is not removed, I will report it to the mods.