Why pray?

[Chesterton]

Unfortunately, I have never seen any indication that what is 'seen' through Christianity, Wicca, or any of the 'good' religions, is actually true. Who knows, maybe one day I will. But I think we're drifting off-topic .

Pray about it.

I don't think that one necessarily requires the other: I can 'will' myself to stay rooted to the ground, but I can't 'will' myself into the air.

I don't see what you mean. You don't will yourself to the ground, gravity does that. But a computer can only do anything meaningful because a "1" is not a "0". The "either/or" option allows for something meaningful and productive to occur.

I'm also curious as to how one can 'choose' to love, since I've never encountered this before. This might also be related to the anti-gay sentiment found in some Christian circles.

Christ said "For if ye love them which love you, what reward have ye?" By the same token, if we love only who we have natural feelings of love and affection for, what difference does that make? We do that anyway. Christ calls us to love the unlovable, and to forgive the unforgivable. And as you may know, in English we use the word "love" loosely: you can love pizza, love your mother, love your lover, etc., each usage meaning different things. The Greek word used is more specific, and it implies action, charity, wishing another person's well-being and acting on it; doing good to another, even if you don't "like" them.

But that doesn't mean we ever were better than what we are. It's the "is/ought" dilemma all over again .

Maybe, but it means we possess the idea that we ought to be better. If we are mere animals, how/why would we ever have created this false idea? If we are mere animals, then the Golden Rule would be conceived of as "eat or be eaten", not "do unto others...". The very fact that we have invented words such as "ought" and "should", is very pregnant with existential meaning.

Why?

Honestly I am not equipped for these cosmic questions. But, sinlessness is an attribute of God, so it is an attribute of His realm, His kingdom. If God is absolute goodness, then He will be surrounded by the same, without taint or impurity. As scripture says, neither theives, nor liars, etc. will enter the Kingdom. If, as scripture proclaims, there will be a time when there are no pain or tears, then obviously, there will no sin to cause pain or tears.

And think of the societies that Hitler and Stalin ruled over. If sick people result in sick societies, then the ultimate good Being will result in the ultimate good society.

How does one 'choose' to be happy?

If we were drifting off-topic earlier, do you really want me to try and answer that? (As if I could anyway...Can I pass this off to ebia? )

But I will say that temporal happiness is not the goal of Christianity. The Roman Catholic church exalts the idea of suffering, and although I don't agree with it entirely, I do understand "where they are coming from".

But why are they related? How does properly executing one's agency make one perfectly happy?

Because we were created for the purpose of having a relationship with our Creator; we exist for nothing else, therefore nothing else can make us happy. A combustion engine operates properly only when infused with gasoline; humans operate properly only when infused with the Spirit of God.

Besides, we have experimental evidence (millenia of human unhappiness) to show that without God, we are unhappy. If human happiness were a scientific matter of biology, chemistry or psychology, I think we would have figured it out and achieved it by now.

 

[Emmy]

Dear Wiccan Child. Christianity is a personal relationship with our Heavenly Father and brothers and sisters. We talk to Him, we thank Him, we praise Him, in short, we tell Him all what is on our hearts. Often we also ask for help and guidance, but we always let God know, " Thy Will be done on Earth, as in Heaven." And Why? Because God knows that we are sure of His Love for us, and we can trust Him in all our doings, He will always know what is best for us. When God says No to us, we know it is for our own best, and when He say " wait a bit," we know that others are involved, and God will never force, or coerce in any way. God Knows, God Can, and God Will, we may be sure of that, but like our Father in Heaven, He enjoys our words of Love and Praise. I say this humbly and kindly, Wiccan Child. Greetings from Emmy, sister in Christ.

 

[ebia]

I think it's more that the 'Theory of Thor' doesn't stand up to falsification, and doesn't lend itself to testing, in quite the way naturalistic explanations do. I think it's that 'spiritual' explanations are, by and large, very hard to make predictions with.

If studies showed that, of all the various religious groups, only Catholic prayer correlated with a significant rise in healing, how could we explain that naturally?

I don't know. But that's the point - science doesn't have a problem with "we can't explain that yet we need to keep working on it".