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Topic: Health and Religion - page 50. (Read 210983 times)

legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1055
February 21, 2018, 04:46:00 PM
God sacrificed himself to himself to forgive us. Another nonsense from the bible right there. It makes absolutely no sense and we are not even saved, we are still here, aren't we? Why did an omniscient and all powerful god need to sacrifice his ''son'' to forgive humanity? Why not just forgive us? What is there to forgive anyways, he already knew everything that would happen.

This is a complex question Astargath. To start with we must understand what the Bible means when it talks of sacrifice. That in itself is a very deep topic. I believe Jordan Peterson articulates it far better then I could so I have linked to his discussion of Biblical sacrifice below.


Biblical Series V: Cain and Abel: The Hostile Brothers


Once we understand the purpose and meaning of sacrifice we can move on to the second part of your question why might tremendous sacrifice from heaven be necessary to save humanity?

To try to grasp this it is helpful to try and imagine what the world would be like without Christianity.

This is very difficult to do because Christianity is the foundation western culture was built upon so you have to return back to 100 AD or so and envision an alternative future world starting with a collapsing Roman Empire.

The power of Christianity in reshaping the world cannot be understated. We see this in the transformation of Russia as it returns to its orthodox roots. We see it in the rapid transformation of China where Christianity is currently spreading like wildfire laying the foundation of a post communistic future. It is perhaps most clearly displayed on the Korean Peninsula where a people with a shared culture, race, and average IQ is split into two halves with Christianity punished with death in one and widely embraced in the other.



The argument that Christianity and the sacrifice at its heart was necessary to save mankind is not a trivial one. Given the facts on the ground it could very well be true in more ways then we know.
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1055
February 21, 2018, 03:36:49 PM
Attending Religious Services May Increase Lifespan
https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320581.php
Quote from: Ana Sandoiu
A recent study published in the journal PLOS One has revealed that regularly attending religious ceremonies, may lead to greater health and increased longevity in middle-aged people and seniors.

The paper's first author is Ellen L. Idler, Ph.D., a joint-appointed professor in epidemiology from the Emory Rollins School of Public Health and Samuel Candler Dobbs professor of sociology.

Death risk cut by 40 percent

Prof. Idler and her collegues focused on the data gathered between 2004 and 2014 on more than 18,000 participants. The scientists applied Cox proportional hazards models to calculate the link between religious attendance and all-cause mortality during the decade studied.

"After adjustment for confounders, attendance at religious services had a dose-response relationship with mortality, such that respondents who attended frequently [i.e., at least once a week] had a 40 percent lower hazard of mortality compared with those who never attended."
sr. member
Activity: 406
Merit: 250
February 21, 2018, 03:35:15 PM
I'm living without religion and feel myself healthy enough. I don't believe in this supernatural stuff and God in general so just working out and it's fine.
legendary
Activity: 896
Merit: 1000
February 21, 2018, 01:35:28 PM
I believe that if you have the brains then you know what's above us, and if you are to smart you start to ignore it.
member
Activity: 412
Merit: 10
February 21, 2018, 01:05:47 PM
Smart people have a lesser propensity for conformism and therefore are less likely to accept religious dogmas. The cause-and-effect relationship of the intellect with conformism itself, of course, requires a separate study.
member
Activity: 123
Merit: 10
February 21, 2018, 10:25:36 AM
These studies are very interesting. I think it depends a lot on emotions. In different religions a different degree of comfort. Judging by the data it is better to be a mormon
member
Activity: 546
Merit: 12
February 21, 2018, 10:01:22 AM
Some religious beliefs and practices have negative influences on our health.  Example is blood donation. Certain religious groups believe that it's a sin to donate, or receive blood from someone. Hence critically ill people are left to die whilst there's an alternative that could have saved their lives. 
full member
Activity: 322
Merit: 100
February 21, 2018, 06:24:38 AM
So much information and discussion is so vivid and interesting.Religion has always been a subject of controversy and controversy,and even more so than that of science.Very interesting arguments in my opinion.
I was quite surprised when I came across this topic for discussion.Religion is a really controversial especially when it is as it fits in with science, I totally agree with you.It will be interesting to read the opinions of other users
full member
Activity: 294
Merit: 100
February 21, 2018, 06:14:04 AM
So much information and discussion is so vivid and interesting.Religion has always been a subject of controversy and controversy,and even more so than that of science.Very interesting arguments in my opinion.
full member
Activity: 346
Merit: 100
February 21, 2018, 06:00:19 AM
Are you seriously discussing this?What is just utter nonsense.Religion for me very distant field of course but I never thought she can have any relationship with the level of human intelligence
hero member
Activity: 1624
Merit: 645
February 21, 2018, 05:28:51 AM

There are at least 2 places in the Bible (one in Isaiah) that tell us that in the next life we will never remember any of this. It will never come to mind.

So, it is not that you don't believe in God. Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.

Don't throw away eternity for yourself. Having the pleasure of some deep anger against God in this life (though I don't see where there is pleasure in anger), is not worth losing your salvation for eternity.

Rather, humble yourself, and ask God to comfort you and bring peace to your mind and soul.

Cool

''Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.'' Actually as you can clearly see from my example above, I'm not angry or happy, it simply makes no sense and it's not fair.

What makes it unfair is the unfairness of mankind toward God. God gave His all in Jesus death on the cross. He did it to save mankind. But here you are, not only accepting the imperfection of being sinful in the first place, but extending your imperfection to the rejecting of the great sacrifice Jesus did to save you. You ain't fair. Certainly not to God.

Cool

God sacrificed himself to himself to forgive us. Another nonsense from the bible right there. It makes absolutely no sense and we are not even saved, we are still here, aren't we? Why did an omniscient and all powerful god need to sacrifice his ''son'' to forgive humanity? Why not just forgive us? What is there to forgive anyways, he already knew everything that would happen.
legendary
Activity: 3990
Merit: 1385
February 20, 2018, 06:25:19 PM

There are at least 2 places in the Bible (one in Isaiah) that tell us that in the next life we will never remember any of this. It will never come to mind.

So, it is not that you don't believe in God. Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.

Don't throw away eternity for yourself. Having the pleasure of some deep anger against God in this life (though I don't see where there is pleasure in anger), is not worth losing your salvation for eternity.

Rather, humble yourself, and ask God to comfort you and bring peace to your mind and soul.

Cool

''Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.'' Actually as you can clearly see from my example above, I'm not angry or happy, it simply makes no sense and it's not fair.

What makes it unfair is the unfairness of mankind toward God. God gave His all in Jesus death on the cross. He did it to save mankind. But here you are, not only accepting the imperfection of being sinful in the first place, but extending your imperfection to the rejecting of the great sacrifice Jesus did to save you. You ain't fair. Certainly not to God.

Cool
legendary
Activity: 3990
Merit: 1385
February 20, 2018, 06:20:24 PM

If unbelievers can be saved after death and people can be changed into ''pure'' souls then there is absolutely no need for any of this, everything that we are experiencing now is absolutely useless.

Wow! This is about as close to seeing the truth as you have gotten. Solomon, possibly the wisest person of all time, said something very similar to this in his book of Ecclesiastes in the Bible.



Note that, the reason we need death for purification, is that we are very strong willed. You know how strong willed you are, that you won't accept all kinds of evidence for the existence of God and eternal life. But even though I accept these things, my will is so strong that I won't accept being purified in other ways.

We are like computer programs. We can't be changed while we are running. If the programmer finds a bug in the program, he essentially has to shut the program down before he can fix the bug. Same with us.

But that is as far as the computer example is similar to us. We are much greater than a computer program. Even when our life program is shut down in death, some of us will not allow ourselves to be reprogrammed even after death. That is the reason for Heaven and Hell.

Cool
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1055
February 20, 2018, 06:05:52 PM

If unbelievers can be saved after death and people can be changed into ''pure'' souls then there is absolutely no need for any of this, everything that we are experiencing now is absolutely useless.

The necessity to burn away the evil in you in an afterlife is not so attractive if down to the core you are evil. In extreme situations there might not be anything left once the process was completed.

What you are experiencing now is the forging of a crucible that for better or for worse will be subjected to the fires and tribulations of the future.

If you do not create anything worth saving in the present what possibly could there be to save in the future?

My own opinion is that the Seventh-day Adventist view on hell is more logical then other interpretations.

See: Annihilationism
hero member
Activity: 1624
Merit: 645
February 20, 2018, 05:21:47 PM

I believed in god 100% when I was a kid, when I grew older I started to have my doubts so I asked him, honestly, for a little proof of his existence, guess what, he didn't send me anything. God is fictional. As an example of the absurdity of heaven:

I'm walking with my girlfriend and a robber tries to rob us and shoots her. I was a believer but she wasn't.

50 years later, the robber and I both die, the robber a few years before dying accepts jesus christ and repents his sins.
We are now both in heaven and I'm supposed to be happy knowing that not only my girlfriend is going to be eternally tortured but also that I'm going to spend all eternity living with the man who actually killed her.
Furthermore if she lived maybe she would have accepted jesus christ just like the robber did yet she didn't have the chance to do so.

Humans in our current state are utterly unfit for eternal life.

If you have Netflix I recommend the dark and disturbing series Altered Carbon. It explores what humanity would do if we discovered a technology that allowed us to upload ourselves into new bodies and use this technology to live forever. The series set some 300 years in the future.

What would we do with eternal life? Simple we would turn the earth into a living hell. The series is so dark because it so accurately describes human nature.

Both the Catholics and the Jews believe in purgatory. This is a place where the evil in us that makes us unfit to enter heaven is purified aka burned away. If there is a heaven the need for such a place follows logically from the utter darkness in human nature.

What does it mean to "purify" an evil that is inherent to our very nature. Well it means that a big part of what we are the darkness has to be burned away and die. If that is 95% because you like to shoot and murder people then I imagine such a purification would be rather unpleasant. I certainly would not want to be the guy who has to have 95% of who he is consumed by a burning purification of truth so that a deeply remorseful 5% suitable for eternal life and can continue.

Can someone who died in their youth or did not have a chance to fully explore the devine be saved? To the degree they lived their life in alignment with truth and that anyone can be saved they certainly could be. Nowhere in the Bible does it explicitly say that unbelievers cannot be saved after death. Clark Pinnock a prominent Christian theologian is a compelling author and defended this line of reasoning.

https://www.amazon.com/Wideness-Gods-Mercy-Finality-Religions/dp/0310535913

The take away message is that we should align ourselves with truth and the transcendent to the core of our being. To the degree we succeed we transform ourself into something suitable for an afterlife and prevent the manifestation of hell on earth.


If unbelievers can be saved after death and people can be changed into ''pure'' souls then there is absolutely no need for any of this, everything that we are experiencing now is absolutely useless.
legendary
Activity: 1946
Merit: 1055
February 20, 2018, 03:53:28 PM

I believed in god 100% when I was a kid, when I grew older I started to have my doubts so I asked him, honestly, for a little proof of his existence, guess what, he didn't send me anything. God is fictional. As an example of the absurdity of heaven:

I'm walking with my girlfriend and a robber tries to rob us and shoots her. I was a believer but she wasn't.

50 years later, the robber and I both die, the robber a few years before dying accepts jesus christ and repents his sins.
We are now both in heaven and I'm supposed to be happy knowing that not only my girlfriend is going to be eternally tortured but also that I'm going to spend all eternity living with the man who actually killed her.
Furthermore if she lived maybe she would have accepted jesus christ just like the robber did yet she didn't have the chance to do so.

Humans in our current state are utterly unfit for eternal life.

If you have Netflix I recommend the dark and disturbing series Altered Carbon. It explores what humanity would do if we discovered a technology that allowed us to upload ourselves into new bodies and use this technology to live forever. The series set some 300 years in the future.

What would we do with eternal life? Simple we would turn the earth into a living hell. The series is so dark because it so accurately describes human nature.

Both the Catholics and the Jews believe in purgatory. This is a place where the evil in us that makes us unfit to enter heaven is purified aka burned away. If there is a heaven the need for such a place follows logically from the utter darkness in human nature.

What does it mean to "purify" an evil that is inherent to our very nature. Well it means that a big part of what we are the darkness has to be burned away and die. If that is 95% because you like to shoot and murder people then I imagine such a purification would be rather unpleasant. I certainly would not want to be the guy who has to have 95% of who he is consumed by a burning purification of truth so that a deeply remorseful 5% suitable for eternal life and can continue.

Can someone who died in their youth or did not have a chance to fully explore the devine be saved? To the degree they lived their life in alignment with truth and that anyone can be saved they certainly could be. Nowhere in the Bible does it explicitly say that unbelievers cannot be saved after death. Clark Pinnock a prominent Christian theologian is a compelling author and defended this line of reasoning.

https://www.amazon.com/Wideness-Gods-Mercy-Finality-Religions/dp/0310535913

The take away message is that we should align ourselves with truth and the transcendent to the core of our being. To the degree we succeed we transform ourself into something suitable for an afterlife and prevent the manifestation of hell on earth.
hero member
Activity: 1624
Merit: 645
February 20, 2018, 11:34:55 AM
Religion is a hoax, not health. Health is serious, yes i certainly believe there is a certainty of degree where the gov. may be lying about certain things. By religions is the biggest hoax ever. You really gonna believe a man by the name of jesus who lived 400 years ago and dedicate your money and sundays to him? Seems like Jesus is a dead pimp and you guys who believe in religions are the prostitute.  

Religion absolutely is NOT a hoax. Rather, it is the thing by which everybody lives. Check the definition from Dictionary.com at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t, particularly item 6: "something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience:
to make a religion of fighting prejudice."

Some formal religions are hoaxes. But your informal religion is your way of life.

Cool

Yet numerous studies and logic have proven that prayer, for example, doesn't work.

Prayer, all by itself, doesn't do much of anything. If it has positive thinking involved, the positive thinking might do something... like placebo action.

If the prayer is a prayer of faith, prayed to God, then God works. It isn't really the prayer working. Any studies that suggest that prayer doesn't work are looking at the wrong thing. Prayer is about relationship with God. Prayer as a mechanical thing won't work except if it has positive thinking attached to it. And even then it is not as powerful as faith prayer, prayed to God.

Cool

It doesn't work, it's proven, get over it.

''Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him''

According to these verses, prayer is an opportunity to approach the greatest father of all time and openly express our needs and desires and directly ask for help yet prayer doesn't work, no one has seen a dead person revive or a amputee grow back an arm.

The Youtube video that Coincube suggests in the above post is very relevant... at least where the link starts the video.

1. Faith in God is what causes God to allow things to be activated for people. All people have a basic faith in God to some extent, just to live, even though they don't realize it. But when you try to test God by suggesting that something like the passage you quoted doesn't work for you, you are actually using your faith in God against the thing that you are formally asking. This means that you are getting the answer you asked for... precisely nothing.

2. Many people receive what they ask for. Why? They ask in simple and honest faith, not trying to test God, but truly asking.

3. You receive many things you ask for, even though you do not ask for them by or through some words. For example. When you get a cup of coffee, or a plate of food, you are asking for a multitude of things that you are given. You are asking that your muscles work to take you to the spot where the coffee or food is located. You are asking that the cup or plate that you see there, is there for you. You are asking that the food will be healthy or pleasurable for you. By your actions you are asking for many things regarding this coffee or food.

How are you asking? By not knowing for a fact that stuff will work for you this time. After all, only if you never made a mistake in your life... only if there was never something that happened to you that you weren't expecting... only you never had a surprise in your life... only then might you be able to predict with absolute certainty that the things that you were doing would result in the response you were looking for.

Since God controls all things through cause and effect (and, really, a host of other controls, as well), He has given you the answer to your request for coffee or food, long before you asked for them by your actions, and even in the face of your lack of direct God-faith.

"Ask and it will be given to you..." is working for you constantly, and for everyone else, as well. After all, when you doubt God, the thing you are asking for is failure in the "Ask and it will be given to you... ." And that is what God gives you some of the time... failure.

It's all a big balance that God works for you, in precise and perfect detail. God balances all of your thinking requests, with all of your action requests, and gives you the things that you request. After all, you are not generally requesting bad things to happen to yourself. So, they don't... at least not until the "bad thing" request overcomes the good that you are requesting for yourself.

Wake up and see, before it is too late for you, that you are going to request yourself right out of Eternal life if you keep on fighting God like you are doing.

Cool

I believed in god 100% when I was a kid, when I grew older I started to have my doubts so I asked him, honestly, for a little proof of his existence, guess what, he didn't send me anything. God is fictional. As an example of the absurdity of heaven:

I'm walking with my girlfriend and a robber tries to rob us and shoots her. I was a believer but she wasn't.

50 years later, the robber and I both die, the robber a few years before dying accepts jesus christ and repents his sins.
We are now both in heaven and I'm supposed to be happy knowing that not only my girlfriend is going to be eternally tortured but also that I'm going to spend all eternity living with the man who actually killed her.
Furthermore if she lived maybe she would have accepted jesus christ just like the robber did yet she didn't have the chance to do so.


There are at least 2 places in the Bible (one in Isaiah) that tell us that in the next life we will never remember any of this. It will never come to mind.

So, it is not that you don't believe in God. Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.

Don't throw away eternity for yourself. Having the pleasure of some deep anger against God in this life (though I don't see where there is pleasure in anger), is not worth losing your salvation for eternity.

Rather, humble yourself, and ask God to comfort you and bring peace to your mind and soul.

Cool

''Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.'' Actually as you can clearly see from my example above, I'm not angry or happy, it simply makes no sense and it's not fair.
member
Activity: 294
Merit: 11
February 20, 2018, 09:18:39 AM
Although there were no correlation to this, I think this implied wrong statistical analysis on what is being tabulated. Religion and IQ has no significant relationship. If you can see human can be intelligent in most different way.
legendary
Activity: 3990
Merit: 1385
February 20, 2018, 08:35:29 AM
Religion is a hoax, not health. Health is serious, yes i certainly believe there is a certainty of degree where the gov. may be lying about certain things. By religions is the biggest hoax ever. You really gonna believe a man by the name of jesus who lived 400 years ago and dedicate your money and sundays to him? Seems like Jesus is a dead pimp and you guys who believe in religions are the prostitute.  

Religion absolutely is NOT a hoax. Rather, it is the thing by which everybody lives. Check the definition from Dictionary.com at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t, particularly item 6: "something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience:
to make a religion of fighting prejudice."

Some formal religions are hoaxes. But your informal religion is your way of life.

Cool

Yet numerous studies and logic have proven that prayer, for example, doesn't work.

Prayer, all by itself, doesn't do much of anything. If it has positive thinking involved, the positive thinking might do something... like placebo action.

If the prayer is a prayer of faith, prayed to God, then God works. It isn't really the prayer working. Any studies that suggest that prayer doesn't work are looking at the wrong thing. Prayer is about relationship with God. Prayer as a mechanical thing won't work except if it has positive thinking attached to it. And even then it is not as powerful as faith prayer, prayed to God.

Cool

It doesn't work, it's proven, get over it.

''Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him''

According to these verses, prayer is an opportunity to approach the greatest father of all time and openly express our needs and desires and directly ask for help yet prayer doesn't work, no one has seen a dead person revive or a amputee grow back an arm.

The Youtube video that Coincube suggests in the above post is very relevant... at least where the link starts the video.

1. Faith in God is what causes God to allow things to be activated for people. All people have a basic faith in God to some extent, just to live, even though they don't realize it. But when you try to test God by suggesting that something like the passage you quoted doesn't work for you, you are actually using your faith in God against the thing that you are formally asking. This means that you are getting the answer you asked for... precisely nothing.

2. Many people receive what they ask for. Why? They ask in simple and honest faith, not trying to test God, but truly asking.

3. You receive many things you ask for, even though you do not ask for them by or through some words. For example. When you get a cup of coffee, or a plate of food, you are asking for a multitude of things that you are given. You are asking that your muscles work to take you to the spot where the coffee or food is located. You are asking that the cup or plate that you see there, is there for you. You are asking that the food will be healthy or pleasurable for you. By your actions you are asking for many things regarding this coffee or food.

How are you asking? By not knowing for a fact that stuff will work for you this time. After all, only if you never made a mistake in your life... only if there was never something that happened to you that you weren't expecting... only you never had a surprise in your life... only then might you be able to predict with absolute certainty that the things that you were doing would result in the response you were looking for.

Since God controls all things through cause and effect (and, really, a host of other controls, as well), He has given you the answer to your request for coffee or food, long before you asked for them by your actions, and even in the face of your lack of direct God-faith.

"Ask and it will be given to you..." is working for you constantly, and for everyone else, as well. After all, when you doubt God, the thing you are asking for is failure in the "Ask and it will be given to you... ." And that is what God gives you some of the time... failure.

It's all a big balance that God works for you, in precise and perfect detail. God balances all of your thinking requests, with all of your action requests, and gives you the things that you request. After all, you are not generally requesting bad things to happen to yourself. So, they don't... at least not until the "bad thing" request overcomes the good that you are requesting for yourself.

Wake up and see, before it is too late for you, that you are going to request yourself right out of Eternal life if you keep on fighting God like you are doing.

Cool

I believed in god 100% when I was a kid, when I grew older I started to have my doubts so I asked him, honestly, for a little proof of his existence, guess what, he didn't send me anything. God is fictional. As an example of the absurdity of heaven:

I'm walking with my girlfriend and a robber tries to rob us and shoots her. I was a believer but she wasn't.

50 years later, the robber and I both die, the robber a few years before dying accepts jesus christ and repents his sins.
We are now both in heaven and I'm supposed to be happy knowing that not only my girlfriend is going to be eternally tortured but also that I'm going to spend all eternity living with the man who actually killed her.
Furthermore if she lived maybe she would have accepted jesus christ just like the robber did yet she didn't have the chance to do so.


There are at least 2 places in the Bible (one in Isaiah) that tell us that in the next life we will never remember any of this. It will never come to mind.

So, it is not that you don't believe in God. Rather, it is that you are angry with Him for not judging things according to the way you think.

Don't throw away eternity for yourself. Having the pleasure of some deep anger against God in this life (though I don't see where there is pleasure in anger), is not worth losing your salvation for eternity.

Rather, humble yourself, and ask God to comfort you and bring peace to your mind and soul.

Cool
hero member
Activity: 1624
Merit: 645
February 20, 2018, 08:26:47 AM
Religion is a hoax, not health. Health is serious, yes i certainly believe there is a certainty of degree where the gov. may be lying about certain things. By religions is the biggest hoax ever. You really gonna believe a man by the name of jesus who lived 400 years ago and dedicate your money and sundays to him? Seems like Jesus is a dead pimp and you guys who believe in religions are the prostitute.  

Religion absolutely is NOT a hoax. Rather, it is the thing by which everybody lives. Check the definition from Dictionary.com at http://www.dictionary.com/browse/religion?s=t, particularly item 6: "something one believes in and follows devotedly; a point or matter of ethics or conscience:
to make a religion of fighting prejudice."

Some formal religions are hoaxes. But your informal religion is your way of life.

Cool

Yet numerous studies and logic have proven that prayer, for example, doesn't work.

Prayer, all by itself, doesn't do much of anything. If it has positive thinking involved, the positive thinking might do something... like placebo action.

If the prayer is a prayer of faith, prayed to God, then God works. It isn't really the prayer working. Any studies that suggest that prayer doesn't work are looking at the wrong thing. Prayer is about relationship with God. Prayer as a mechanical thing won't work except if it has positive thinking attached to it. And even then it is not as powerful as faith prayer, prayed to God.

Cool

It doesn't work, it's proven, get over it.

''Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if your son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him''

According to these verses, prayer is an opportunity to approach the greatest father of all time and openly express our needs and desires and directly ask for help yet prayer doesn't work, no one has seen a dead person revive or a amputee grow back an arm.

The Youtube video that Coincube suggests in the above post is very relevant... at least where the link starts the video.

1. Faith in God is what causes God to allow things to be activated for people. All people have a basic faith in God to some extent, just to live, even though they don't realize it. But when you try to test God by suggesting that something like the passage you quoted doesn't work for you, you are actually using your faith in God against the thing that you are formally asking. This means that you are getting the answer you asked for... precisely nothing.

2. Many people receive what they ask for. Why? They ask in simple and honest faith, not trying to test God, but truly asking.

3. You receive many things you ask for, even though you do not ask for them by or through some words. For example. When you get a cup of coffee, or a plate of food, you are asking for a multitude of things that you are given. You are asking that your muscles work to take you to the spot where the coffee or food is located. You are asking that the cup or plate that you see there, is there for you. You are asking that the food will be healthy or pleasurable for you. By your actions you are asking for many things regarding this coffee or food.

How are you asking? By not knowing for a fact that stuff will work for you this time. After all, only if you never made a mistake in your life... only if there was never something that happened to you that you weren't expecting... only you never had a surprise in your life... only then might you be able to predict with absolute certainty that the things that you were doing would result in the response you were looking for.

Since God controls all things through cause and effect (and, really, a host of other controls, as well), He has given you the answer to your request for coffee or food, long before you asked for them by your actions, and even in the face of your lack of direct God-faith.

"Ask and it will be given to you..." is working for you constantly, and for everyone else, as well. After all, when you doubt God, the thing you are asking for is failure in the "Ask and it will be given to you... ." And that is what God gives you some of the time... failure.

It's all a big balance that God works for you, in precise and perfect detail. God balances all of your thinking requests, with all of your action requests, and gives you the things that you request. After all, you are not generally requesting bad things to happen to yourself. So, they don't... at least not until the "bad thing" request overcomes the good that you are requesting for yourself.

Wake up and see, before it is too late for you, that you are going to request yourself right out of Eternal life if you keep on fighting God like you are doing.

Cool

I believed in god 100% when I was a kid, when I grew older I started to have my doubts so I asked him, honestly, for a little proof of his existence, guess what, he didn't send me anything. God is fictional. As an example of the absurdity of heaven:

I'm walking with my girlfriend and a robber tries to rob us and shoots her. I was a believer but she wasn't.

50 years later, the robber and I both die, the robber a few years before dying accepts jesus christ and repents his sins.
We are now both in heaven and I'm supposed to be happy knowing that not only my girlfriend is going to be eternally tortured but also that I'm going to spend all eternity living with the man who actually killed her.
Furthermore if she lived maybe she would have accepted jesus christ just like the robber did yet she didn't have the chance to do so.
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