So I thought about this in the shower amd it makes sense to me, like praying and stuff never worked for most people I know, so a direkt link to god gotta be unlikely. That made me conclude that religion is probably fake, no matter if there’s a god or not. Also people speaking to the same god being given a different set of rules sounds stupid, so at least most religions must be fake.

  • jackiechan@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    21 days ago

    Really loved your analogy of a parent child relationship. And parents sometimes have to say no because they know in the long run it’ll be better for the kid.

    Very sad to me to see all the people in this comment thread so confident that God doesn’t exist simply because he doesn’t answer every single person’s prayer with yes. Did we create the entire world from nothing? Did we create ourselves? Do we control the weather or keep the earth in its orbit? God is so much bigger than any of us can even imagine, and so much stronger and wiser too.

    I’ve seen God work throughout my life by answering prayers, and yes this means he has said no, but he’s also said yes many times. Gone through and going through very hard things, but God uses hard things to bring us closer to him.

    I guess in relation to the very negative comments about God, all we can do as believers is pray he’ll open their eyes one day. The love and comfort you feel from a relationship with him is unlike anything else.

    • whotookkarl@lemmy.world
      0·
      21 days ago

      It’s not that intercessory prayer needs to work 100% to be convincing, it just needs to beat random chance and it doesn’t do that.

      Natural processes can describe how those things came to exist without needing to appeal to supernatural claims or gods.

      You’ve seen things you attribute to a god, but people in other religions attribute the same things to their god and so far I don’t think anyone has shown empirical evidence for any gods, and I don’t know about you but I use empirical evidence when changing my confidence on whether something or someone exists or doesn’t.

      Many people have a negative opinion on organized religion because we can see the negative effects believing things without sufficient evidence can have on individuals and communities.

      • jackiechan@lemm.eeEnglish
        0·
        21 days ago

        An atheist can 100% pray to God! I’m slightly confused by the second part. Are you asking if an atheist can ask God to make his believers not believers anymore?

          • jackiechan@lemm.eeEnglish
            0·
            21 days ago

            I mean yes, an atheist can definitely ask God for that. However, I believe in predestination, which means that God already knows who will trust in Christ for their salvation. So, God will not allow one of his children to slip away from him. Short answer, I don’t believe God would say yes to that prayer when it comes to his people.

            • frog_brawler@lemmy.world
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              21 days ago

              So god never answers the prayers of atheists… sounds pointless.

              Predestination - sounds like you’re talking about god’s plan… why pray then? If it’s already in a plan, it’ll happen. If it’s not in the plan, it won’t.

              If god doesn’t allow his children to slip away, how do you explain the actual verifiable existence of atheists and people that formerly had religion?

              • jackiechan@lemm.eeEnglish
                0·
                21 days ago

                Well of course God won’t answer a prayer that would negatively affect one of his true followers.

                I believe in God’s plan for the world as well as free will. I agree it’s paradoxical, but I’m not God, so I have made peace with the fact I will never understand that. I trust the Lord and know he’s beyond my understanding as a finite, mortal human. God wants us to pray because he knows it is good for us. Think of a relationship, you have to stay in constant communication to stay close. I feel farthest from God when my prayer life has been slacking.

                God’s children are his chosen people, aka his true believers. I believe that people who have fallen away from their faith and never come back never had a real relationship with him to begin with. But, I believe anyone who has fallen away can always come back to him before they pass away.

                These are really good and valid questions, and I’m happy to answer them. Praying for your heart, friend

      • Mr Fish@lemmy.world
        0·
        21 days ago

        Well you can, but that doesn’t mean God will do it. You’re asking a father, who loves his children, to remove their choice in the matter and force them away, despite him knowing it’s better for them to stay.