Why does God answer some prayers and not others?

[locationforna]

Just this really.

If you are a Christian, please can you tell me why God answers some peoples prayers and not others?

For example, one woman could be praying her baby survives. Baby dies. Another woman with the exact same situation of an unwell baby - Baby lives. Both prayed, they prayed a lot

Why is it you say 'God is good' and 'God does answer, this is a miracle' and 'we are praying for you'

Do you really think that if the first person prayed hard enough, her baby would've survived? Or if not, and it's just chance, why pray?

I believe in God by the way. I have been studying for a while and seem to lean towards Judaism but notice a lot of 'God is good, he answered my prayers. It's a miracle'

Why some prayers and not others? Why do people think He's helped you get a job offer you really wanted but not answered a woman across the road's prayer not to be raped?

There is suffering throughout the Bible. Jesus himself suffered according to the Bible. That's not what I mean - I mean specially, why some prayers can be answered and not others that are equally in need?

Why should people be respectful about religion though? Considering the many problems it's caused and continues to cause? I get that, once upon a time, people used 'gods' to explain what they didn't understand. We have science now though.

This

Because it’s probably not what you really need or the way it’s planned to work out for you. Weird things happen in their own time and pan out.

I’m not religious but used to be, one of the things that helped me lose my religion was the weekly TearFund prayer request. One week it asked if people could pray for the drought … they got rain!!!!! Then the next week they asked to pray for the flooding 🤦🏻‍♀️ Honestly xxx

@2pence

Atheism is not a belief system. It's a statement that one doesn't believe in a supernatural entity. As Dawkins said, “We are all atheists about most of the gods that humanity has ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further.”

lbert Einstein's religious views have been widely studied and often misunderstood. Albert Einstein stated "I believe in Spinoza's God". He did not believe in a personal God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings, a view which he described as naive. He clarified however that, "I am not an atheist", preferring to call himself an agnostic, or a "religious nonbeliever."

Richard Dawkins admits a world with no God would be immoral

Noted atheist Richard Dawkins has admitted a world without God would lead to moral decline.

Speaking to The Times, Dawkins said he fears the removal of religion would be a bad idea for society because it would give people "license to do really bad things."

He likened the importance of a higher power informing our morality to the presence of surveillance cameras to prevent shoplifting, warning people would feel free to commit crimes if the need to obey the "divine spy camera in the sky, reading their every thought" was removed.

Surly the laws should be enough to stop people doing wrong, besides most use the philosophy of the greater good to do questionable activities.

But then how many pagans were at the mercy of Christians ect ?

I think that’s naive and putting excessive faith in humans - and human law too.

Also, laws and morals are not the same thing. Or, didn’t you know that?

The Ten Commandments are about morals, but needed God to oversee them.

Even Richard Dawkins recognises a world without God would lead to moral decline. That speaks volumes.

Can we have a more reliable citation than the fucking Christian News ffs 😂😂😂

I don’t need the Ten Commandments or a God to oversee my behaviour - I know the difference between right and wrong. God won’t punish me if I was to break a law - we have a legal system to enforce that. I won’t end up in heaven or hell dependent upon how I live my life.

The Dawkins quote does not speak volumes, he is just one person with a perspective. Does not make him all wise and all knowing.

Exactly, humanity can function with a human rights etc, and human laws, rather than a book of myths and philosophical stories about who said what

@Hobbi of course Atheism is a belief, it's not a religion though. Is that what's you mean? It's categorised under the umbrella of irreligion (along with my agnostic beliefs).

I practice my atheism religiously. Every Sunday, without fail, I don’t go to church.

And Atheists are also offered protection under the Equalities Act 2010 as their beliefs are classed as a protected characteristic.

Happy new year!

@JustAnotherPoster00 They were quoting Richard Dawkins. But here he is being quoted again by another newspaper, The Times:
Ending religion is a bad idea, says Richard Dawkins: ‘Richard Dawkins said that being watched appeared to stop people from acting dishonestly‘

The justice system requires humans to tell the truth in adversarial situations, which is why oaths are sworn to invoke a deity as witness. Dishonesty is too tempting for humans who want to get themselves off the hook.

@Parker231 ”I don’t need the Ten Commandments or a God to oversee my behaviour - I know the difference between right and wrong.”

You might not, especially if you consider yourself to be perfection. But the Ten Commandments and God overseeing them is for everyone (humans as a society to encourage cooperation) not just individuals.

Also, how do you know the difference between right and wrong? Have you mastered an age-old philosophical dilemma?

Ethics: How Do You Know Right from Wrong?

@Hawkins001 As politics has demonstrated, man-made human rights laws are vulnerable. Has there ever been a civilised human society with laws and a justice system that did not come packaged with an overseeing higher power or deity?
If not, then what you’re talking about is a social experiment.

There are typically three main types of law. Man made human laws (that’s what you mean by human rights), natural laws (nature based laws) and divine law. My bets are on divine laws not going away just because people wish them away or turn a blind eye to them.

Name changed for this as outing.

My father was a minister. He died of cancer at 43 when I was 13. I've struggled with religion ever since. I obviously grew up in a religious household, went to Sunday school and church and believed. Even after he died, I still went as I knew it would be what he wanted. But I find it hard that someone who devoted their life to God couldn't be saved when others who do so many bad things in life are allowed to live on.

I stopped attending church when I was in my early 20s. Hypocritically, I've attended sporadically prior to getting married and having my child christened as that was 'the done thing' but I don't attend now. I still believe in God, but I don't understand him.

And if other posters want to call me some sort of loony, go ahead.

My bets are on divine laws not going away just because people wish them away or turn a blind eye to them.

Divine laws like those in Leviticus? People have been turnng a blind eye to most of those for millennia. Which is a good thing, because a lot of them are either awful or ridiculous.

Divine law is defined as any body of law that is perceived as deriving from a transcendent source, such as the will of God or gods – in contrast to man-made law or to secular law.

Divine law means it’s the jurisdiction of God (or gods) and their business. But just as natural laws and man-made human laws overlap and coincide, same goes with divine laws.

Leviticus is a book in the Old Testament. There has been a New Testament since. Keep up.

If the new testament supercedes the old one, then all those divine laws did indeed go away.

I think it's very different having a belief in God in the sense of some kind of power behind things but that you can't really fathom or understand, to having a trite and simplistic belief in God based directly and uncritically from the Bible.

If God is defined in the way a fundamentalist Christian would, then I'm an atheist. If God is defined as something more like a transcendent 'ground of being' then I'm tentatively more of a believer.

Didn't Jesus say that he came to fulfil the law, not to abolish it?

@Inspecto

Also, how do you know the difference between right and wrong? Have you mastered an age-old philosophical dilemma?

I don't need religion to instruct me on what's right and wrong... I have a conscience. It's dangerous and an major abdication of basic adult responsibility to set aside your conscience in preference to religious dogmas. That's a key way how abuse happens and becomes normalised!

Interpretations vary.

See Supersessionism

I see it as New Testament updating the will of the Old Testament. Things change so it’s healthy to update things. Like regularly updating your own Last Will & Testament to reflect major changes.