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?

This.

This too.

Pagan perspective- I believe in Gods and Goddesses as energies but will view them as "beings" to make it easier on my human brain.

In Paganism deities are not worshipped, rather you work alongside them to get results you want. They are also not all loving. Some of them are right assholes. And for good reason. They appear more "human" because they have a light and a dark side.
An example would be the Hindu Goddess Parvati, she is an incredibly loving being, gentle energy, good with childhood, mothering etc. Her husband went into battle and was losing. Parvati lost her shit, ended up transforming into Kali- Kali is a Goddess known for causing chaos and destruction. However she's also really good to work with when sorting out your own life as she strips everything back to basics and helps build you back up again.

God is apparently all loving and is good all the time and it's the Devil who is "bad".
What I think people should realise is that the God and Devil are just different sides to the same coin.

God is good and if in instances you think he is not good because of the suffering of some, then you are in fact questioning his very nature and saying he is actually not good or at the very least he is not always good. God would have issues with that because he says he is ALWAYS good.

This is the nub of the problem. It turns concepts goodness and evil in its head.

Good and evil cease to be something that we can recognise ourselves, but rather we have to suppress that and simply that God is Good because he says so in a book (ie the Bible) that we have to accept as God's word because the book says it is! It's the ultimate tautology!

This is brilliant.

Thank goodness we have science and critical thinking!

It is impossible to look at nature and indeed all around you and think that all of this came about without an intelligent designer. Something or someone must exist outside of time, space and matter to have created time, space and matter in an incredibly ordered and intelligent way.

It is not impossible at all. I do it daily. As does Brian Cox et al.

Why do you talk in emotive language?

Ultimately, god lets all humans suffer, not just young. ‘Life is suffering’, as the Buddha wisely observed.

Young humans suffer a lot less than they used to thanks to advancements over the centuries.

Thinking science answers all human problems is not a sign of critical thinking, quite the opposite.

Have you heard of scientism? “The excessive belief in the power of scientific knowledge and techniques”. An “unwarranted application of science in situations considered not amenable to application of the scientific method.”

As I said above, science is great until you get to the problem of humans being naturally unjust and selfish creatures - and science can’t fix that problem.

Ending religion is a bad idea, says Richard Dawkins: Richard Dawkins said he feared that if religion were abolished it would “give people a licence to do really bad things”. Richard Dawkins said that being watched appeared to stop people from acting dishonestly. (@Hawkins001 Dawkins has evidently given this matter a lot of time, thinking and headspace to come to this conclusion.).

Dishonesty is the main problem for the justice system because it requires people to be honest in adversarial situations (that’s why the idea of God being called to witness is still used in the 21st century). If people feel they have a license to lie under oath or affirmation ‘because god doesn’t exist’ or ‘there is no divine spy camera’ then it’s not a leap to see how that will cause the justice system to crumble and an avalanche of injustice, anarchy and tyranny in wider society.

Science is not equal to ethics or ‘goodness’ or virtue.

The Immoral Landscape? Scientists Are Associated with Violations of Morality

Incredible really that after all the word salad below that you have made this atheist even more convinced that there is no tangible evidence that there is no god. And let's be clear. Atheism is based on the basic premise there is no factual evidence of a god existing, like there is no evidence of Thor or a tooth fairy or Santa or Allah or whatever.

And those who do 'believe' subscribe to that fact too. Because despite 'his' omnipotence and omnipresence (dictionary definition: 'having great benevolent power') 'he' doesn't exercise that power because we have 'free will'. Instead it's just a psychological 'comfort'. It's the definition of impotent.

What a fucking useless and pointless overlord. Why praise such a pointless and inactive being?!

As I have no belief in any God - they can’t punish me if I lie in Court or do any wrong. My faith in those circumstances is in the legal system.

I’ll stick with the scientific theories around evolution rather than any God.

@Inspecto good to know religious people dont go around murdering people just because you are concerned about blotting your copy book in the afterlife with a vengeful overlord.

The rest of us don't do it because it's the way that a civilised society works and we have empathy.

@BoganKiwi I don’t think anyone is trying to convince you to believe in God.

These emotive language and reductive lobs about word salads, etc demonstrate the inability of some atheist to not only critical examine the existence of God but to also turn the spotlight on their own beliefs. Most atheists cannot countenance a critical assessment of why they believe whatever theory they have for the existence of mankind. It’s very easy to criticise other beliefs as mumbo jumbo but they simply take their theory of how we all got there as more sensible.

What created time, space and matter and why is your atheistic view any more proven or valid? Fact is it is not and any critical analysis of the claims will show that the Big Bang or whatever else are no less ridiculous than creationism.

After “word salad” someone will throw around the term narcissistic or one of the other popular nonsenses.

You do realise that the UK legal system is based heavily on the Old Testament. Where do you think the ideas of morality and right and wrong originated?

If you’ve read the bible you’ll see that God is not nice and it’s unhelpful to think of God as wishy washy ‘nice’ because God is also about disciplining humans when they do wrong. This is why, when the corona pandemic happened, it was a valid question to ask if god was behind it and what was wrong?

In this meme asking the Pope a ‘who wants to be a millionaire’ style question about God’s role is in the pandemic is, I think the options boil down to God’s power:
A. God is unaware it is happening - means god is not all knowing.
B. God is aware but unwilling to stop it - means god is apathetic.
C. God is aware but is unable to stop it - means god is impotent.
D. God deliberately started it - means god is very powerful because he can lock the whole world down, even in the 21st century. (This is the scary and uncomfortable ‘god fearing’ bit that gets used in justice systems around the world, “So help me God”).

God Is Not Nice: Rejecting Pop Culture Theology and Discovering the God Worth Living For “reintroduces Christians to the true God―not the polite, easygoing, divine therapist who doesn’t ask much of us, but the Almighty God who is unpredictable, awe-inspiring, and demands our entire lives.
Stripping away the niceties with a sling blade, Lehner shows that God is more strange and beautiful than we imagine, and wants to know and transform us in the most intimate way. Lehner challenges the God of popular culture and many of our churches and reintroduces the God of the Bible and traditional Christianity. As Lehner writes in the book’s introduction, "We all need the vaccine of the true transforming and mysterious character of God: The God who shows up in burning bushes, speaks through donkeys, drives demons into pigs, throws Saul from his horse, and appears to St. Francis. It’s only this God who has the power to challenge us, change us, and make our lives dangerous." This book is not safe. It may startle and annoy many people―including those who purport to teach and preach the Gospel, but are missing it, according to Lehner. God Is Not Nice intends to overthrow all of our popular misconceptions about God, inviting us to ask deeper questions about the nature of our lives and our relationship with him.”

And didn’t your Kings and Queens rely on the Bible and their interpretation of it to rule and to determine what is just and unjust?

This society’s very concept of good and bad have been shaped by the Bible. Isn’t it also what leads the UK to proclaim a greater moral compass than China, Middle East, etc. A Christian nation ruled by apparent respect for humanity. Others following a different religion or founded on a different religious code are seen as barbaric.

We seem to think only we know how decent humans should behave. I wonder why.

Your missing the point - there isn’t a God which punishes you for how you live your life and whether you lie under affirmative in Court.

What utter nonsense. Critical thinking is the reason why I am atheistic about the belief that god is a creator and indeed the reason for this thread about answering prayers.

I don't know what created the universe. It's an incredible and mind boggling concept but there is far less evidence for 'god did it' than any other theory. And yes they are theories because they continue to learn, expand and refine whereas the religious version is 'accept this version from 2000 years ago and shut the fuck up because you'll go to hell because there's a 'man' who watches everything you do and judges you and he's really powerful and if you pray really hard he'll help you win the Superbowl'

The bible apparently wasn’t written by god. It is a collection of works written by numerous people over a period of time (though supposedly based on the teachings of god in my, admittedly, limited understanding). So I think it’s much more accurate to say the bible was shaped by society’s concept of good and bad, rather than the other way round.

I doubt it.

You seem to have a lot of angry energy. Calm down. No one is trying to take your atheism from you.

Sure. So say you.

Nevertheless, however you cut it, it would still be a belief in God that has shaped your idea of good and bad. Regardless of who wrote it, inspired or not. 😀

How could a God shape my idea of good and bad when I don’t believe he existed and plays no part in my life. I taught DC’s what is good behaviour and what isn’t, not any God.

Well I would. I think, when anyone talks about any god like they're actually real, it sounds as though they've lost the plot. I don't actually want to be insulting towards those who struggle with mental ill health. Didn't say anything about low IQs.

I’m not Christian but I’m going to answer anyway. Some prayers are answered immediately, some delayed, some not answered because what we’re asking for may not be in our best interest. We might be planning something but God has the ultimate flawless plan already for us. A prayer can be delayed because it’s not the right time or it can be unanswered because what we’re asking for may not be good for us in the long run. If we got everything we asked for can you imagine how incredibly spoiled this creation would be? We wouldn’t know where to stop. God knows what’s best as he is the best of planners. We need to learn to be at peace with Gods plans, and if something isn’t going our way then be assured it is for the best.

Not sure why you think I have a problem with Christianity but not Islam. Neither particularly respects female bodily autonomy, for a start