![]() ![]() God must have intervened as an answer to American prayers.Īnd so we may imagine that God, as he sat down to design the universe, said to himself, “I foresee that future Americans will so barrage me with earnest prayers for their beloved country that I will be happy to give a positive answer to these prayers. Franklin was convinced that American victory in the War of Independence was antecedently so improbable that its actual happening could only be seen as nothing less than miraculous. In most respects, Benjamin Franklin, perhaps the most commonsensical American who ever lived, was a typical 18th-century Deist – except for one thing: he believed in the power of prayer. The prayer of somebody praying in AD 2013 for the well-being of the United States is a prayer that will have been heard by God billions and trillions and quadrillions of years ago, and God may well have borne that prayer in mind when designing the universe. Prayers offered yesterday, for instance, may have had an impact on the outcome of the Battle of Gettysburg. And not just those prayers that were offered prior to the historical event in question. I find it believable, for instance, that the historical successes of the United States of America are answers to prayers offered for the country by countless Americans over the last few centuries. Speaking for myself, I find all this very believable. (I put the word “before” in quotes as a reminder that time began with the creation of the world, not before it there was no temporal before, though there must have been a non-temporal before.)įurther, God’s decision on whether or not to answer this prayer was also made before the world began, and it was, therefore, built into the very architecture of the world before God created everything. And so whatever prayer I may pray today is a prayer that God heard “before” the world began. Moreover, God is an eternal being – he stands outside of time and above it. They concede that prayer may be helpful to the persons doing the praying, e.g., by comforting them and causing them to feel more hopeful, but they argue that there is no scientific evidence that God (or whoever or whatever) has answered the prayer.Īccording to Catholic theologians and philosophers, God is an all-knowing being, and therefore God hears all prayers that are directed at him. They point to the fact that last week millions prayed for no more mass shootings, yet this week there were two or three more. Tennyson’s King Arthur summed up all this when he said, “More things are wrought by prayer than this world dreams of.”īut “this world,” especially in modernized countries like America, contains tens of millions (or more) of people who doubt and even deny that prayers are efficacious. Just the other day, Great Britain, a country that abounds in religious skeptics, spent the better part of a Saturday praying for its monarch and for the country he represents and presides over. Even atheists pray to some higher power in moments of desperation, and thus “there are no atheists in foxholes.” Almost all societies have made provisions for public prayer. And the great religions of the world – Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism – have all placed prayer rituals at the center of their religion.Īlmost all human beings have believed, at least at some moments of their lives, in the power of prayer. Primitive religions are great believers in the power of prayer – including, sadly, the power of negative prayer, that is, of cursing one’s enemies. Does prayer actually work? When we pray for a happy outcome, does this wished-for outcome often take place? Does God (or whoever is responsible for answering prayers) answer them? This raises the question (or “begs the question” as TV journalists like to say, ignorantly misappropriating the name of a classical logical fallacy, also called “arguing in a circle” or petitio principii). Whenever a mass shooting makes national headlines (an event that seems to happen every few days now), conservative politicians offer their “thoughts and prayers,” and liberal politicians deride this offering by saying that prayers are far from enough. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |