You’re giving an extremely good example and explanation for your example, but the math is wrong because it excludes all the other instances in which people pray. Those Jewish and Rwandan people do not represent all people throughout human history who have ever prayed, and their tragic events do not represent all events that have ever occurred.
Now please understand that I am not “attacking” you by pointing out a discrepancy in what you’ve written, so please don’t be angry with me over it. No one is perfect, and as such, it is possible that you or I or anyone else might write something that isn’t completely accurate, simple as that.
Thank you.
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For those who believe in it, yes, and it is quite effective. However, many people misunderstand prayer to be some kind of wish list or demand list, and if/when things don’t meet their expectations after having prayed, their faith falters as a result. When applied improperly, anything in life can go wrong, and prayer is no exception. A person might pray that a sports team win against an opponent or that a recipe turn out correctly or that a job prospect comes through. Are those truly prayers, are they wishes, is there a difference, if so, is it right or wrong to pray for those things? Unrealistic prayer is also a common theme. My stepfather told me that he “turned against God and stopped believing” when his mother passed away. He was at least 40 or 50 years old when that happened, meaning that she was between 70 and 80 years old, she was in extremely poor health and had been for more than two decades. She was not going to live forever, and her odds of surviving were automatically lessened by fact (age, health, etc.).
Prayer is like many other aspects of life: its validity is based on the interpretations and perceptions of the person or people who consider it. Non-believers and atheists might be quick to dismiss it completely, and they are perfectly within their rights to do so, without it being seen as a disparagement on their intelligence, character or personalities.
My beliefs are exactly that: mine. I am not saying that anyone has to agree with me or consider me to be correct in what I think. On the subject of prayer, there are many types of prayer, of praying, and of people who pray. Fervent prayer that glorifies God is acceptable, not selfish prayer that glorifies ego or greed.
I believe that God always answers all prayers. He says yes, no, or wait. Simple as that. There can be absolutely no other possible answers to any prayer. Frail humans who misinterpret a “no” or a “wait” as an unanswered prayer fail to see the point. Similar to when any human being asks any other human being for something, the answer isn’t always going to be yes. Just because the answer isn’t what was expected doesn’t mean it’s not an answer.
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I’m not sure that God does any prodding to get people to change. I believe He merely presents us an option, and based on the same free will of which you wrote, we make our choices in life. Furthermore, I believe that Satan does pretty much the same thing: presents people with an opposing option, and we make our choices. The comedian Flip Wilson portraying his character ‘Geraldine’ back in the 1970s had it all wrong: “The devil made me do it.” That’s just a cop-out for people who don’t want to accept personal responsibility for having made personal choices. Neither God nor Satan forced people to do anything, people choose to do either right or wrong.
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Kittigate 