To fully clarify my perspective on the most sensitive and likely greatest human institution, prayer and theism, I believe in God—though a genderless God (to whom I still refer as Him to avoid terminological hassle) and one not at all necessarily confined to an absolute Biblical sense—and that prayer can and sometimes does work. Either way, it certainly cannot hurt, as long as a believer/practitioner continues to live within reason and responsibly (e.g. to not do something foolish like, as a good example, pray to God for self-healing and then allow your health’s status to remain with unconditional reliance in that theistic prayer.
Although science has not proved that prayer itself can heal, some research suggests it can have beneficial effects on health and happiness. I myself believe that when prayer does ‘work’, it’s more likely due to a placebo or positive meditation effect than divine intervention.
Having said that, however, I find bewildering the commonly held notion that God, for example, would enable one praying couple’s child to survive an illness, while allowing another praying couple’s child to perish, even with great suffering. Furthermore, I can’t help but conclude upon serious consideration that by saying grace before a meal, we, the well fed—because of the bitter reality of large-scale Earthly starvation—are in effect presuming that our Creator has found one portion of the planet’s populace worthy of nourishment while allowing another large portion to go hungry or even slowly starve to death. One shouldn’t too readily conclude such, but perhaps through their expression of such theistic thanks and praise, people feel, at least to some degree, less guilt regarding obvious global region inequities and inequalities, be it guilt relief on a conscious and/or subconscious level.
To be fair, though, the guilt I feel whenever learning or being reminded of the misery surrounding me — which I believe is in part reflected in my theological, ideological and existential perspectives directly or indirectly included in this essay — seemingly worsens in direct proportion with the increasing distance (in all 360 degrees of direction) that the so-very-many who extremely suffer (e.g. war-torn, famine-smitten Africa) reside from my own hometown residence.
Again to be clear, I do believe that there are countless extra-dimensional, diabolical entities which unfortunately can/do intervene in our lives, and often they viciously do so. But I also believe that God had to become directly involved with humanity while incarnate as the Christ savior. Quite unfortunate, though, it’s all too obvious even through simple observation of the prevalent, planet-wide great suffering, that any holy/righteous spiritual forces on this Earthly realm are considerably outnumbered by those of the diabolical. After all, we humanity are hardly on Godly turf ‘down’ here on this atrocity-prone populated rock. Yes, plenty of believers would define any holy presence on Earth as ‘divine intervention,’ but such belief would in effect be diminishing the omnipotence and thus superiority of God over all else.
Recalling the days in the late-1980s during which my bible-believing Christian faith was fairly strong, I was quite open to the possibility that theistic prayer could actually result in divine intervention. But I definitely wouldn’t lay a figurative bet on it happening as a certainty.
When I was first diagnosed with clinical depression—with much more to imminently come later—after being admitted to a hospital psychiatric ward (in April, 1987, at age 20), I’d already spent most of the previous four months self-shut inside my room while listening, on a mass scale, to an all-Christian radio station, with intermittent prayer to my Maker for this or that reason or cause. Today, I realize that had I accomplished anything from that prayer, it would mostly have been self-serving. Meantime, although I prayed a considerable amount for my mother hospitalized with a physical ailment, she nonetheless suffered greatly and persistently. Could it be that she didn’t receive enough intense enough prayer from enough sources? Or perhaps an insufficient quality of prayer?
Was I left as a cynical atheist because of such fruitless prayer? Because I was lucky enough to not actually expect it to ever happen, no, I remained with much of my faith intact; if the prayer ever did get ‘answered,’ then it would be to me like icing on a cake, so to speak.
It was about at that point in my life when I first realized the bitter irony of holding faith in prayer: Unanswered prayer breeds atheism and/or agnosticism.
And I didn’t necessarily feel smug, deservedly privileged nor ‘blessed in some way’ because I didn’t have to endure the self-imposed burden of disappointment as a resultant of unanswered prayer as do very many believers. Rather, whenever I thought of my (non)experiences with prayer, especially when hearing/reading about former theists mocking all of theism and prayer to a deity, I felt plain lucky that I just happened to feel the way I did—i.e. to never expect nor place any hope upon prayer being answered and, eventually in later years, God does not, and perhaps (in some unimaginable way) cannot, intervene in conventional human affairs. Period.
“God answers all prayers, but sometimes His answer is ‘no’,” one can hear from many solid believers of divine intervention. But I find such reasoning too convenient of an explanation as to why such a tiny portion of theistic prayer on a global scale seems to get fruitfully answered, assuming that such fruit was of divine origin.
“Sometimes God works in mysterious ways,” is one explanation, however, that did make me think, at least for a moment. Perhaps God, for example, wants family members of, as a good example, murdered children to become loss-motivated advocates—His messengers of sorts—for preventing child victimization, and He therefore allows the tragic deaths, one of the few very worst losses imaginable for caring parents.
There’s likely a notable number of parents out there whose prayers, in a sense, were ‘answered’ because of the U.S.-initiated “Amber Alert”—a rare, truly progressive side effect from something so tragically horrible as the abduction, rape and murder of a little girl named Amber. Her distraught mother, who understandably didn’t want her daughter’s brutal demise to be in vain, tirelessly lobbied politicians and others to establish a nationwide awareness and policing plan, in which the entire nation, mostly through news-media-outlet announcements, goes on an Amber Alert while looking out for missing children once they are reported to police as worry-worthy, anomalously absent.
But how should the many other parents who lose their children basically in the same manner as Amber, yet no matter how intensely the parents lobby politicians for a law change or creation through legislation, nothing positive comes of their extreme loss? I can imagine something along the lines of, an overwhelmingly bereaved parent lingers in a mental institute until suffering an untimely death due to, say, a stress related, major heart attack or severe stroke.
Nevertheless, so very many people continue believing that God would be willing to bless one tiny group of fortunate people while neglecting the vast majority.
I once spotted a photo in a non-religious community newspaper with accompanying caption and cutline, consisting of a Christian school’s basketball team immersed in group prayer, supposedly asking God for a game with a favorable outcome (i.e. a good score and/or positive attitude). Even if God could or would answer the prayers of the ball players or those of everybody else, why in this so-often-anguished world would or should He care about the outcome of a trivial sporting event?
As a letter-writer to that newspaper rhetorically asked: Would not God, if He hears and responds, have far greater tasks or concerns at hand, such as, just for starters, aiding starving African children? (FYI: replying with, “He does aid starving children, through His followers,” simply does not cut it; for, too many of His followers too often do not aid, or they aid insufficiently.)
Perhaps it’s obvious to say, but hopefully praying for a favorable outcome for any sporting event outcome will soon become naught but an anomaly; for, much more bewildering and disturbing was another news story about a night of brutal sport called Ultimate Fighting—absolutely excessive, antithetical to Christ-like behavior—at, of all places, a church’s community center.
Theism and prayer have become societally solidified over millennia, without doubt, which is mostly why my unconventional thoughts on this topic are so often misconstrued as a declaration that God is apathetic towards His creation. On the contrary, I believe that God does indeed love and care very much for humanity, even though we frequently cruelly hurt or even viciously kill one another.
I also strongly feel that if a theist objectively observes civilization, he/she will likely realize that God has allowed humanity what we collectively so desire—free will, be it good or bad. (It began with a metaphorical or literal Adam and Eve choosing to eat the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil; thus, as warned by God, they lost their would-be eternal innocence and blissful ignorance of the forbidden knowledge, not to mention losing Eden’s perfect climate and full protection in which to thrive.) Worst of all, we, though most notably the countless innocent children amongst us, must collectively bear the often brutal consequences of that free will.
But, really, what makes so many of us believe that we should have our cakes and eat them, too—i.e. enjoy the pleasures of free will, but cry out for and expect divine mercy and rescue when our free will ruins our figurative good day?
What compels me most, though frustratingly so, to express my observations on such a controversial topic as that of prayer, is the emotional anguish that those who lose children must endure when observing or reading about relieved, grateful parents shown on the news (etcetera) whose children were spared torture and death: “Oh, thank God—He has truly blessed us!”
It’s doubtless that such ‘blessings’ are unimaginably so very appreciated by countless believers, such as the said fortunate parents, but is not printing and broadcasting such public expressions by the fortunate parents at least somewhat inconsiderate of and insensitive to the many unfortunate, ‘non-blessed’ parents?
Regardless of what’s been stated by me in this essay, the fact remains that most Christians believe in a divine presence on Earth referred to as the Holy Spirit. It’s said to be the figurative though crucial third leg of a holy trinity, which also includes “the Father” and “the Son.” From my understanding, the Holy Spirit is supposedly simultaneously a part of God and God Himself, as are also the Father and the Son (yes, it’s a rather bewildering theological concept).
It’s believed by the faithful that the Holy Spirit is all that’s both strongly encouraging and enabling whatever amount of good that still exists amongst humankind. Indeed, looked at from a more frightening perspective, the Holy Spirit’s pristine-clean presence (maybe even one without specific sentience?) is believed by many Christians to be the only obstacle left that’s keeping humanity’s collective, potentially quite malicious nature from creating outright ‘Hell’ on Earth—all ever since the expulsion, literal or figurative, of Adam and Eve from Paradise.
The analogy that’s often used by believers states that pure darkness is but the total absence of light. In fact, for many believers, the Holy Spirit’s presence is all that, when it is so, successfully ‘exorcises’ diabolical spirits out of people and/or places.
No doubt many believers would strongly suggest that the Holy Spirit’s presence on this planet is in itself ‘divine intervention’—albeit apparently on its own as but one of three powerful aspects of the trinity. Perhaps this cleansing spiritual presence, many might also suggest, is what’s often referred to as the “guardian angel,” though it is typically portrayed in both theology and popular culture as indeed beholding a specific sentience.
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