My mom has a list of prayers that she claims were answered by God. As I look at that list I noticed that I did most of those things. When I mention that she says, God works through people. If I have to do all the work what do I need God for?
My mom has a list of prayers that she claims were answered by God. As I look at that list I noticed that I did most of those things. When I mention that she says, God works through people. If I have to do all the work what do I need God for?
In her mind, god is what empowered you to do the work necessary, but I don’t think that has to devalue your work altogether. I try to appreciate my own mother’s prayers in that she is expressing a need for a nebulous aid in the face of largely unanswerable, even spiritual issues, like mental health. Of course more directly answerable situations, whether uncomfortable or unjust, can be more annoying with that sort of mindset.
If you mean she’s saying her prayers are answered when it was just you taking care of things for her, that’s even more aggravating.
Prayer’s useful in the same way meditation is. No god need actually be out there for it to work.
Praying has never solved mental health concerns.
Therapy and possibly psychiatric help has, or at the very least helped people come to storms with it.
In fact, religion typically needs you to be anxious, fearful, and broken. Because if you were actually in a good place you don’t need to pray.
Well, no, but it’s more about the thought, as long as they’re actually supportive otherwise. I won’t ask her not to pray for me.
Prayer is easy. Solutions are hard.
Actually, I’m pretty sure there’s a few throw-away-lines in their book about that.
If Christians stopped praying school shootings and started doing something about, we’d have a lot less school shootings. Same too for child hunger. Homelessness. Virtually every social issue you can name.
(And remember, the whole point of tithing is because the temple was the original welfare… it was not so snake oil salesmen could have new-model private jets.)