Tag Archives: apologetics

Does God answer prayers?

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This is probably not news to you, but it is considered bad manners in some circles to interrupt a pastor in the middle of his sermon.  I am one of the few people who actually did that despicable deed, and escaped without being struck by lightning.  Here is the story.

The pastor that morning spoke on the topic of unanswered prayers.  He appeared to have given the subject considerable thought, and spoke with feeling.  He understood of course, that sometimes our prayers are not answered.  We wonder why.  He told us. 

The pastor informed us that whatever we ask for in Jesus name will be granted to us—if we have faith.  God grants the prayers of the faithful, but denies them to those who doubt, or who do not have a level of faith that God considers sufficient.  Consider the example of Peter walking on water.  As long as he had faith, he stayed dry.  As soon as his faith wavered, he took the plunge.  The pastor told us that our prayers are like that.  If your prayers are not being answered, it is because your faith is not strong enough.

I looked around to see most of the heads in the congregation nodding.  The pastor smiled.  He seemed pleased that he was getting his message across.  Before he started to speak again, I raised my hand and said, “Wait a minute.  I can’t let that pass.”

Some of the faces in the room turned toward me with what may have been surprise.  I can’t say with any certainty.  I am not that good at reading the faces of confused Christians.  What I said to the pastor next, as best I can remember it, was this:

“There isn’t a person in this room who has not had a prayer that didn’t get answered.  It happens to everybody.  And there is no way for you or anybody else to know why God chooses to answer some prayers and not others.  Do you realize what you are saying to these people?  If they pray for their child who has cancer, and the child dies, it is their fault because they didn’t have a strong enough faith.  If they get laid off after praying they will keep their job, it is their own fault.  They just didn’t have enough faith. 

I don’t know how you can say that explanation is true when even Jesus had a prayer unanswered.  In the garden the night before He died, He asked to be spared the crucifixion.  That prayer wasn’t answered.  Do you think Jesus lacked faith?

What you are teaching is not true.  Worse yet, it is harmful.  You are forcing people to blame themselves and feel like they have failed God when bad things happen.  And bad things are going to happen.  You are hurting people with this teaching, and you need to stop it.”

The pastor smiled again, and said, “Well, now we know what Wade thinks,” and went on to another topic.

I have not returned to that church.  Oddly enough, I have not been invited back.  Perhaps they lost my phone number. 

In fairness to the pastor, I can see how he reached the conclusion he did.  The Bible tells us that our prayers will be answered if we have faith.  It also tells us they will be answered if we ask for something that is in God’s will.  But what if we have tremendous faith in something that is not in God’s will?  Why does the Bible tell us our prayers will be answered when we all know they will not always be answered?   I have no idea how to resolve these questions.  If someone tells you they know the answer to this mystery, walk away slowly, and don’t turn your back on them.

The issue, as I see it, is not isolated to Christians, or Jews, or Muslims.  Everyone who has called out to God understands the problem, whether they are part of a mainstream religion, or just cry out to the spirit in the sky. 

I can understand that our prayers should not always be answered.  If all prayers were answered, no one would ever lose the Super Bowl.  Sometimes we ask for stupid and selfish things.  Sometimes we need to be told “No.”  I understand that.  What I don’t understand is why the Bible makes it sound like our prayers will always be answered, when it is clear that they will not.  Finally, I don’t understand why pastors feel compelled to make matters worse by blaming the person who has offered the prayer.

Does God Exist?

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This is the first chapter of the book, God and Other Things.  Every word is dialogue, which is crazy, I know, but it’s what I like to read, so I wrote it that way.  Please read the rest of the book by finding it on Amazon.com in paperback or Kindle version.  Just click on the Buy the Book tab on the home page menu bar.  Thanks.

Someone Is Out There

PAUL: So tell me. Are you still searching for the “Meaning of Life?” Your divine purpose?

KAREN: Of course. How do you manage to go through life if you don’t know why you’re here?

PAUL: Why don’t you just relax? Drink your coffee. Eat a bagel. Enjoy the company of an entertaining friend. You spend too much time analyzing yourself.

KAREN: Maybe. But I can’t live like a lot of our friends—entirely self-absorbed but not at all self-reflective. You remember what Socrates said, “An unexamined life is not worth living.”

PAUL: That’s just like you. We haven’t been here five minutes, and you have me arguing with a dead Greek. You ought to give that poor old guy a rest. And yourself. Why don’t you just enjoy life instead of digging around for your own personal meaning? You may be searching for something that can’t be found. What’s the point?

KAREN: Well, that’s the question, isn’t it? “What is the point?” The point of life, I mean. What can be more important than finding the purpose of your existence? It can’t be just to work and eat and sleep and watch television.

PAUL: It depends on if you have cable.

KAREN: That makes it more bearable, I admit. But working toward your purpose in life is the main point of life. Everything else is either survival or distraction. I can’t believe you’re so shallow that you don’t wonder about such things.

PAUL: Oh, I wonder. And I’ve searched a bit myself, but I suspect we have ended up in different places. Sometimes I think Mark Twain got it right. He said, “Good friends, good books, and a sleepy conscience. This is the ideal life.” Maybe that’s all there is.

KAREN: Enjoying those three is part of my purpose. Yours too, I know. But I’m looking for something more.

PAUL: As I recall, your search was leading you toward a sacred being. The one you call God?

KAREN: That seems inevitable.

PAUL: I don’t see it as inevitable, or even necessary. It might be more productive to stay away from God and look for meaning a little closer to home.

KAREN: You don’t think the search for God is worthwhile?

PAUL: I’m just not sure it’s necessary.

KAREN: Is joy necessary? Living life to the fullest? Peace of mind, love, wisdom and understanding? Forgiveness? Acceptance? How necessary are those things to you?

PAUL: Very. But most of those things are in me. I don’t see how searching for God is going to help me find them. He is a long way from here, if he’s even real, which is doubtful.

KAREN: Most of the world’s population disagrees with you on that. That includes me, by the way.

PAUL: I’m sure it does, and I know how you love to debate. But consider yourself warned. I’ve spent some time investigating this very subject. You’d better not challenge me on it.

KAREN: Don’t consider it a challenge. Look at it as a meeting of the minds.

PAUL: Great minds?

KAREN: We’ll see.

PAUL: OK. Then let’s start with a simple question. Does it really matter if there is a God? How will that make a difference on whether I have cereal for breakfast, or steak and eggs?

KAREN: You consider the existence of God a simple question? The response to that question has shaped most of human history, and still does. As to your choice of breakfast foods, I think it’s pretty much left up to you, whether God exists or not. Personally, I’d go with steak every time. Medium rare.

PAUL: I’m with you there. There’s nothing like a juicy steak to get you started in the morning. Whether God exists or not. That’s the point I’m trying to make. The existence of God makes no difference in daily life.

KAREN: But it makes a difference even to believe that it makes no difference. Your behavior, your opinions, the way you view everything in the world is colored by your concept of God, or no God, or nature worship, or humanism, whatever. I’m amazed that people don’t take this more seriously. And I believe you do. You just don’t want to admit it. You said you investigated this subject. If it doesn’t matter if there is a God, why did you bother?

PAUL: Don’t try to draw any grand conclusions about my motives. I was just curious, mostly. Even mystified. I find it amazing that people base their lives on the idea of some kind of god. I mean how they live, how they act, how they eat, sleep, dance, marry, you name it. Western civilization keeps track of time itself in relation to a traveling preacher who died in the Middle East two thousand years ago.

KAREN: So your alarm clock has a picture of Jesus on it?

PAUL: I’m talking about our calendar. Year Number One started when Jesus was born. Or at least when everybody says he was born. Why pick the birth of Jesus as the starting point for keeping track of time? Doesn’t that strike you as strange?

KAREN: I suppose a calendar has to start somewhere. The arrival of God in human form seems like as good a place as any. What would you choose, the day they invented frozen pizza?

PAUL: Do not mock frozen pizza. Some of my best memories include the taste of imitation cheese and mysterious meats on a crispy crust. I’m just saying it may not be a good idea to make God so important. Look what it leads to. History is full of religious fanatics dancing over bloody corpses.

KAREN: I guess I missed that picture in the World History textbook.

PAUL: Maybe you weren’t paying attention during our discussion about the Crusades.

KAREN: I remember the discussion.

PAUL: Good. Then you remember how your priests burned men alive. Cut them to pieces for heresy. Cut their heads off. Tortured them. Then there were the Puritans. They liked fire too. They burned teenage girls as witches. Even the Mormons slaughtered wagons full of people to keep them out of their territory. All this in the name of God. It’s crazy.

KAREN: That stuff is crazy. I’ll give you that. But history books aren’t known for giving a balanced view of religion.

PAUL: Probably not. But there are other sources. You would be surprised how much information is out there.

KAREN: Some of it is probably even true. What else did you find floating around in this sea of information?

PAUL: I found more questions than answers. Frankly, I was surprised to find myths about God as far back as cave men. It seems that ever since humans crawled up out of the swamp, they’ve been trying to find God. Or at least something to worship.

KAREN: I’ll pass on the swamp illustration for a moment. What do you make of all this searching for God? Why did it happen?

PAUL: I wonder if people just enjoy a good story. You know, they like to sit around the campfire and swap tall tales. Like Paul Bunyan, or Superman.

KAREN: You’re trying to equate Superman with God? I’m beginning to doubt your sincerity.

PAUL: You don’t think God dresses in blue tights and leaps tall buildings in a single bound?

KAREN: I think you are avoiding the subject.

PAUL: It’s a big subject.

KAREN: It’s the biggest. That’s what makes it worth the effort.

PAUL: You’re not going to let this drop, are you?

KAREN: You started it. And I would like an answer. Why do you think people have always searched for God?

PAUL: The only thing I can figure is there must be some deep-seated need in humans for more to life than what we can see or touch. We need to believe in something bigger than ourselves. Something outside ourselves.

KAREN: There may be hope for you yet. If we feel such a need for something, doesn’t that tell you it exists?

PAUL: Not necessarily. Somebody once said, “If there was no God, man would create one.” Get it? God doesn’t exist just because we wish he did. When I was little, I wanted a pony for Christmas, but I didn’t get one.

KAREN: But a pony existed. You didn’t feel a need for something that wasn’t real. How could you? You wanted a pony because there were ponies. You said there is a deep-seated need in us to believe in something. How can that be if the something isn’t real?

PAUL: So there are no such things as daydreams? Fantasies? Everything we desire must be achievable?

KAREN: I didn’t say it must be achievable. I said it must be real.

PAUL: That seems a rather fine distinction. If I couldn’t get the pony, it didn’t matter if it was real. My wish for it was based on unrealistic expectations.

KAREN: It may not have been a realistic wish, but it was still a wish for something real. You can’t crave something that doesn’t exist. Common sense should tell you that.

PAUL: Common sense tells me I didn’t get the pony, no matter how badly I wanted it. It didn’t happen. Maybe God is like that. Maybe we want him just because we want him. Not because he’s really there.

KAREN: I don’t buy that. You can’t want something that doesn’t exist. What other need can you think of that doesn’t have some real object? When you get hungry, there is food to eat. When you need affection, there is love. We search for God because God is real. And you need to get over this pony thing.

PAUL: I may be scarred for life. But you’re picking examples that are too easy. What about the desire for world peace? Any girl who ever walked down a beauty contest runway wanted that. How much world peace have you seen lately? It seems to me those girls are looking for something that can’t exist.

KAREN: I don’t know that it can’t exist. It probably can and has existed for periods of time. But it seems to me it is a little like hoping for peace and quiet on a grade school playground. You might have it for short periods, but sooner or later somebody is going to pull somebody’s hair. And then it’s on.

PAUL: I remember how it was on. You were pretty tough for a little girl with a ponytail.

KAREN: And I didn’t like to have it pulled. But that’s the way of the world, isn’t it? Somebody is always pulling somebody’s hair, and then a fight starts. But that doesn’t prove that peace can’t exist. It just proves that it is difficult to achieve. We know peace is real because we’ve seen it at one time or another, so we crave it. Just like we crave God.

PAUL: I’m afraid you are deluding yourself. Maybe we’re just looking for some cosmic Daddy to pat us on the head when we stumble. Then the need for God has no real object. It is insecurity turned into religion.

KAREN: If God offered only comfort and peace, I might agree with you. In fact, that sounds a lot like the modern concept of God many people claim to believe. It is a warm, fuzzy, vague spirit in the sky that demands nothing and accepts everything. That is the kind of God somebody would make up. But the view of God in Christianity, Judaism, or Islam is more personal. That view spells out pretty clearly that this life will be full of pain and trouble, most of it caused by our disobedience to God. That doesn’t sound like a human invention to me. It sounds like reality.

PAUL: But that version of reality could be an illusion. Not everybody believes it. Not everybody wants that kind of God.

KAREN: There are no versions of reality. Something is either real or it is not.

PAUL: I don’t know about that. If you asked the President of United States what it’s like to live in Washington D. C., his story would be completely different than somebody who lives in a cardboard box under a bridge, but both versions would be true.

KAREN: That’s a good illustration. But the two versions don’t contradict each other the way those two versions of God do.

PAUL: Living in a palace and living in a box aren’t contradictory?

KAREN: They are different, but they only contradict each other if they can’t both be true. Both of the circumstances you describe can be true, unlike the two versions of God.

PAUL: Whichever version you like, you have to agree that not everyone needs God. Not everybody is searching for him.

KAREN: Not everyone admits to it. But everybody has some sense of longing in their lives—a small void that needs to be filled. Some try to fill it with money, some with alcohol, some with endless relationships, whatever. But the point is, you can’t fill that emptiness unless you fill it with what is supposed to be there.

PAUL: And that is God?

KAREN: That is what I believe. After all, God is love. Who doesn’t want love?

PAUL: You sound like a girl.

KAREN: How perceptive. I am a girl. But even big tough guys like you need love.

PAUL: I may need love, but that doesn’t mean I need God. And your theory may be emotional fluff. Just because you want God to be real, that doesn’t mean he is. That sounds like wishful thinking to me.

KAREN: If you can give me an example of desiring something that isn’t real, I’ll concede the point.

PAUL: That’s easy. I want to have dinner tonight with Marie Antoinette. How are you going to make that real?

KAREN: Bad example. You wished for something that’s impossible, but not unreal. There really was a Marie Antoinette. I think she liked to eat cake.

PAUL: Yeah, but she lost her appetite rather suddenly. Let’s say I want to be President. What about that?

KAREN: Wrong again. Your chances of landing in the Oval Office are pretty slim, I’ll grant you, but there is a President, isn’t there? Your desire is for something difficult, but real.

PAUL: How about this? I want to take a ride with Santa Claus.

KAREN: Santa Claus is a fictional character.

PAUL: Gotcha. I want it, but it isn’t real. God could be the same thing. Just a pleasant fiction. I think I just won the argument.

KAREN: This isn’t an argument. It is an enlightening conversation. But I think your reasoning is a little off again. If you want to co-pilot for Santa Claus, that doesn’t prove you can desire something that isn’t real, it proves you need therapy. You know Santa Claus isn’t real, so you can’t want it and remain sane.

PAUL: Does that mean anybody who believes in God is crazy?

KAREN: I think it means you shouldn’t include nonsense in a rational discussion. The fact remains that you can’t reasonably desire something that doesn’t exist. And every culture in history has searched for God, whether they used that name or not. God must, therefore, exist.

PAUL: I’ll concede there have always been God myths. Creator myths. Resurrection myths. Every culture in history has had some kind of God story. We look at them now as silly. If the ancient myths weren’t true, why should I believe yours?

KAREN: You seem to think that since different cultures had different God stories, they must all be untrue and there must be no God. That makes no sense to me. If every culture in history believed in any particular object, how could that convince you the object didn’t exist? It convinces me of exactly the opposite. Humankind has not been full of neurotic fools searching for something that wasn’t there. They searched for God because there is a God to search for. Any other explanation defies logic.

PAUL: I’m surprised a believer would rely on logic.

KAREN: Don’t let that surprise you. Faith without logic is mere superstition. Besides, if my beliefs can’t stand up to logical questions, they aren’t worth much. Truth is not afraid of examination.

PAUL: Then let’s examine my original question. Why does it matter if God exists? Why should God mean any more to me than the solar system did to Sherlock Holmes?

KAREN: Pardon me?

PAUL: You have heard of Sherlock Holmes?

KAREN: The greatest detective in literature. I didn’t realize he was an astronomer.

PAUL: He wasn’t. In fact, he didn’t even know that the earth revolved around the sun. His partner Watson was shocked by Holmes’ ignorance of the subject. But Holmes said, in effect, “What possible difference can it make to me if the earth revolves around the sun, or even the moon? My work will continue either way.” It seems to me the same could be said about God. What possible difference will it make to me if he exists or not?

KAREN: It makes all the difference. For one thing, the existence of God is the only real foundation for ethical behavior. Without God, there is no reason to respect life, and no justification for human rights. Worst of all, there is no hope. Not in this life or through eternity.

PAUL: So without God, “Life is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing?”

KAREN: Not a bad way to put it. Without God, it’s hard for me to see how life can have any meaning. After all, what accomplishment in life is not rendered insignificant by death? And without God, what is left after death?

PAUL: You are getting downright depressing.

KAREN: Life without God is depressing.

PAUL: So I should believe in God because it will make me happy and content?

KAREN: I can’t guarantee that. I would just say it is hard to be happy and content without belief.

PAUL: But not impossible?

KAREN: I’ll admit a lot of people achieve a certain level of happiness without belief in God.

PAUL: Then why bother with it? Why is God even relevant?

KAREN: Because even if you are relatively happy without God, I don’t see how an intelligent person can find meaning or purpose in a purely material world. Even Jean-Paul Sartre, the famous existentialist, agreed with that. He said atheism is a hard long-term business. The bottom line is that knowing God can lead to joy and personal fulfillment that no atheist can ever know.

PAUL: Could be. Maybe it takes a stronger person to be an atheist than a believer.

KAREN: That is hardly a selling point for atheism, or a reason to give up the search. I can’t conceive of why anyone would not want to find out if there is more to life than the physical world. If there is a God, there are answers to all of life’s ultimate questions. Questions about destiny, good versus evil, death, the meaning of life.

PAUL: So if there is a God, life’s questions can be answered. Is that why I should believe in God?

KAREN: That is a little like asking why you should believe in love, or compassion, or the cup you hold in your hand. You believe in these things because they’re real. I could list many ways you could profit from belief in God, but those are benefits of belief, not justifications. The bottom line is simple. You should believe in God because God is real.

PAUL: There’s that logic again.

KAREN: It’s a gift.

Was Hurricane Sandy the wrath of God? Part one

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Dozens of people dead. Millions without power or gasoline. Billions of dollars in destroyed homes and businesses. Lives ruined. Memories lost. Hurricane Sandy has done its damage.

The questions that arise from such a tragedy are almost universal. “Why? Why does God allow such devastation? Such intolerable suffering? Why does God inflict such carnage on men and women who just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time?”

I will listen to almost any explanation for human suffering, but there is one for which I have very little patience. Let me give you an example. After the 9/11 attacks that tore down the World Trade Center, internationally known religious leaders claimed that this was the righteous judgment of God. The United States was being punished for its growing acceptance of homosexuals. I have heard the same thing about Sandy.

The reasoning goes something like this: All events are manifested by God’s design or God’s permission, so human tragedies are obviously examples of God’s judgment. Such reasoning is in my view, faulty at best, and dangerous at worst, as it leads to the charges of arrogance and intolerance that doubters so often throw at Christians, and has been used to justify everything from the Spanish Inquisition to the Salem witch trials. The value of such pronouncements may not be nonexistent, but it is so close that I cannot tell the difference.

It is not surprising that Christians see God’s hand at work in horrific tragedy. We want to see it. It helps us understand. It adds meaning to the event. Suffering without meaning can be too painful to contemplate, so we see meaning or purpose or God’s judgment. But just because we want to see it does not mean it is there. A picture floated around the internet after 9/11 in which many saw the smiling face of Satan rising in the smoke and ashes. We occasionally see the face of Jesus in an oddly shaped potato.

Interpreters of God’s judgment claim to know the meaning of present events with no knowledge of how they will affect the future, because we are not given to know the future. Even our knowledge of the past is limited, viewed through a glass darkly. We strain to see the future through a window painted black, sealed in a locked door. How do purveyors of God’s intentions draw their conclusions from such incomplete information? It is like walking out of an action movie before the final scene. You may guess at the ending, and you may be right, but you cannot really judge the importance of any particular event in the movie until you know who gets blown up at the end. In this mortal life, at least, we don’t know who gets blown up at the end.

If God chooses to exercise his authority, and pass judgment on an unsuspecting crowd, he is most likely to keep that fact to himself. He passed it along to precious few in the Hebrew scriptures, and fewer still in the New Testament record. I suspect that information is even harder to come by in the noisy and distracted twenty-first century.

Anyone who has actually received a divine revelation of God’s purpose may be excused from this part of the discussion. Their knowledge of God’s intentions certainly surpasses mine, if the revelation is real. I am concerned with the modern day seers who are certain they know the will of God simply because they are certain of what God’s will should be. They never seem to realize that their theological logic may be different than God’s. To put it bluntly, without divine revelation, we cannot know God’s purpose with any degree of certainty, and we delude ourselves if we think we do.

Please understand that I do not mean to discount the ability or authority of God to intervene in human lives. I have personally felt the divine touch in my life more than once. Skeptics may chuckle and shake their heads, but I know the divine presence is real. My skepticism extends mainly to those pious folks who feel compelled to tell the rest of us what God is doing at any given moment. They could be right, of course, but the smart money is against it.

Please read more thoughts about God and suffering and faith and joy and various other topics in God and Other Things by clicking on the Buy the Book tab on the home page.  Thanks.