Why do you pray?

• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056539 wrote:What do you mean "LOL what?"
  
  Why do you have to belong to a specific organized religion to have faith? What if someone believes there is a God and believe in the Pauline Epistles? They obviously don't belong to an organized religion, yet they have faith.

  So what parts of the bible would a person like that believe to be true and what parts would be not true and how would they decide?
• sleeper

  

  LJ;1056539 wrote:What do you mean "LOL what?"
  
  Why do you have to belong to a specific organized religion to have faith? What if someone believes there is a God and believe in the Pauline Epistles? They obviously don't belong to an organized religion, yet they have faith.

  Ah, I thought you were trying to say organized religion does not require faith. Faith is still a cop out and a mental handicap. Thank god scientists and the intellectual elite of this country didn't use faith as a copout; instead using empirical research to improve our quality of life.
• friendfromlowry

  Steel Valley Football;1056180 wrote:There are effects of prayer that are not fully understood. Much like people who beat cancer due to positive outlooks and attitudes, which science has no explanation for. Another similar phenomenon is that married people live longer, which also has no scientific reasoning behind it.

  From one of the few people with a medical background on this forum, I think you need to leave this stuff alone. Thousands of people die every day of heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDs, etc...do you think any of them had positive outlooks/attitudes and prayed and had faith? I can tell you from experience that they did, yet still died -- sometimes at a very young age, from a very painful death, with families left behind. So for every person that can be said they survived because of a positive outlook, there are literally thousands more who didn't.
  As for the 'marriage phenomenon' -- it probably has something to do with having somethere for you who cares about you, loves you, looks out for you, etc. all your life. It should come as no surprise that some of the unhealthiest people in the hospital are also the lonliest in life.
  
  That's my biggest quarrel with religion. You can be the holiest sumbitch out there -- but at the end of the day, you've got the same odds for the good and the bad as anyone else. Several months ago I had a 30-something year old male as a patient, laying in his hammock one day. A tree branch snaps off and falls on his chest, separating his right lung from his trachea. He makes it to surgery but doesn't survive long. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. Now I don't know anything personally about this guy - whether he was a religious folk or the complete opposite - but if there is a God, I'm pretty pissed off when I meet him having just endured that and what I leave behind.
• The Equalizer

  

  Wow, Torquemada would be proud of some of the folks in this thread. Some of us pray for patience when we have to explain ourselves and our beliefs to people who never will get it nor try to.
• I Wear Pants

  friendfromlowry;1056547 wrote:From one of the few people with a medical background on this forum, I think you need to leave this stuff alone. Thousands of people die every day of heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDs, etc...do you think any of them had positive outlooks/attitudes and prayed and had faith? I can tell you from experience that they did, yet still died -- sometimes at a very young age, from a very painful death, with families left behind. So for every person that can be said they survived because of a positive outlook, there are literally thousands more who didn't.
  
  That's my biggest quarrel with religion. You can be the holiest sumbitch out there -- but at the end of the day, you've got the same odds for the good and the bad as anyone else. Several months ago I had a 30-something year old male as a patient, laying in his hammock one day. A tree branch snaps off and falls on his chest, separating his right lung from his trachea. He makes it to surgery but doesn't survive long. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. Now I don't know anything personally about this guy - whether he was a religious folk or the complete opposite - but if there is a God, I'm pretty pissed off when I meet him having just endured that and what I leave behind.

  Inb4 "it's just part of his plan".
• LJ

  

  I Wear Pants;1056540 wrote:You're saying they didn't have or put religious beliefs in the bible? Explain all the talk about Judaism, etc all over the bible then. Because organized religion is all throughout it.
  
  And I said organized religion, not just the Catholic Church.

  The Catholic Church is the first organized religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
  
  Judaism is an organized religion based on the Torah that was formed after the original writings.
  
  The actual belief that all people who believe belong to a specific organized religion is, as you say "bullshit"
• I Wear Pants

  The Equalizer;1056549 wrote:Wow, Torquemada would be proud of some of the folks in this thread. Some of us pray for patience when we have to explain ourselves and our beliefs to people who never will get it nor try to.

  That works both ways you know.
• LJ

  

  I Wear Pants;1056544 wrote:So what parts of the bible would a person like that believe to be true and what parts would be not true and how would they decide?

  The parts that they use their own mind to decide? What else?
• sleeper

  

  friendfromlowry;1056547 wrote:From one of the few people with a medical background on this forum, I think you need to leave this stuff alone. Thousands of people die every day of heart disease, cancer, HIV/AIDs, etc...do you think any of them had positive outlooks/attitudes and prayed and had faith? I can tell you from experience that they did, yet still died -- sometimes at a very young age, from a very painful death, with families left behind. So for every person that can be said they survived because of a positive outlook, there are literally thousands more who didn't.
  
  That's my biggest quarrel with religion. You can be the holiest sumbitch out there -- but at the end of the day, you've got the same odds for the good and the bad as anyone else. Several months ago I had a 30-something year old male as a patient, laying in his hammock one day. A tree branch snaps off and falls on his chest, separating his right lung from his trachea. He makes it to surgery but doesn't survive long. He leaves behind a wife and two young children. Now I don't know anything personally about this guy - whether he was a religious folk or the complete opposite - but if there is a God, I'm pretty pissed off when I meet him having just endured that and what I leave behind.

  Thank you for your post.
  
  Believers will tell you that if anything bad happens its not God's fault, but if anything good happens then it must have been because of God.
  
  Religion is fraud. It gives the illusion of control of one's life, when in reality that isn't the case. It's made for the mentally weak and the people who can't help themselves. No mentally strong, secure, logical being believes in god, only the poor and the logically deficient.
  
  I don't mean to offend anyone here, but that's just how I feel. Don't take it personally.
• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056551 wrote:The Catholic Church is the first organized religion based on the teachings of Jesus Christ.
  
  Judaism is an organized religion based on the Torah that was formed after the original writings.
  
  The actual belief that all people who believe belong to a specific organized religion is, as you say "bullshit"

  No, I'm saying that if you believe in the bible then you believe in what is a product of organized religion.
  
  There seems to be this trendy idea of getting away from organized religions (because of many reasons that we all know) yet still following the bible. But it was a product of organized religions. You can't deny that.
• LJ

  

  I Wear Pants;1056556 wrote:No, I'm saying that if you believe in the bible then you believe in what is a product of organized religion.
  
  There seems to be this trendy idea of getting away from organized religions (because of many reasons that we all know) yet still following the bible. But it was a product of organized religions. You can't deny that.

  I can, because that is not true. Neither statement.
  
  You never answered my question, yet I have answered all of yours.
• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056553 wrote:The parts that they use their own mind to decide? What else?

  What metrics would they be using is what I'm getting at. How is passage A anymore reliable and believable than passage B? What makes one real and the other not? Especially when they've come from the same places.
• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056560 wrote:I can, because that is not true. Neither statement.
  
  You never answered my question, yet I have answered all of yours.

  Which question?
• LJ

  

  sleeper;1056554 wrote:
  I don't mean to offend anyone here, but that's just how I feel. Don't take it personally.

  Yeah, ok
  

  sleeper;1056546 wrote: Faith is still a cop out and a mental handicap.

• LJ

  

  I Wear Pants;1056561 wrote:What metrics would they be using is what I'm getting at. How is passage A anymore reliable and believable than passage B? What makes one real and the other not? Especially when they've come from the same places.

  I cannot tell you how individuals come up with their own individual beliefs.
• LJ

  

  I Wear Pants;1056562 wrote:Which question?

  If you have ever taken a history of religion, Christianity, or world religion class.
• sleeper

  

  LJ;1056563 wrote:Yeah, ok

  I'm a random internet user. If you can't take it from me, you can't take it from anyone. The word weak comes to mind.
• Fab1b

  

  sleeper;1056500 wrote:I hope you reproduce.
  
  Good day.

  
  LOL no kids for me but thanks
• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056566 wrote:I can't think of any real metric to use so I'm going to post this vague answer about leaving it up to faith.

  FIFY
• LJ

  

  sleeper;1056571 wrote:I'm a random internet user. If you can't take it from me, you can't take it from anyone. The word weak comes to mind.

  No, I just can see through your bullshit.
• LJ

  

  I Wear Pants;1056575 wrote:FIFY

  Yeah no. I didn't say anything about leaving it up to faith. Why does there have to be a metric? You keep trying to force people into organized religion.
• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056570 wrote:If you have ever taken a history of religion, Christianity, or world religion class.

  Yes. And I spent 19 years being very much Catholic. (Alter serving, etc, etc) (no, not getting raped).
• sleeper

  

  LJ;1056576 wrote:No, I just can see through your bull****.

  :rolleyes:
• sleeper

  

  I Wear Pants;1056579 wrote:Yes. And I spent 19 years being very much Catholic. (Alter serving, etc, etc) (no, not getting raped).

  lol'd. reps.
• I Wear Pants

  LJ;1056578 wrote:Yeah no. I didn't say anything about leaving it up to faith. Why does there have to be a metric? You keep trying to force people into organized religion.

  No, I keep trying to figure out how someone who isn't part of organized religion believes in the bible. And if they believe in only parts of the bible how they decided which ones to believe in and which they believe to be untrue.