Power of prayer

[1] Hugh Johnson wrote 2 years ago:

Never underestimate the placebo effect.

[2] Hugh Johnson wrote 2 years ago:

What really makes me laugh are the people who pray every morning/night on twitter. It's as if God is now to lazy to watch over everyone and has alerts pop up on his iPhone when someone mentions him.

[3] nn wrote 2 years ago:

I pray for the old slax.hosting4p.com/forum to be back online. There was a good amount of info there that's missing from the new one!

[4] WhoooooooooA wrote 2 years ago:

I prayed for slax to include EXT4 filesystem support and it did not happen. I prayed that it would rain and it did not happen, God is too busy right now. I guess I need to setup an appointment?

Prayer is equivalent to horseshit?

Can you tell us how?

[5] Jesus Said wrote 2 years ago:

"And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites; for they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by men. Truly, I say to you they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room (or closet.) and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret..." (Matthew 6:5-6 RSV).

[6] When you pray wrote 2 years ago:

Ever watch these Christians on television and notice how their bowed heads uniformly shake amen while some evangelist goes on and on in prayer for a fucking hour? Well, repetitious and monotonous praying is in violation of Matthew 6:7. “But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.”

[7] PerverzBabi wrote 2 years ago:

It seems we all pray for a new improvement for SLAX. Your users can never be satisfied :)

[8] yes cannot be satisfied wrote 2 years ago:

@PerverzBabi

Yes, it is like the Farmer and the Queer. They always pray for one more inch :)

Many users pray for the continuation of a better slax and improve improve and be the best live distro in its class!

[9] Power_of_Prayer wrote 2 years ago:

I am no one to say that every prayer out there is answered, because that might be impossible. But there are many prayers that are indeed answered. Some might be because of destiny, others might be because of casually, or other things. Still if people believe in the power of prayer, Let them. We are no one to judge if the prayers are answered or not.

There are many things that cannot be answered so people also have to be reasonable in what they ask.

I pray for ext4 filesystem support in next slax, and whether God by virtue of the Holy Ghost gets into Tomas' mind, we will have ext4 filesystem support. IT will be great. I think that the probability of slax 7 having ext4 support is a sure event. Tomas will not want to upset many fans because of this, also he will include kde 4.3 at least in next slax, putting in 3.5 will be so ancient too!

[10] Tomas M wrote 2 years ago:

You see, you pray for something which is a sure fact. Adoption of ext4 is something which will surely happen, as well as inclusion of KDE4. So after that happens, you will think that your prayer has been answered. Thank you almighty god. But you do not realize that it wouldn't happen anyway... even if you would pray for the opposite.

[11] Power_of_Prayer wrote 2 years ago:

"Thank you almighty God"

Yes! and Thank you Almighty Tomas!!! You are DA MAN. I knew you would come through! I am sorry for using "power of prayer", but somethings are hard to believe. Like Guy above with his jesus will return? I am sure many have been waiting for years and he has not come :(, I know religions say he will and they are not sure of this. They just say utter BULLSHIT like you say Tomas. When and if it does happen and I am still alive I will come back to your forum and hope you are alive too and let you know if it really happens :)

[12] Ivo wrote 2 years ago:

"I am no one to say that every prayer out there is answered, because that might be impossible."
That isn't a excuse. God is supposed to be able to do everything, even the "impossible".

[13] francois.e wrote 2 years ago:

I think that Hugh Johnson had a very interesting comment. It should be discussed more in depth. What about the placebo effect?

I do never pray myself, for some reason analog to Tomas. In fact, I prefer putting my energy into problem solving or try to accept that there will be no solution for now.

[14] Marius wrote 2 years ago:

I just can't understand what Thomas M has against God and christians. If someone likes to pray what is your problem? You believe you are alone, we believe that there is an almighty creator. Can you prove that he doesn't exist? People's prayers are not all to be answered. I could pray a thousand years to win the lottery but I am sure that I am not going to win, but if I pray for inner peace and I trully want that than I a sure that God will give me inner peace and make me happy.
Thomas, you look like a smart person, maybe I can convince you the "rational" way that human beings have powers that are beyond phisical reach and are not limited to this deterministical world. Have you studied the Entscheidungsproblem (Godel)? It has been used to proove the existence of God.
In conclusion, if you believe in God or not, that is in fact your choice (like mine also), but your opinion does not give you the right to criticise others for their choices, especially when you don't know if you are right or wrong.
This is my response to all your "Power of pray", "God does not exist, Face it!" and other campaigns that I sincerely can't understand. What do you have to win with them? And what do you have to lose?

[15] Graeme wrote 2 years ago:

This is only relevant to petitionary prayer which is only one type.

In fact it is only relevant to petitionary prayer that has observable consequences.

How much of the Lord's Prayer is this relevant to? Maybe half a sentence.

Even within its narrow remit, testing cannot reveal that prayers are answered because an omniscient God is able to, and should be expected to, avoid giving us such give away evidence (we can assume that if God exists He does not want us to have an easy proof of His existence or he would have given it to us already).

[16] m wrote 2 years ago:

God always answers prayers based on faith. Period.
For it is impossible to please God without faith. To pray to God without faith is like to expect computer start up when you have disconnectd power cord. You will get NO answer as long as you dont believe.. How interesting, you do not know anything about God and you talking like you know all.. How silly and poor...

[17] anondude wrote 2 years ago:

@m
You also have to have a specific "need" to pray about. God's not just going to move a mountain because you want him to and have faith that he can do it, because that would be unfair if we got anything we wanted just for asking. It has to be a righteous desire, and you have to do
all you can and THEN He will be happy to help.

For example, if you're in the desert, doing His work (teaching nomads or something), and you come to a mountain and there is no other way for you to get through than for Him to move it, then He will move it.

[18] vm wrote 2 years ago:

Very amusing. Prayer is not a magic spell. It is a request to or a conversation with the living Creator. If you refuse to even entertain the existence of God and acknowledge Him or rudely ignore Him and then claim that you "tried the spell and it didn't work, waah waah", you are much more ignorant then you claim others to be. God is not a puppet.
There are many religions that claim and protect the faith of their "fathers". Guess what, Atheism is just another religion, inherited from the "fathers", where people claim and protect the knowledge of the only "true" way. Boring!!!

[19] Tomas M wrote 2 years ago:

Atheism is NOT a religion. Atheism is A LACK OF BELIEF. It doesn't require faith, it's A LACK OF FAITH.

[20] Uppereast wrote 2 years ago:

@ 21 "God always answers prayers based on faith"

There are so many people praying and so few believers, if I count the granted ones.
There are so many people boring us with their religion, killing or having killed or ready to kill and they don't even have faith !!!
They don't have faith and they want to force us (or wish for the less fanatics) to live according to the standards of their superstition !
Atheists don't believe in the power of horseshoe, they never molested somebody who does or forced them to believe in the power of trefoil instead. I agree that any idiot is free to pray horseshoe if he likes it or needs it, but I never let nuts rule my life.

[21] scooter131313 wrote 2 years ago:

I have admired your excellent work on Slax for years. I did not have the time nor the aptitude to write a distro as competent and capable as you. In fact, when I wrote to you with a question you were also gracious, thank you.

I cannot presume to be a prayer expert as you are a Slax expert, but I would like to challenge your presumption that just because you didn't find prayer to be a reliable connection with God doesn't mean it's impossible.

I pray everyday now and have learned to "hear" God's [inaudible] interpersonal communication reliably.

[22] struggling2009 wrote 2 years ago:

I really don't offer much to these blogs, but being in ministry before and fallen away from faith. I can't help but to be moved in some way. Please if you can, check out Elevation Church's latest podcast/or screencast by Steven Furtick and he goes through a lot of this has helped me very much.