Here is a cartoon from the blogger NakedPastor that I think nicely summarizes the problem with the idea that God somehow intervenes with miraculous acts of omnipotent power to answer our prayers--but only sometimes.
When things go the way we prayed them, people often see that as some sort of proof that God answers prayers. But how can that be any "proof" of anything, when there are so many clear counterexamples? Sometimes I think that more people need to study statistics in school, so they would better understand that no proof lies in selectively picking the desired outcomes of predicted events after the fact.
H/T James McGrath.
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7 comments:
Worse, trying to claim that God "saved" you from the hurricane, when he obviously didn't save others, but raises an ugly problem, best left alone. I prefer a God who works his miracles through humans who graciously allow him control by choice, than trying to figure out why this baby dies and that one lives.
I agree, Sherry.
yep, yep, yep!
I get too fouled up with answered prayers and try to live with the thought of God with me rather than asking what God is doing. . . .(or isn't).
One simple answer to the 'Why doesnt God intervene ?' question........God never intervenes. We just like the idea that He does. Humans have been like that since our caveman days when we became aware of our finite existence and looked for some way to gain some control over the uncontrollable.
Then there's the extension of that - God doesnt exist. Well at least not in the traditional sense of an intervening deity.
Working miracles through humans ? Sort of contradicts the entire concept of miracles. To me miracles were 1st century constructs tied up with superstition and a lack of knowledge of our world.
I'm sounding very cynical in my old age.
CS Lewis said "prayer doesn't change God, it changes me".
Funny. And an excellent illustration of the problem.
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