Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!thunder.mcrcim.mcgill.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!apple!mips!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: oracle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu (Brian T. Coughlin) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Prayer and Paradoxes Message-ID: Date: 7 Jan 91 03:52:38 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH Lines: 64 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Re: Andy Lumsdaine In article lums@rice-chex.ai.mit.edu (Andy Lumsdaine) writes: >1) What is the actual mechanism by which God hears our prayers? >Certainly, it's not acoustic, since one can pray silently. Does He >pick up the electrochemical patterns in our brains that are composing >our thoughts? Is it something deeper, something in our souls, that He >picks up? If it is something deeper, what is it? Hi, Andy! My honest answer is, I haven't the foggiest *idea* of the mechanism (if indeed the term is applicable) through which God perceives prayerful intentions. :) But I *can* share my own feelings on the subject: I strongly doubt that God would depend upon any physical (as we understand physics) apparatus for perception of prayerful intentions. For example, if there is indeed life after death, then would that not imply that there is THOUGHT without the presence of an active physical brain? If both of the above are indeed true, then God would be unable to perceive the prayers of deceased humans if His only prayer-perception apparatus were perceptions of the electrochemical workings of the brain. I've always been of the philosophy that God is really and truly all-encompassing... that God permeates every aspect of existence (and then some! :) ). Given this, God would automatically be "in tune" with ALL goings-on in the physical cosmos, prayer or non-prayer. >2) Does God answer our prayers before we pray them? Of course, He is >outside of time, and can easily do so. However, and here is where the >paradox comes in, if He answers the prayer beforehand, wouldn't the >circumstances leading up to the prayer be changed, so that the prayer >might not be prayed? I honestly don't know. :( I'd guess that God is not "hard-wired" into using only one chronological scheme when answering prayers; some He may wish to 'delay' in answering for His own reasons (i.e. His response might well be as rapid to the prayer, but the natural manifestation of that response might well take time). I find it quite conceivable that, if the best way to answer a prayer of a particular believer would be to start the response in motion before the actual prayer, God could indeed do so. In cases where God did not wish to violate natural law (which, I believe, He is quite loath to do), an immediate response to a prayer might well require pre-acting conditions (e.g. a response to a prayer taking 3 hours to manifest, but God wishing the response to be immediate in relation to the pray-er's petition... God could easily set the process in motion about 3 hours before the prayer would be made). On the less philosophical side, I believe that God's answers to prayer are as intricate and subtle as they are fulfilling; sometimes, all that is needed is for the praying person to realize that the answer to the prayer had been sitting in front of his/her nose all the time; God needn't shatter mountains to grant our requests... He might well just give us a mental "nudge" in the right direction when we need it. ---- Take care! Sincerely, Brian Coughlin oracle@eleazar.dartmouth.edu