If there was definitely a god, would you pray to it?

Supposing theoretically that the existence of a god could be absolutely proven, would you pray to it?

I ask because I think, deep down, I quite like the idea of being a heathen =)

 

what do you mean by praying to him ?

 

It seems obvious to me when I look out at the state of the world that if there is some sort of supreme creator being out there that it is at best completely indifferent towards humans and at worst gets its kicks from torturing us so my answer is no. If someone demonstrated that there is definitely a god I would never glorify or petition that being with prayer. If someone demonstrated that the god of Abraham existed I would pray to him just once to tell him what an awful being he is.

 

It would depend.
If it was the Christian God, I say no, because he's a douche.
If it is some other god, it would depend on how he acted, etc.

If ever since birth though, I was told of the existence of this god, I guess I would sometimes, cause I did sometimes when I was Christian =P

 

I think it would depend on what kind of god we're talking about, and what we mean by prayer. Generally speaking, there are five kinds of prayeretitionary (asking God for stuff), thanksgiving, praise/worship, confession,meditative/contemplative. The first of these makes sense only with a personal God who answers prayer; the last would be appropriate for any kind of God--theist, deist, pantheist, even an abstraction like the Ground of Being. The kinds of prayer in between are usually associated with theism, although a case could be made for applying them to the other kinds as a kind of affirmational or therapeutic exercise.

 

I have a hard time thinking that any god would appreciate any of us reciting boring prayers he's heard millions of times, over and over.

In the prewritten prayers, no, I wouldn't. Doesn't make sense to me that any great god would specifically ask you for those types of prayers. The whole rosemary bit, our father, holy mary, not for me.

If there is a god, I'll do what I do already, which is keep the idea of god somewhere in my heart, and I'll hope that he's there to listen when I have something to say.

 

Well I said "pray to it", but still: would you feel that you ought to appease it/him, as a consequence of knowing that it/he was a god?

I just kind of wonder, for example, why the "fact" that someone created the Earth would in itself be grounds to worship him. It seems pretty common in religions, but I'm not clear on why: most religions have their god creating the earth before they created humans, so it's not like we know what life would've been like if they hadn't created it. From a Freudian perspective, it's natural for us to resent our parents (father first, then mother), so why wouldn't it be true of an all-powerful creator?

I guess the "rational" reason is: because a god could kick your ass if you aren't nice to him. But then, a god could kick your ass if you ARE nice to him (lol Job), and omnipotence and omniscience would not combine to make a particularly easy god to empathise with.

 

if praying made the difference of me going to heaven or hell, i'd prolly do it

 

cost/benefit analysis would be step 1.

 

I never really thought of it that way. Cool perspective.

To answer, I think if there is a higher power overlooking everything that's happening, I like the idea that in the end justice will be served for all, regardless of what religion (if any) you're following.

It doesn't make sense to me that a god would punish a majority of the people in the whole world for not following his way (when it's not their fault..) Between cultural differences, different religious views, lifestyles, etc etc etc. it simply doesn't make sense to me that any god would punish anyone for not knowing better.

I like the idea that god won't use any man made religious views as a criteria on what will happen to you after you die, and rather, will look at the individual him/herself and base his decision on the choices this person made in life with what cards were thrown at him throughout his life.

To answer your question, if by some fluke, it became absolute truth that those extremist fundamental christians had it right all along, and unless you change your lifestyle and become one of them, you're going to hell, then I think it would be safe to say that god wouldn't be as cool as I thought he was, and I wouldn't want to be part of it.

 

Yeah, I guess if you pray and the god is indifferent, it's no big deal, is it. You've just got to hope that it doesn't find incessant prayer annoying.

 

"If there was definitely an IRS, would you pay to it?"

Just a similar question.

 

You think I'm crazy? Hell yeah I'd pray to Her. I'd do any damn thing She wanted me to do. F*&k, She's God for Christ sake.

Too bad She doesn't exist though.

 

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americans vote on who's going to be their president every four years. There's no proof their votes even count. Quite the opposite actually.

 

I think the Roman Emperor and philosopher Marcus Aurelius had some useful thoughts about prayer: "One may prays thus: how shall I be able to lie with that woman. Do thou pray thus: How shall I not desire to lie with her? ''...Another thus: How shall I not lose my little son? Thou thus: How shall I not be afraid to lose him? In fine, turn thy prayers this way, and see what happens." When my brother was dying of cancer, many people offered the former kinds of prayers, and we were grateful for their kindness. My brother, a Marcus Aurelius fan, tried the latter kind (Let me not be afraid of pain and death), and he found it comforting in his agonizing passage.

I find nother prayer by Marcus Aurelius helpful: "Everything harmonizes with me, which is harmonius to thee, O Universe. Nothing for me is too early nor too late, which is due in time for thee." Or as we Christians say, 'Thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." If we ask for God's will to be done, we can be sure our prayers will be anwered. God will have His way.

 

So essentially, pray to be able to deal with things you can't change, rather than to change things you can't deal with. Pretty wise, I guess.

 

Agreed.

 

I'm just curious really as to whether omnipotence and omniscience are a reason to worship someone. While I wouldn't want to put words into anyone's mouth, I would expect that most of us, if faced with a very real, corporeal and non-esoteric power that asked us to do what it said purely because it was powerful, would at least want to resist. So much of the argument about religion seems to be to do with whether a god exists, as if its mere existence would justify all the folderol that surrounds it, as if it's reason enough to worship.

 

That's a good question. So many people spend their efforts trying to prove that God exists, but no one really tries to explain why they practice religion the way they do.

I don't think I'd pray to it, or worship it.