What is the point of prayer?

Just because they say God is exclusive, doesn't mean it IS exclusive. How could it be?

 

Well you're right. They do say that their God is exclusive. Whether He is i dunno, do you? They have books and shit that say so.

I'm an atheist so i tend to believe spiritual feelings have a natural cause and ARE natural.

 

the purpose of communicting with anyone isn't journalism, so it realy doesn't matter what might be already known when it comes to prayer. it's more a matter of connectedness. like hugging a friend and being hugged back.

besides words spoken accousticly, the sound waves, are heard by tangable ears, it is the thoughts that are transmitted nontangably. personaly i feel a closer connectedness by not physicaly speaking, besides this is something between yourself and something nontangable anyway, not the bussiness to be transacted between tangible life forms.

there is another kind of connectedness that happens with chanting. this is also a good thing. but these are seperate things, distinct from one another.

there is shaired spirit in a social sense. that is one thing.
it is a joining with the people arround you. this is good too.
and maybe for some it connects with something greater.
that is not for me to say.

then there is communing with what can only be percieved in your own heart,
that is directly with what no one knows anything about. that is what real prayer is all about.

=^^=
.../\...

 

is prayer using the lord's name in vain?

 

Jesus says even Satan can quote scripture. And anyways, just because it's written somewhere doesn't mean it's true. I don't feel that God, being a universal force, so "big" we can't put it in a box or understand it...could be exclusive in which humans are good and which are bad.

Personally, I believe spiritual feelings have a natural cause which is also a spiritual cause. The scientific way of thought assumes dualism, I do not. Spirit and material are two sides of one coin, so to speak. Look at one side, and you'll only see that side, perhaps to the point of forgetting there is another equal and inseperable side to this coin. Dig?

 

You get a really nice gift for your birthday. You're smiling and look really happy. Obviously the person who gave you the gift can see that. But you still have to say "Thank you" to them.

Comprende?

 

...

 

I believe that prayer is something positive you're throwing out into the universe. It is important to focus so intensely on things that you care about. It's just something good for your soul.

 

In regards to the Bible,

Prayer is the key to knowing Jesus. Praying is simply talking to God about anything from little things to big things. Having this relationship with Jesus is the key to salvation.

Jesus states however, when people stand before Him they will plea, "Lord, Lord did we not prophesy in your name. And in your name cast out demons and perform many miracles?" Then Jesus will say to many, "I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!"


(You see those people Jesus is talking about are those who do all these amazing works for God, but that is not what God is looking for. All He is looking for is your fellowship and acceptance).

 

Prayer can be derived from Gnosticism, which is very similar to Buddhism

The Cathars were followers of gnosticism. They were the first Christians killed by other Christians, branded as heretics because it threatened the power of the priests and authorities in power all over Europe as well as the Pope and the Roman Catholic church. During one such incidence two monks of the Gnostic religion escaped on the side of a mountain side during a raid where tons of Cathars were killed. They supposedly escape with the Holy Grail, which is said to be the blood line of Christ. Not saying this is any reason to hold them as supreme, but they did hold the original ideologies behind this lost religion.

..."The Cathars proclaimed there existed within humankind a spark of divine light. This light, or spirit, had fallen into captivity within a realm of corruption — identified with the material world..."

This is where prayer I beleive comes from. A form of meditation, not necesarrily worshiping a God, but merely recognizing that God (not the Christian Judean or Muslim or Hebrew form of God, these are based of ancient Sumerian belief of the Annunaki) but the one consciousness that Buddhist's and Hindu's try to experience. The knowledge is deep inside of us, we just have yet to figure it out.

You can find the rest of the text here ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cathars

This is the link for Gnosticism ... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gnostic

As we are, God once was. As God is, we will become.

-Gnostic saying

 

i think the point of the prayer is that he need a miracle, he thinks about something (god) that could do something

 

the purpose of prayr is the same as the purpose of a hug.
you are simply hugging what cannot be seen.
and sometimes it hugs back.

=^^=
.../\...