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Pastimes : Ask God -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: PROLIFE who wrote (25487)	5/25/1999 1:32:00 PM
From: Sam Ferguson	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 39621

We have still many properties not repaired due to slow insurance claims handling but most except trees is presentable again. Last years hit 2 blocks from my house with utter devastation. About a month ago a small one hit about 2 blocks away again but in the park adjoining my property and ruined the trees along river road through the park. My guardian Angel watches over me constantly so I have no fear. I watched last years tornado from window and didn't seek closet or bathroom. There wasn't a leaf or branch disturbed on my lot. Did I pray for God's protection? No! Here is why. There is an orthodox conception of prayer which can lead to failure. It recognizes a personal God as exercising an arbitrary will, but he does so for beneficent reasons. The individual confers upon his God not only the power of accomplishment but the highest moral value of which he is able to conceive. In other words, it is believed that their God is capable of anything, but will only do that which is in accord with moral good. This type religionist, then, will not ask his God to grant his prayer if it conflicts with, or is contrary to, what he conceives as morally right. He won't ask God to strike an enemy or give him money he should not have. However, this religionist will not hesitate to ask for what he thinks just, no matter how contrary to universal law and order. He would not hesitate to ask God to stop a war which man has brought on. Psychologically, to such individuals, God is believed arbitrarily to exercise His will as against the very laws and causes He himself has established, as long as man in good faith asks it. The illogicalness of such prayer nver occurs to the petitioner. He may pray for his God to stop what another religionist, in equally good faith, is praying to be continued. The fall weather in California affords an excellent example of of an anthropomorphic conception of God and prayer. In late September the prune growers are drying their fruit in the sun; an early and continued rain might prove ruinous to their crop. Conversely, the cattle raisers are desparately in need of rain for pasturage, especially after the long rainless California summer. Therefore a cattleman would pray for rain and a prune grower would pray for no rain.If God exercises arbitrary will, opposing the natural climatic conditions, whose prayer would he favor? Such a religionist view would place God in a ludicrous position and makes religion vulnerable to atheism. If the Divine Will could and would function arbitrarily, it would disrupt Cosmic Unity. There would be no dependency whatsoever. It is because God's laws perform consistantly and are immutable by the necessity of their nature that man has an assurance of dependability of the Divine principles. That is the difference in our faith. Yours is a faith requiring begging God to protect you. Mine is a trust that no matter what happens to me it is best for me in the long run.