Mormon Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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Buz,
What about you. Do your prayers get answered? and does your faith usually affect this?

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Yah, Mike, I've been getting answers to prayers for 57 years since I became a Christian at age ten, some very spectacular and others more routine. The closer I get to God and his book and the more spiritually in tune I get, the more I see this. However I've learned some Biblical fundamentals to getting answers from God, like obedience to his words, praying through Jesus the mediator, etc. Having said that, I must confess there are times when I've been chastized by God too to keep me on the straight and narrow as also taught in the Bible. One must remember, God dealt rather harshly with his own nation as well as the heathen nations. He is to be respectfully feared by all, especially when not obeyed or acknowledged. After all he is god and we are mere men.

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To quote the prophet Jacob, ?Brethren, adieu.?

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Too bad I got to this thread so late, but theOtter, why not return for a few posts and convert me to Mormonism by showing something in the BOM that will truly help me in this life or the life hereafter that the Bible hasn't already provided. I've been at Mormons to do this for me for decades, but so far they all come up impty. This should not be too much to ask since you people claim the BOM is a needed and necessary addition to the Bible.

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'Yah, Mike, I've been getting answers to prayers for 57 years since I became a Christian '

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That's what I thought, maybe we can convince Schraff yet?

I'm sure it happens all the time. If you're not picky.

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Schraff, if you believe and know God has heard you it does work (do you think I'm lying).

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It's not about lying. It's about things like self-deception, wishful thinking, selective memory, communal reinforcement, and other common, widespread, perfectly natural human thought biases.My point is that it always seems to be considered the fault of the person who doesn't hear God if they don't hear Him, even though they have asked sincerely.

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Why should there be any special cases, if there ARE believers?

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What do you mean by "special cases?"

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If I see a prophecy in the Bible I look at history and current events for fulfillment. The Spirit has already done his work when the prophecy was given. All I need do is look for the fulfillment. That's religiously scientific factual stuff. The Holy Spirit doesn't need to help me read my history book and newspaper. I can do that and decide whether to accept or reject those recorded and observed facts. Isn't this how true science is suppose to work?

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What do you mean, you "look for fulfillment"?Don't you mean you, "test the prediction", which would include examining all the evidence? This would mean that you would look not just for evidence which seems to confirm the prediction, but also that which seems to not support the prediction, and also any inconclusive evidence that does neither.That's what you would do in science.If you just go looking for evidence to confirm your prediction and do not look for or simply ignore or discount the other two kinds, then you are not doing science.

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'What do you mean by "special cases?" '

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Well, if God said if you believe you will recieve, and God observes believers. What excuse does the unbeliever have, when God says you must believe?

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It's not about lying. It's about things like self-deception, wishful thinking,

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It's not always a gravy train though.

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It's not about lying. It's about things like self-deception, wishful thinking, selective memory, communal reinforcement, and other common, widespread, perfectly natural human thought biases.

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I don't know if it's as harsh as all that.From the first-hand accounts I've heard, fervent prayer seems to be a similar state to intense meditation, or drug-induced hallucination. There's a certain clarity of mind and intense awareness the human body is able to achieve all on its own, (with or without outside stimulus) and the feeling that God is non-verbally (or even verbally) answering a prayer isn't all that outrageous a claim.The best descriptions I've seen come from books on Chaos Magic, which basically revolves around tapping the subconcious in a concious way (for want of a better phrase off the top of my head.) The way it reccomends achieving the state at first is by attempting to think during either a moment of orgasm, or during intense pain. (And they reccomend orgasm over pain, since pain sucks and orgasms are nice.)But it's perfectly feasible to me that Mike and Buz are able to achieve this state by throwing their minds up to a being named God. (This might be inching toward a topic all its own.)

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I don't see why one who badmouths the true god Jehovah should expect to get anything from him without repentance to begin with.

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I don't badmouth God, buzsaw.It it true that I have little patience for foolishness and intellectual dishonesty, but it has nothing to do with God.If God exists, I doubt that She will be so insecure and egomaniacal as to need me to apologize to Her for anything.Besides, She has always known what I would do and how I would act, anyway. I am exactly the way She made me, and She likes me this way.

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But it's perfectly feasible to me that Mike and Buz are able to achieve this state

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Lol, you dirty boy.putting my inner goon aside -Good point though Dan. Also most of my prayers are not to ask for things. But to worship .

Why don't we take the subject of "Are Prayers Answered" to a new thread in Faith and Belief.I case anyone's forgotten, this topic is Church of LDS.------------------
AdminAsgara
Queen of the Universe

"God Answers Prayers of Paralyzed Little Boy--'No' says God"That has got to be one of my all-time favorite Onion bits.So appropriate for this thread! Thanks, Dan.[This message has been edited by schrafinator, 11-04-2003]

sorry , I fueled it.

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Well, if God said if you believe you will recieve, and God observes believers. What excuse does the unbeliever have, when God says you must believe?

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No, that's not really what was promised.I was told that IF I asked God, THEN I would believe and I would know God heard me.Mike, I was a believer for longer than you've been alive.I've done all the stuff, both as a believer and as a non-believer, that you and otter and all the other Christians and religious people say I need to do to have that meaningful experience.Nothing ever happened.

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Nothing ever happened.

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Your not out the game yet, I'm still praying for you

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Mike, I was a believer for longer than you've been alive.

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Hang on a minute, how old do you think I am?