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Do You Think God/Goddess/Creator Listens?

Do you believe your creator/god/goddess/etc listens to your prayers/pleas/etc.?


  • Total voters
    22

Bishka

Veteran Member
Do you think your creator/god/goddess/etc. listens to your pleas/prayers/lamentations, etc?

Why or why not? How do they listen all at once in your opinion.

"Isn't it marvelous, that God, who knows everything, still spends time listenting to our prayers?" (Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, From an October 2000 general conference address)
 

Squirt

Well-Known Member
beckysoup61 said:
Do you think your creator/god/goddess/etc. listens to your pleas/prayers/lamentations, etc?

Why or why not? How do they listen all at once in your opinion.

"Isn't it marvelous, that God, who knows everything, still spends time listenting to our prayers?" (Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, From an October 2000 general conference address)
I am 100% sure He does. He hears them and He answers them. Isn't it great? ;)
 

BucephalusBB

ABACABB
If he is listning, then he's not really doing anything with it is he? Its not that religious people get more miracles than non-religious people or so..
 

Scarlett Wampus

psychonaut
I think prayer means many different things to different people. My personal take is this: -

There was a time I was absolutely desperate and prayed to a deity I believed in. I gave up on that eventually and turned my back on the religious movement I'd previously been strongly devoted to as I began to realise some rather nasty things were going on that I'd been oblivious to beforehand. The situation was still terrible so I prayed to whatever I might imagine could hear me. The silence was deafening. The brutal reality of my circumstances at the time and the meaningless emptiness that consumed all hope from my prayers dissolved away any personal sense for me of there being a deity or deities (as well as many other ideas!) That kind of praying seemed useless so I increased the time spent in ;open prayer' and silent meditatation instead. After many months the wide open abyss that I was tumbling into lost its horror and I eventually found it wasn't so bad, in fact it was amazing! Things were so much clearer and I guess my prayers had been answered by no answer!

Now I believe that deities are on the whole anthropomorphic projections onto impersonal natural forces in a misguided attempt to personally influence, absorb or contain them. Also the experience described above made me come to this conclusion: If there is some kind of universal spiritual power any idea of what it is also leads to ideas of what it is not. That's ridiculous. So, in my opinion its better to let go of what you think it is you're praying to, what you pray for, and even who is praying! Open prayer and silent meditation do not place mental boundaries on what can or cannot be. What they can do is clear the way for I-know-not-what to reveal I-know-not-what.
 
A

angellous_evangellous

Guest
beckysoup61 said:
Do you think your creator/god/goddess/etc. listens to your pleas/prayers/lamentations, etc?

Why or why not? How do they listen all at once in your opinion.

"Isn't it marvelous, that God, who knows everything, still spends time listenting to our prayers?" (Elder Neal A. Maxwell of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, From an October 2000 general conference address)
Yes.

I adopt the Chrsitian view that God is all-powerful and all-present. Able to hear us, and always available. His amazing grace is available to all who seek God.:162:
 

Buttons*

Glass half Panda'd
I dont think my God has to listen. If it knows everything, why must I tell it? I think it's my job to listen... rather than talk. All that is done by talking is discussion, but when people listen, and really hear what's being said, they learn. imo...
 

Feathers in Hair

World's Tallest Hobbit
Depends on the prayer and depends on the god! (Yeah, here's us polytheists making trouble again.)

I think most of mine listen, and I think that usually that's all we're wanting when some of us pray. Maybe a bit of a feeling that someone out there cares enough to listen when we've got something to say.
 

Bishka

Veteran Member
Buttons* said:
I dont think my God has to listen. If it knows everything, why must I tell it? I think it's my job to listen... rather than talk. All that is done by talking is discussion, but when people listen, and really hear what's being said, they learn. imo...
That's an interesting take on it. I like that.
 

michel

Administrator Emeritus
Staff member
I voted "yes". That doesn't mean he answers then in the way I wish he would, but that is because I am a mere mortal who doesn't know what God has in store for us, or why things occur, which may well have a much greater purpose in life than I can understand.


I have felt him answer me, when I have been weak, and have asked for strength.;)
 

FyreBrigidIce

Returning Noob
I believe my Higher Power as I understand it answers my prayers even when I don't come out and ask anything.

I believe this because of events that happened last week. As I have mentioned before, I am a recovering alcoholic. I was doing real great on staying sober until January, 28th. On this day I began a week long relapse. My husband had helped someone with car troubles and was given 2 bottles of wine for his time. He brought the wine into the house and showed it to me. Being an alcoholic, I started using false rationalizations to excuse my drinking of the wine. I opened one bottle that night and gave the other bottle to my dad. On January 31st I drank a few glasses of wine mixed with soda, (I thought it would hinder the effect of the alcohol..... Yeah right) and the next day I called in to my Program and therapist because I was tired and not feeling well. On Thursday I finally told a fellow program member about my relapse. I was also given a Urinary Drug Test by my therapist. I had to come clean about my relapse and also about my taking other peoples prescription pain meds for my back pain. I was not hung over on Wednesday but my therapist heard me slurring my words on her voicemail. On Thursday I started my sobriety all over again by dumping the rest of the wine down the toilet and also by using my story of relapse as a topic for my Thursday night AA meeting.

I believe that on Wednesday, my higher power knew I wanted to be sober and as such, made my voice sound as if I was slurring my words, so that my therapist would give me the drug test and make me face up to what I was doing and get back on the right track.

On another note of this topic, I remember one of my favorite songs by Garth Brooks and it's chorus.

"Sometimes I thank God, for unanswered prayers,
Remember when you're talking to the man upstairs,
and just because he may not answer,
doesn't mean he don't care.....

One of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers."


Feel free to also think of the deity or deities that you choose to follow in the same way as God is referred to in the song.

FBI
 

jeffrey

†ßig Dog†
I think he 'feels' more then he listens. Speech is not necessarily necessary. He's tapped into all our thoughts, and prayer, in a sense, helps us tap into him.
 

Master Vigil

Well-Known Member
First off... Great Post Buttons! :D

Secondly... For me, Tao is not human at all, so it cannot, will not, and would not, should not, and does not "listen". However, this will end up being just an argument of semantics. For instance... Tao is the total encompassment of all things, and this I am one with it. Therefore, if I meditate (pray) and in turn change myself. The Tao in effect "listened" to my meditation (prayer). But it sure wasn't a supernatural being listening. ;D

Also, as a Taoist I believe it is in OUR listening that we achieve balance and peace. We must humble ourselves, and open our "spiritual" ears.
 
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