Your thoughts on prayer

I don’t think believers need to explain to non believers anything. I don’t get non believers knocking on my door telling me I need to rethink my life or life style. I think I understand believers and why they have a faith for reasons I have outlined in my previous input. Never the two will meet, it would be great if folk could open there minds and not feel they have to defend a corner all the time or cleverly reword others input to make there own point more tangible.

 Why is it people how do have a faith feel they have to try and convert me (not everyone of course) what is it I can do if converted that I’m not doing now?

 The bottom line is, we are born, we live and we die. End of story. What makes the difference while we are here is YOU and ME, we are all responsible for our own actions and our lives have nothing to do with any unknown Godlike outside influences. I appreciate that some people think otherwise, that’s always been the case and probably always will.

Thanks for replying, Barbara.

So would it be fair to say that you believe in God - and the whole Creation Story - simply because that's what you were taught as a child?

If so, what if you'd been born into an Islamic society?

Wouldn't you have been taught that The Koran was the true word of God? And wouldn't you have believed that just as strongly as you now believe in the Bible?

If that's how it is, then it seems to me the religious beliefs people hold are simply a matter of geography.

Diana, are you saying that there were no earthquakes before human beings began meddling with the environment? I'm sure you're not, but that's what it sounds like.

My question remains: why did God make a world in which natural earthquakes etc. wipe out innocent people? Not to mention all the other animals such disasters exterminate.

Barbara has said we can't know the mind of God, so we can't know why such things happen, but when you say:

With little thought to how our environment would be affected we have damaged (possibly irrevocably) our own life support system; and yes, you are right, millions of people have died when they need not have done, all due to the greed of man.

... you seem to be laying the blame for all those lost lives at the feet of Humanity.

It's only in the last 200 years or so that we've had any noticeable effect on our environment. What about all the natural disasters that happened long before that? Can't God be called to account for them?

Thank you, Ruth!  I wondered where you had gone; you were missed. 

 John, I can't speculate on what I would have believed in had I been brought up in a different culture, exposed to a different belief system.  I only know that I have chosen to continue believing in the same God/gospel that I was exposed to all my life.  I have examined it at points in my life and questioned certain things, but at the end of the day came to the conclusion that what I believed to be the Truth is still the Truth.  People from all faiths, or no faith, every day all through their lives or at least at some point in their lives, question what they've been taught, question what they believe, and sometimes change what they believe. I wonder, John, if you had grown up in a Christian home and followed that same faith all your life, might you not now be on the same side of the fence as I? 

LOL @ John!  You keep me on my toes! I think we have to agree to disagree on this subject though I would love to continue it if we could sit down over a dinner table loaded with good food and a few bottles of wine. LOL!  Wouldn't that be fun?  My favorite way to spend an evening; sitting around with good friends, good food, good wine and good conversation!

I hate to run folks but I've got a few things that require my attention before I leave work today!

See everyone tomorrow.

Take care Diana. Catvh you later.

I dont very often get involved in these arguments ie religion. I was thinking of the story of the temptation of Christ. The devil took Jesus up a mountain, and told Jesus that if he followed the Devil,he would give Jesus all that he could see to the far horison. If the earth is Gods domain, how could the Devil give it to Jesus?. Please dont say it is a trick of the Devils. Jesus being Gods son, would know that it belonged to God. So, perhapse this is Hell and God has no say in what happens here.

This is just a thaught from a non believer.