Your thoughts on prayer 2

John, I haven't a clue about the theology of C.S. Lewis, but that quote makes sense to me. Theology is far removed from a sincere and uncomplicated belief in God, and I'm no theologian.  I notice you made no comment on Voltaire's observation.

He also wrote "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason. (My emphasis)  

Voltaire is an odd choice for a champion of religion, Sue. The Lisbon earthquake

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon_earthquake 

made him seriously doubt his faith.

He did indeed write : "What is faith? Is it to believe that which is evident? No. It is perfectly evident to my mind that there exists a necessary, eternal, supreme, and intelligent being. This is no matter of faith, but of reason."

But... 

In terms of religious texts, Voltaire was largely of the opinion that the Bible was 1) an outdated legal and/or moral reference, 2) by and large a metaphor, but one that still taught some good lessons, and 3) a work of Man, not a divine gift. These beliefs did not hinder his religious practice, however, though it did gain him somewhat of a bad reputation in the Catholic Church. It may be noted that Voltaire was indeed seen as somewhat of a nuisance to many believers.

(See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voltaire) 

  God can manifest through anyone, but I can't say I've ever encountered an body feature of it's own as of yet, but I've only had one true real expereince in one to one contact and it came to me ofit'sown will at the time, but I do feel that prayers are answered when you give them...Jesus is another subject though, I see him as an bright shinging light in my near-death expereinces, and one that had form, and have seen him alos in times of great needs personally or in messages given to me in many ways...I can tell the difference now of thier personailty from within others in prescence. For the most part the contact is one of feeling I guess you would say, like an unseen force there. Closest I feel that I have enoucountered what might be "God" in an picture was with comparing John Brown of Harper's Ferry to the painting of Micheangelo in the Sistine Chapel hundred's of years prior..they look like the same person, though one's an painting and the other one's an real photograph, and I have an picture of John Brown at my family's 50th wedding anniversary when they lived near the Kansas-Nebraska border,,before the start of the raid at Harper's Ferry later on. He is very tall and white haired and thin. I still think being given the project of painting an picture of "God" would be an anwesome chore on an blank wall. How do you think you would go about it? I have an epsiode that surrounded this later on with an young kid I call "JC". He was an kid my son brought home with his friends one time...quite an different one that would teach me some valuable lessons. They use to call him "Stoner Chris". I said one time to "Stoner Chris"..it would be so nice if we'd all come with instruction booklets when we were born so we'd know what our missionis in life were or what we need to learn some days...and he looked at me and said "You need to learn to "focus" this lifetime for later" ..but I think if you'd learn to mediate it would help you do this and at the same time greatly give you peace of mind at times also. Then he left leaving me somwhat in awe at the message to me. I have since of course heard many people talk about this 2012 change an that our time dimension may slip into two time-lines..in which it may be we will indeed need to focus into one or the other, but I guess time will tell on that one. I beleive my past life was one of an minister...I did past life regression one time as an therapy to my weight problem, which has been with me pracitcally since I was born. The minister was two lifetimes back, my last one was in an Nazi prison camp. From what I understand, from being the minister, I came back next as an "Jewish" person kind of "keeping the faith" so as to say and got caught up in WWII..as I went through that I can see how many things in this life time has greatly affected me this time around. The climax to it all was my death, they stood me up along an trench and shot me through the stomach and I fell in on top of people not yet dead..like myself, they were clamoring for help to breathe and yet dying also...and they came along an pushed dirt over all of us in an mass grave. As they told me afterwards, now that you know this, how are you going to use it to make this lifetime better? I have learned to never be hungry on an diet, it brings back the hunger of then and it breaks my diet for one thing, it's given me an strong sense of "god" without church this time around, an "personal" communication at times. It's made me a lot "intutive,  and a little bit on the other side..as much as on this side at times also. You do know an person can be "religious"ithout the need for an building. A person can live daily without the need for Jesus to be there every second also...just as he would leave his apostle's while he communed with this father...that sort of thought. People tell me all the time that they don't beleive in reincarnation, but how then do they beleive in the resurrection of Jesus if there isn't such an thing, because it's through his resurrection he becomes immortal.  Event hr bible in one area I think Jesus was asking his apostle's whom the people thought he was, and one said they thought he was the reincarnation of someone when Peter says to him that he is the living son of God, and Jesus bestows an church unto Peter for his faith in him. Interesting to discuss I think.   

Hi Chris:  I don't think I have a mental picture of God, apart from the images we all grow up with - the benevolent old gent who looks like someone's grandpa, but that's not the image that comes to mind in prayer.  I guess when I pray, I'm picturing Jesus.  And yes, it's the same image that we all have - the guy with the long hair and the beard.  It came up at church once - wonder what Jesus looked like.  I would guess that if you wanted to know, turn on the news and when they show people in Iraq or Iran, Jesus probably looked like anyone from those countries.  But who knows?  But I think the beauty of what we believe in as Christians, the Incarnation, or God becoming a man, was to give us something to focus on, someone to focus on, to direct our prayers to someone more tangible than just this spiritual entity we call God.

Hi John:  Well, you and Anne Gaylor are missing the point of prayer.  Remember, God isn't a genie:

I got nothing that I asked for,

But everything I had hoped for.

Almost despite myself,

My unspoken prayers were answered.

I am among all men, most richly blessed.

Answer to Prayer is often a paradox, John.  And God answers in ways that we don't expect, notice of even want.  Often His care of us in answering is only noticed in hindsight.

I like this version, Sue and John.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFM5VJ9KB8M

And this one's for you, John.  I know you like Amazing Grace.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B3XdXEJEI4E

Two questions, John.

1)  Do you have hope?  I ask because when I think of atheism, it just seems so cold and clinical and seems to want to take hope away from those who believe in God by telling them they're foolish.  If atheists want to do good for their fellow man by warning them not to believe in something that's not true, and that something they believe in gives them hope, what would atheism offer them, in terms of hope, I mean?

2)  Why do you think Lewis' theology was a mess?