What Is An Answered Prayer?

To a believer, anything is an answer and that is proof that god is real.

If I pray that someone finds a new job, no matter what happens, god answered it.

If the person did get a job, then god guided them to the right employer. If the person did not get the job, then god wanted them to work somewhere else. But no matter what happens, it's all part of the great plan.

This is why you can't debate with a believer; because no matter what happens, they see it as proof that god answers prayers. Little Johnny was sick and now he's better; god healed him (it had nothing to do with his own immune system). Little Johnny died. God had a different purpose for his life.

They say that every prayer is answered, even if the answer is no. So that basically means that even if you pray and absolutely nothing happens, god is still there.

What really bothers me is when prayers are not answered and believers justify it. They say stuff like, "god knows what's best for your life."

What I don't understand is how they can see god in everything when the outcome of a prayer is completely random. Little Johnny is sick. Someone prays that he will get better. He does get better. Praise god! Why can't these people see that little Johnny would have gotten better anyway. God did not do it. The kids immune system did it.

And when I question god, all these believers get so offended and always ask me, "Who are you to question god?" First of all, what kind of a stupid question is that? Secondly, I question because I fail to see how Johnny getting better is an act of divine intervention. People get sick every day. Most get better; some die. It is completely random. Yet, no matter what happened, god had it all planned out. It was his plan for Johnny to get sick and get better. But poor little Suzie... it was in gods great wisdom for her to get sick and die. Even though people prayed for Suzie to get better, she died anyway. Yet that is still an answered prayer. God just said "no".

So if the outcome of any situation was gods will no matter what, then how can you keep giving credit to god and not to just random chance or the course of life?

I am going to roll a pair of die. Two numbers will be shown. God knows in advance what those numbers will be. I pray for a 1 and a 2. I roll and get a 3 and a 3. It was gods will that I get a two 3's. I roll again. I get a 1 and a 6. I keep praying for a 1 and a 2. After I roll 32 times, I finally get my 1 and my 2 that I prayed so faithfully for.

Why did god take so long to answer my prayer? If he was eventually going to answer it, why didn't he just make it happen on my first roll and save us both the time?

A believer will try to tell me that the roll of the die is just random chance (which it is), but I will take on their mentality and argue that every roll is gods pre-determined will. They will think I sound pretty stupid when I keep insisting that each outcome is gods will and that if I roll enough times, god will eventually get tired of messing around and just give me what I want.

Well, folks, I see no difference between the roll of the die and any other event that happens in life. Some people get sick and get better. Some people get sick and die. It's no different than the roll. It's just an outcome. Yet to believers that outcome, no matter what it was, was gods will.

So no matter what happens, it was gods will. So how can you tell the difference between gods will and complete random chance? It just amazes me when people see god in everything when it is just life taking its course.

They justify the unpredictable outcome by stating that "god knows best" and "his ways are higher than our ways." So in otherwords, no matter what happens, happens. Why do people see this as proof that god answers prayers? If the outcome is completely random and unpredictable, how can you know for 100% sure that god did it?

Because you have to have faith! Duh.

Faith is the act of believing something that has no evidence. So your god, which has no evidence, is in charge of every random outcome. Makes perfect sense.

How about the real-life explanation which is simply that life happens. Sometimes it's good. Sometimes it sucks. There is no invisible god pulling all the strings. This is no more absurd than the idea of the Fates, who control everything. The Fates are just a myth, but god is totally real!

To a believer, complete random chance is absolute proof that his imaginary god exists. It baffles my mind that there are millions of people on this planet who use so little of their thinking power.

I could use the same argument that a completely random outcome proves that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is real. To everyone, that is an absurd idea. But change the name from FSM to GOD and suddenly it is completely acceptable. What is the difference? Just the name.

I wonder how mankind has progressed as far as we have with over 90% of our population believing in this nonsense.

Now you hear about so-called miracles all the time. Go to church and you'll hear people tell about how they were hard up and then they paid their tithing and hubby got a raise at work. You'll hear lots of little stories like this.

What you hardly ever hear is an actual miracle. In the comments of a previous post, I shared how, as a young man, I was having trouble in school because I couldn't see well. I knew that from the scriptures, Jesus could heal peoples eyes because he did it on several occassions in the scriptures. Why not me too? I received a priesthood blessing so that my eyes would focus clearly. Didn't happen.

I guess the answer to that prayer is that it is in my best interests to have bad eyes. How that is in my best interests, I'll never know. But god knows because he is in charge of it all. Yep, a young child with unquestioning faith gets shut down by god.

When I shared this story, I actually had one Mormon guy criticizing me for expecting a miracle. Yet, I was taught all my life that Mormons have the power to act in gods name and that god is a god of miracles to the faithful. Then when I actually expect a miracle, TBM's criticize me and tell me I don't understand how it all works.

I used to do that too... make excuses for god. No more. I'm calling it the way it is. If god is a god who answers prayers and performs miracles, then there is nothing wrong with a young Mormon expecting a miracle. The collection of unanswered prayers and blessings over the years has shown me the true nature of god: no answers and no miracles... no god.