The Theodic Absurdity of Prayer

Assume that God is all knowing, all powerful, and all good. What use, then, is prayer? They praying individual can't hope to inform God of things which need attention, because God already knows them all.

Suppose Billy prays to God to cure gramma of cancer. If this is the Good thing to do, one would think God would cure gramma of cancer even if nobody asked. On the other thing, if curing the cancer is not the Good thing to do, why should God follow Billy's request and do the Wrong thing?

Thus, if Christian prayer is to be of any use at all, the presence or absence of a request must be more important than the good or bad to be derived from the act. Analogously, if a lawyer asked a judge to let his client go, the benefit or harm of setting the accused (or even convicted) back on the streets shouldn't count for as much as the fact that the lawyer asked.

One might respond that God will do the right thing, but only when asked. But that leaves a lot of Good that doesn't get done just because nobody noticed that it could be done, or didn't bother praying about it.


Of course, the alternative is to note that the teleos of prayer is to bring focus to an individual's psychological state and that the two most effective types of prayers offered by Christians are "God, give me the strength to..." and the publically known prayer for health, safety, or healing. Your gramma has a much better chance of recovering if she knows you're praying for her than if you pray in secret.

"You cannot petition the Lord with prayer!" -- Jim Morrison, The Doors, The Soft Parade


I'd get more sleep if I didn't have such a lucid philosophy at 1am.

Another insight

The basic concept of free market capitalism is the supply and demand curve. The supplier's hope is to produce only so much of a product so that it intersects the demand curve. Producing too much of a product devalues it, and the supplier doesn't get as much money for it.

If the proletariat is to play by the rules, such as they are, of capitalism, it is in the interest of factory workers, say, to keep the number of potential factory workers at, or slightly below, the demand for such workers. Rather than unionizing the laborers within a group to try to affect change within the company, says the labour capitalist, workers should bond together to keep other folks out of their line of work or to increase the number of positions open. As the supply of workers dwindles, the workers' labor is more valued, and they can demand more benefits. This is, I think, a significant factor in why computer professionals had, and to a very significant extent still have, very good working conditions, benefits, and so on -- they have power where the overrepresented do not.

As a correlary, it is in the bosses' interest to keep unemployment high. I heard on the radio a few years ago that a big wig economist, presenting to a top government agency, showed his findings that unemployment was too low, and should be increased. When the government takes steps to keep unemployment up, the least they could do is have a good welfare program. Farmers are paid not to grow crops, why can't more people be paid not to work?

And could I pay someone so that I could fall asleep?

More Religious Irony

The intersection of the following two sets is strikingly high:

• The set of people who believe abortions should be illegal to perform
• The set of people who believe that God gave humans free choice, and we should follow His will, but forcing people to do so is wrong. (That is, if God made us to believe in Him naturally, it wouldn't be as $value as faith given freely)

That is, it's up to an individual to send herself to hell or heaven, but sending an unviable person to purgatory (or, if God's a nice guy, heaven) should not be a matter of choice, even if everyone were to choose the "right" option.

The intersection contains a higher number of otherwise consistent people than the intersection of the set who wish to ban abortion but increase practice of the death penalty, and is thus more fun to pick at.

And while I'm on the subject of Christian views of death, if heaven is so great and they believe so fully in the teachings of Christ, why don't many Christians kill themselves? What sacrifice is it for Christ to give up the pain of Earth and return early to Heaven, the most wonderful place in existence?

(no subject)

strangle the weight
following forth for tuesday
I fly on wings of can
why won't you take me there?
mother, I'm ready
fall down the stairs
it's okay
nobody will hurt you if you fly to the moon
cream pies and rutabega
pine tree scented socks
creationism versus evolution -- taking odds now
I'm at odds with my end
follow the leader, pray to the preacher
aphorisms afore, bacon behind
where is this going? do I want to get off?