The Theodic Absurdity of Prayer
Friday, September 28th, 2001 01:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flwydAssume 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.
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.
