Do You Pray?

[David In Indy]

Do you pray? If so, what do you pray for? If not, is it because you don't believe in God? Or for other reasons?

I pray. Not on my knees, or anything like that. But I pray mentally, while I'm working, watching TV, etc. Very informal prayer. It's in my mind. But I think about God, and I have a litany of prayers I say privately and informally each day. I've found my faith dwindling severely these past few years. In my youth I had a profound faith in God. But not so much anymore. But I continue to pray. I don't mean this to sound corny, but I just pray for humanity in general.

It's hard to have faith and believe in anything greater than ourselves these days, isn't it? With the state of the world the way it is right now. How could a loving God allow it? But I find myself praying anyhow. And a part of me will NOT allow my faith to die. And maybe this stubbornness with my faith comes from God? Or perhaps it's fear? Or force of habit?

Do you pray? Do you believe in an intelligence greater than ourselves? If so, do you pray to it, or Him... or Her? 

[Shasta542]

Yes, I do.

All the time about all different things.

I believe God lets man have free choice -- and sometimes man messes things up. (Man = All People not just males) That's why the world, in some cases, is messed up. Bad choices, lack of kindness and compassion, poor judgment, etc. It has been that way since the beginning of time.

[optom3]

Yes but not in the traditional sense.I  firmly believe in what goes round comes round, and I also believe there are more things that we don't understand.
I pray to whatever higher power is out there but in the sense I just sort of have a chat with whoever this person/thing is. It makes some sort of scientific sense to me that if everything in the world is boiled down to protons,neutrons and electrons,then there must be a corresponding energy field,for want of a better way of putting it.
I regard bad things as negative energy which then atracts neg. energy back,like wise with positive or good things.That is why no matter how bad things get, at some point I will try to find the positive.The simple rules of physics seem to apply,pos atracts pos and vice versa.I consider bad actions to be neg. and therefore at some stage neg must come back to keep the whole equation balanced long term. Like wise with the pos. SO we are always heading towards a position of neutrality.With all things eventually in a state of balance.That neutrality may not be instant, but it is a state we move towards continually and is reached at some point,so we have a state of equilibrium,even if it is short term and we then start the whole thing again.
It almost is a state of symbiosis.

[Brokeback_Dev]

Yes I pray most days. I know theres something bigger and greater than myself thats running things.  I'm neither agnostic or Atheist  I call it God, but I couldn't tell you what it looks like.  God is not someone on a cross.  My daughter is gay, tranny, living with another woman.  Which is fine by me.  The other day a friend of many years called me to say hello.  Our kids grew up together.  Our kids went to church together.  I made no apologies, but I did say church wasn't for me mainly because of their conservative views on homosexuality among other thngs.  She said what my daughter is doing is a sin!  just like gossiping, or having premarital sex.  That word sin didn't sit right with me you know.  I accept and love my daughter just the way she is.   I pray simple prayers no specifics.  I pray for myself and other friends and my family.   It keeps me centered.   So yes I do pray.

[optom3]

I know what you mean by conservatives and churches. I was raised Roman Catholic. The Catholic church can be pure hell for a gay person. I'll probably never walk in one again unless it's for a funeral or perhaps a wedding. Dad still likes to go to Mass sometimes, and I have gone once or twice with him. Anyway, there are some liberal churches out there. The United Church of Christ is quite tolerant of gays. I think it varies from church to church, but some of my friends attend the UCC and they feel very welcomed and accepted there. Also, I think the Unitarian church welcomes gay people. So, if I ever did decide to attend church again, and I highly doubt I will, I would probably go to one of those churches.

 

Believe me Catholic churches are hell for a straight woman.Seems everything I do is a sin, according to their doctrine.There would not be enough penance I could do to atone for all my sins,so Catholicism and I parted many years ago.The final straw being when they would not let me remarry in church, because I was divorced.I got divorced because my 1st husband came out.The only way round it was for him to be cross examined by the church hierarchy and then go for an annulment.Well that was not happening,I thought he had put up with enough,including his mother disowning him.
So it was 2 fingers to the Catholics and I have not been back.In fact have no intention of ever.

[Katie77]

Yes, I pray.......

I find that I pray when I am in distress, or I see something or someone else distressing and I pray to god to help me or them.

And then, if things turn out good or better, I pray a "thank you".

It may not be the orthodox way that prayer should be used, maybe even a selfish way of using prayer, but it works for me, and I find that after I have prayed I do feel confident and more a at peace with whatever I have prayed for.

I remember the day of Heath's funeral, knowing that it was being celebrated on a beach, I also went to the beach, and walked into the water, and just looked out at the ocean, and said my own message and prayer for him. It made me feel a little at peace with what had happened.

I dont pray in church, I dont go to church, when I pray, I usually just close my eyes where I am, or sometimes just look at the sky or something beautiful, and "think" the prayer, or say it quietly to myself.

[delalluvia]

I'm a polytheistic reconstructionist.  Yes, I pray.

I give thanks a lot.

I rarely pray to ask for something.  You might get it.    

I'm not one of these people who need a personal god at their beck and call. I feel that to ask for Divine Guidance to find a good couch at a good price or a new lover or to make good grades is like asking for an army to kill a bacterium in one termite mound in Africa.

Does one really need Divine help for everyday matters?

[MountainMan]

yes, for loved ones......sometimes for a little help, etc.

not sure to who or what, really. My upbringing (Catholic - but not Conservative, Zealot type) has certainly shaped my perceptions of things, so I do pray "to" God........but if I'm forced to think about it - which I try not to these days - it's all much deeper than that, and of course I am wise enough to analyze judeo-christian beliefs from a historical perspective, along with all things patriarchal.......


...I believe in everything and nothing at the same time.

 

[Kerry]

I recite formal prayers every day, morning and night.

I was once a good Roman Catholic boy, but I no longer hold any Christian beliefs.

I have my own personal beliefs now. There are others who share my beliefs, but we're in the minority these days. Once upon a time, though, my beliefs were held by countless generations of people over many thousands of years. By far longer than Christianity has been in existence. 

To generalise, my prayers mainly centre around the theme of giving thanks.

Every day of my life, morning and night, I verbalise a formal declaration of thanks for all my blessings.

I have little daily rituals too. For instance, the first words I say out loud every day, as I first place my feet on the ground every morning, are "I give thanks for this day of life." And every evening when I get home from work, I perform a little ritual before my household altar, part of which involves lighting a candle. The symbolism being that I am dispelling the darkness of the night with the light of my candle.

I view myself as being a spiritual entity. My spirituality is an integral aspect of who I am. I firmly believe in the continuation of life after death. I see death as a beginning, not an end. Just as birth is a beginning, so too is death.

I'm very fond of the quote, "After your death, you become what you were before you were born."

I'm probably making myself sound like an absolute nutter, hunh? (Don't answer that haha!)       

   

[southendmd]

Nutter?  No way.  Thanks for sharing that, Kerry.  It's beautiful.

As a once-good Catholic boy myself, I find it easy to become cynical about religion. 

I find your spirituality very refreshing.

[optom3]

Nutter?  No way.  Thanks for sharing that, Kerry.  It's beautiful.

As a once-good Catholic boy myself, I find it easy to become cynical about religion. 

I find your spirituality very refreshing.

Catholic girl, but ditto. Isn't it funny how many cynical Catholics there are here!!!!! My brother is the same, once good Catholic altar boy,now very cynical completely lapsed Catholic.

[loneleeb3]

I pray.
I believe in God and I think Jesus is who he says he is.
That being said, I think a lot of what he said and what he tried to teach has been lost or twisted so much that it is almost un-discernable from the truth of his teachings. Religon has been changed from a freeing and beautiful way to be closer to God to a means to an end. That end being control of the masses. Certain people now feel they have the right to sit in judgement of others and use their religon to support it.

[Kerry]

Nutter?  No way.  Thanks for sharing that, Kerry.  It's beautiful.

As a once-good Catholic boy myself, I find it easy to become cynical about religion. 

I find your spirituality very refreshing.

Thank ya kindly, Paul. I wouldn't want to frighten the horses!           

[Kerry]

Kerry, your style of belief is what I one day hope to find.

Free seminars every Saturday afternoon at 4pm, Susie. That's the good news. The bad news is that they're held in Sydney, Australia, haha!     

[Shakesthecoffecan]

I pray, and feel must the same about things as you Kerry. I struggle daily to maintain a good attitude, and taking a step back and being grateful for all lifes blessings certainly helps.

[Kerry]

I pray, and feel must the same about things as you Kerry. I struggle daily to maintain a good attitude, and taking a step back and being grateful for all lifes blessings certainly helps.

It's cold and wet outside (it's winter, here in Sydney). I'm sitting in a warm, comfortable room, chatting to someone on the other side of the world (that's you, Truman, haha ) via the good graces of my cute Dell computer. For that alone, I am blessed, indeed. 

[Marge_Innavera]

I've always had some awareness of a power or consciousness controlling everything and started praying regularly very early in life.  I was raised Christian and thought of myself as that, although I found out later that what I thought I was being taught in Sunday School was totally different from what Christian doctrine actually was.  I was essentially taught about a god who certainly does love human beings but with the "love" of a parent for a son or daughter who had messed up early in life and the parent never misses a chance to remind their child of it and hold it over their head.

Later on, I got involved in New Thought churches (Religious Science and some Unity) and they essentially have a concept of a non-theistic God although RS emphasizes that more than Unity.  That led me into a type of prayer where you first concentrate on there being one creative consciousness that has created everything and is always in the process of creation in the life-death-life cycle.  After that, if you're praying about something specific, you don't ask like you're asking a boss for a day off but rather focus on the divine mind, creative intelligence or whatever you want to call it working through you for the best outcome.  It's the same if you're praying for another person or for the world generally.

I know this sounds vague, but I can't even make myself want to believe anymore in a god who is little more than a bad-tempered human being with an insatiable appetite for flattery, and that's essentially the god of my Sunday School days.  If such a god exists, I have little to say to him.

As far as the Deity vs. the state of the world is concerned, I no longer believe that there was ever a perfect world where there was no conflict, sickness or death.  We now have some knowledge of human communities going back 25,000 years or so and millions of years of nonhuman life before that and not a shred of evidence that this perfect world ever existed for even a nanosecond.  The god that I pray to created the universe as it is, and it's working exactly as it's intended to.

[dot-matrix]

I pray.
I believe in God and I think Jesus is who he says he is.
That being said, I think a lot of what he said and what he tried to teach has been lost or twisted so much that it is almost un-discernable from the truth of his teachings. Religon has been changed from a freeing and beautiful way to be closer to God to a means to an end. That end being control of the masses. Certain people now feel they have the right to sit in judgement of others and use their religon to support it.

Amen Richard

[brokeplex]

I take the time to pray daily thanking God for His blessings in my life. I pray that He will guide me towards the direction I should follow in my life.

[Jeff Wrangler]

Yes. Ordinarily, formally, three times a day, Morning Prayer, Evening Prayer, and Compline. Other times "as needed."

[oilgun]

Not being a believer, I don't pray.  However, I meditate for both physical and mental well-being. 

[KristinDaBomb]

I don't pray. I just don't see the point in it.

[Artiste]

Is praying comforting and hoping ??

After reading all your wonderful posts, that just came to my mind!

At least, we want to make the world a better place ! - which is a gift from the Infinity,
because I can NOT make all the beautiful snowflakes which are all different; I can NOT make a planet like the Earth, the Moon, The Stars; but I can enjoy them and the snowflakes and all humans and other beings!! And can create peace and joys among all too !

Au revoir,
hugs to all ! Wonderful thread  subject David provided and may it continue forever !!

[CellarDweller]

yes, I pray.  It's not a daily ritual, but I do pray when I need to feel close to God.  Sometimes, I just offer up a prayer of thanks.

[Brown Eyes]

No, I don't pray.  I'm not religious or spiritual in any way. I'm particularly wary of organized religion (in any form or denomination).

[Front-Ranger]

No, not really, even when I felt I was close to death several times recently on a mountain. But being there did make me believe that there must be a God of some kind, because something was responsible for me making it to the bottom in one piece, and it was hardly just me!

[David In Indy]

No, not really, even when I felt I was close to death several times recently on a mountain. But being there did make me believe that there must be a God of some kind, because something was responsible for me making it to the bottom in one piece, and it was hardly just me!

You were close to death several times recently, Lee? What happened?!!       

[seadragon16]

No, I don't pray and I am very anti organised religion. I just cannot accept that so many terrible things could happen in the world if there was a 'god' and overall, religion seems to be responsible for more harm than good.

I was christened when I was a baby and sometimes used to go to catholic mass with my grandad when I was very little (I used to like singing hymns!  ), but it was more to keep my grandparents happy and I didn't go anymore after they died. My mum is a lapsed catholic and my dad an atheist.

But from about the ages of 14 to my early 20's I used to write a kind of diary, you know, long rants about how unfair life was and who I fancied that week, with a few quite good bits thrown in (embarassing to read now  ) but whenever I was worried about something or had a difficult decision to make, I used to write directly to someone () and ask them what I should do or ask them to make sure things would be ok and even commented a couple of times that I didn't even know who it was I was asking/directing what I was saying at.

I knew it was never 'god' I was intending to write to, but who knows who it was? 

[Artiste]

You do not need to be part of organized religion to pray, thank goodness!

One can NOT blame God, or Infinity, or Manitou, or another, for faults that humans do, such as murder! - I heared that and realized that now... more and more !

If it would not be for God which is Good, and some Good Helpful humans, I would not be alive, since I have been helped many times!

To me, God is Wonderful and so are many humans
!! - So I pray thanking the Spirit and Humans who helped me and who also accepted my help, and I ask daily, or more often, for health, happiness as well as properity for myself, my family and all others I have known, I know and will know, so we can all be helped and help ourselves!! - Prayers, that saved and saves me in many wondrous ways!

Maybe, it helped you too?

Au revoir,
hugs!

[Kerry]

Religion and spirituality are two vastly different concepts IMHO, that share very little in common.

For example, when I was younger, I was a very religious person, practicing religion in my everyday life and living an outwardly religious life. However, now that I look back on those distant days, I can see, with the benefit of hindsight, that I was not a particularly spiritual person back then.

Now, however, in my seniority, I consider myself to be a far more spiritual person than I even was in my youth, even though I no longer practice formal religion.

Given a choice, and having personally experienced both religion and spirituality in my life, I would choose the latter over the former any day.

[Artiste]

Kerry, I can see your point, but both are OK in some ways, as well as non-religion countries or persons are too

[horo04]

It's funny how alot of people say they don't believe in a god then when death comes knocking on their door they all of the sudden get mighty religious.  Do I pray? of course....to think there is a God out there only makes sense.  I look around at creation and think someone must have created all of this.  To think we came from a chaotic explosion that created life beginning in goo to being hairy apes to being what we are today boggles the mind.  It takes more faith to believe in that then to believing in a god.

[delalluvia]

It's funny how alot of people say they don't believe in a god then when death comes knocking on their door they all of the sudden get mighty religious.  Do I pray? of course....to think there is a God out there only makes sense.  I look around at creation and think someone must have created all of this.  To think we came from a chaotic explosion that created life beginning in goo to being hairy apes to being what we are today boggles the mind.  It takes more faith to believe in that then to believing in a god.

It's probably fear.  Fear of the unknown and/or total extinction and its comforting to hope that there's someplace else to go.  There have been quite a few atheists though, who died atheists.

[Brown Eyes]

It's funny how alot of people say they don't believe in a god then when death comes knocking on their door they all of the sudden get mighty religious.  Do I pray? of course....to think there is a God out there only makes sense.  I look around at creation and think someone must have created all of this.  To think we came from a chaotic explosion that created life beginning in goo to being hairy apes to being what we are today boggles the mind.  It takes more faith to believe in that then to believing in a god.

See to me, evolution makes perfect sense.  The idea that scientific processes of all kinds take place and have taken place forever, without any kind of rational reason or grand plan behind them just seems obvious to me. 

When it comes to many of the major, organized religions' explanations of how life came to be... the false note to me is how human-centric most of those explanations are.  If there is a "god"-like force out there, I find it hard to believe that the details of human behavior and existence would be the prime concern given the immensity of everything that must exist in the universe (much of which humans have no idea about given our very limited range of exploration). 

It's probably fear.  Fear of the unknown and/or total extinction and its comforting to hope that there's someplace else to go.  There have been quite a few atheists though, who died atheists.

My feeling is that, as Del mentions here, a lot of religion and religious stories are about humans trying to assuage their fears of the unknown (and I think this cuts across all civilizations from the ancient Egyptians and Greeks to contemporary civilizations with current forms of religion).  Voltaire once talked about the idea that if god didn't create humans then humans had to create god as a way of explaining the unknown to themselves.

I personally find a lot more comfort in philosophy than in religion.  And, I think it's easier for me to be somewhat cynical about religion because my parents didn't raise me within any church, etc.  We celebrate Christmas mostly as a social thing.  My Dad was raised Episcopal and my Mom was raised Methodist, but religion hasn't really ever played a major role in my family.  So, I often stand back and look at religion as an intellectual puzzle or a set of philosophical ideals that can be debated and discussed.  I'm sure that this kind of thing might be harder for people who were raised with a strong religious upbringing.

[Artiste]

Merci atz!

You saying:
  My Dad was raised Episcopal and my Mom was raised Methodist,                   
...

Atz, then may I say that maybe you are therefore a relative to Ennis and Jack ??

Au revoir,
hugs!

[Kerry]

It's funny how alot of people say they don't believe in a god then when death comes knocking on their door they all of the sudden get mighty religious. Do I pray? of course....to think there is a God out there only makes sense.  I look around at creation and think someone must have created all of this.  To think we came from a chaotic explosion that created life beginning in goo to being hairy apes to being what we are today boggles the mind.  It takes more faith to believe in that then to believing in a god.

That reminds me of Henry VIII, who recanted on his death bed and called for a priest to give him Last Rights.   

[Artiste]

Every day !

[ednbarby]

I don't pray.  I hope.  Really, it's all the same - directed positive thinking.

[Artiste]

I pray and hope every day !!

[Monika]

I don´t pray, never have, never will. I don´t believe there is an invidible man in the sky, so to me it´s pointless. I rather read a good fan fic anytime

[Artiste]

Good !  To each his/her own ways !! Freedom !

I desire, pray, hope, and even when one of my brothers is here now dying, my asking is that God makes him better and better !

Au revoir,
hugs!