Reply to When you pray for something, do you wish, believe or hope or trust?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]When I pray, I wish for something, knowing that it may or may not happen.  If you watch movies with time travel themes, you'll see that even small and simple actions can have repercussions over many other things.  Even one small change in your life may affect many others and all are God's children, so he can't prioritize you and your current wishes over all his other children and their wishes and lives.  For example, say someone wishes their dying relative doesn't die, but i[b]f that relative lives, they will do something that will negatively affect many others[/b].  God many not be able to answer all prayers well for everyone.

So you wish, and you hope that an omniscient one who can see all the possibilities, ramifications and consequences can decide what is best for the greater good.[/quote]

Are you suggesting that God purposely doesn't answer some prayers because He knows the long term repercussions will be bad for someone else? That he would purposely let someone die so they couldn't harm someone else later?

That's pretty complicated.  Did you come to that conclusion yourself or were you taught that by your parents or in church?[/quote]

I was taught that God is omniscient and knows the consequences of all possibilities.  In the story of the exodus from Egypt, I was particularly struck as a child when God says "How can I rejoice when my children are dying."  It taught me that there can be different perspectives to all things that happen.  While the death of Pharoah's soldiers was good for the fleeing Jews, it was a tragedy for God as they were also his children.

I read a lot of science fiction both now and growing up, so time travel and time travel themes was something that helped me develop my own personal set of "consequences'.  Seeing things like the elderly man who lost control of his car and plowed through a farmer's market killing multiple people (2003 Santa Monica, CA), lead me to come up with the argument that perhaps if this man had been dying of something earlier that if God had an option to let him die that he could have saved 10 more of His children from dying at the Farmer's Market.

So, I believe that God is omniscient and he has to process billions of prayers and actions, reactions, ramifications and consequences and he will only interfere (the whole free will thing) when the consequences of not interfering will be significantly worse than the consequences for acting.  Otherwise, he tends to not interfere.  So prayers are answered when there are no downsides.  But I'm not ominiscient, so I can't know all the things that God needs to process to make such decisions and choices.  So, being a man of Faith, I believe that He will do what is best.[/quote]

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