I Prayed to God for my Car
Was in conversation with three Christians a few weeks back. It was a pretty healthy conversation, no bashing whatsoever, just questions and answers. Then one of them told me a story. He said that he prayed to God for his vehicle. He prayed to God so specifically that he even mentioned the c0lor and make of the car.
Guess what??? God gave him a different car! According to him, something better. Provided that God knows best and that his prayer is still valid, I asked him a simple question.
“Do you think you’d be able to buy that car even if you didn’t pray to God?” I asked.
He thought for a while and honestly replied with a clear, “Yes” to which I followed up with another question, “Then why pray when you get it by yourself?”
You see my dear reader, lots of people tend to interpret good things that happen to their lives as answered prayers even if it’s not. I didn’t pray to god for a salary increase but I got it. I didn’t pray to god for the lot that we were able to buy nor did I pray to god for the food that we ate. So why pray? Honestly, I think it’s a total waste of time.
Thinking about it, I’m sure some of you are already saying that my wife or my family was praying for me and so god answered their prayers. If that’s the case, if people can just pray for me, then the more reason for me not to pray at all.
If you think prayers can change the world then please pray for me to see god – whoever he or she is. Maybe you’ll get an answer.
Posted in Thoughts of a Filipino Atheist
July 7th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
Ever notice that people never pray when a situation is clearly NOT ambiguous? For instance, people might pray for cancer to go into remission, or for one to get better from a cold, or what have you.
On the other hand, people will almost invariably never pray for an amputated limb to grow back or for one to sprout wings or to be able to read minds.
The thing is, in cases of ambiguous situations where the reason for good fortune goes unexplained, God or the goods will always be held responsible for it by default, even if the real, rational explanation will always surface if you are able to dig for it in the right way.
People CAN recover from cancer or the common cold on their own yet we always seem to credit the supernatural with these sorts of things.
People however, cannot grow limbs, or sprout wings, or gain the ability to read minds and even most Christians will recognize that prayer in this instance (as supposed to other instances, in their thinking)will be pointless.
Hilarious, eh?
July 7th, 2009 at 11:06 pm
some typos there.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:46 am
Oh my, a lot of people really refer to prayer like a wishing well… That’s what I find hilarious… If you know the REAL purpose of a prayer, you will know that for real Christians, prayer is a way for them to thank God, and not some long distance call to ask for what you want… I really think those people who prays for material things doesn’t really believe in God…
July 8th, 2009 at 12:49 am
Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer…
-this is true, but if those thousand hands starts to work for the same goal, the other two hands will surely be left so badly behind… haha!
July 8th, 2009 at 12:52 am
“God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?”
-also true, and whoever said this quote believes in God, he just doesn’t want to praise Him because he wants to praise himself… And he is serving his purpose in life, to spread the word that there is no God… Be proud of him…
July 8th, 2009 at 12:54 am
“If all the Christians who have called other Christians ‘not really a Christian’ were to vanish, there’d be no Christians left.”
-…and the only ones left will be the Christians who doesn’t really need to be acknowledged as Christians, because they already know they are…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:00 am
“What has been Christianity’s fruits? Superstition, Bigotry and Persecution.” – James Madison
-…because they used Christianity as a profit-making, power-hogging, and false-leading belief to fatten themselves… Christianity has nothing to do with it, its the people who use it the wrong way because they misunderstand it, or in the other hand, they REALLY do understand it… Its their intentions that makes Christianity look bad…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:02 am
“Organized religion: The world’s largest pyramid scheme.” – Bernard Katz
-I totally agree, because they are ORGANIZED… There goes the intentions again…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:05 am
“Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-o, and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.” – Penn Jillette
-this is just silly, I mean, does this tell you that if you believe in God, you must not believe in anything else? Hahaha! Very misleading, but effective considering a lot of atheist believes this…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:08 am
“Religions are like pills, which must be swallowed whole without chewing.” – Anonymous
-I agree, because most, if not all, religion today just tells story and doesn’t want the people who listens to them know what the stories REALLY mean so that they could come up with their own stories to benefit themselves… Typical intentions…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:09 am
“I distrust those people who know so well what God wants them to do because I notice it always coincides with their own desires.” – Susan B. Anthony
-Need I say more?
July 8th, 2009 at 1:11 am
“Animals do not have gods, they are smarter than that.” – Ronnie Snow
-If he really believes that, and if you do, you are no smarter than the animals he was referring to…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:16 am
“It is an interesting and demonstrable fact, that all children are atheists and were religion not inculcated into their minds, they would remain so.” – Ernestine Rose
-you know what I see in this quote? The inclusion of children and their innocence that we just got to believe this one… Again, it’s misleading and exploitative… I sense desperation…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:18 am
“Religion might be helpful in death, but education is helpful in life.” – Anonymous
-Yes! Finally, a quote I can almost believe in, except for the fact that religion is not helpful in death, funeral services are… Why include religion in this quote? So inappropriate…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:24 am
“The fact that a believer is happier than a skeptic is no more to the point than the fact that a drunken man is happier than a sober one. The happiness of credulity is a cheap and dangerous quality.” – Bernard Shaw
-Another qoute that tries to corelate faith with something that is obviously not related to it, but I can see the point… However, believers aren’t drunk, they are the sober one because the ones who are drunk are the ones already in the pool of their own wine…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:26 am
“Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a God superior to themselves. Most Gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.” – Robert A Heinlein
-and you’ve got to know who those gods are…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:33 am
Is God willing to prevent evil, but not able? Then he is not omnipotent. Is he able, but not willing? Then he is malevolent. Is he both able and willing? Then whence cometh evil? Is he neither able nor willing? Then why call him God?” – Epicurus
-He is able, but not willing to prevent it entirely… So that Epicurus and all those who believes what he says will exist and came to be, so that good and evil will have their separate recognitions… Like I said in another comment, “Imperfection is Perfection”…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:39 am
“A man’s ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education, and social ties and needs; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeed be in a poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward after death.” – Albert Einstein
-the only ones who fear punishments are the ones who are aware that they should be punished, and the ones who hopes for a reward after death are the ones who think that they shouldn’t be punished…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:41 am
“I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.” – Daniel Boorstin
-Was he generalizing just now? tsk, tsk…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:43 am
“I have observed that the world has suffered far less from ignorance than from pretensions to knowledge. It is not skeptics or explorers but fanatics and ideologues who menace decency and progress. No agnostic ever burned anyone at the stake or tortured a pagan, a heretic, or an unbeliever.” – Daniel Boorstin
-Pretension to knowledge, kinda suits him well, don’t you think?
July 8th, 2009 at 1:46 am
“Remember, Jesus would rather constantly shame gays than let orphans have a family.” – Steven Colbert
-Was Stephen Colbert Jesus’ neighbor? Stephen seems to know him pretty well, like they were childhood friends or something and he has juicy bits on what Jesus has done…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:47 am
“The invisible and the non-existent look very much alike.” – Delos B. McKown
-very much alike, but not alike..
July 8th, 2009 at 1:49 am
“What’s ‘God’? Well, you know, when you want something really bad and you close your eyes and you wish for it? God’s the guy that ignores you.” – From the movie “The Island
-God’s the guy that ignores you.” When you don’t deserve it…
July 8th, 2009 at 1:50 am
“Religion is excellent stuff for keeping common people quiet.” – Napoleon Bonaparte
-Who runs this religions? God? Or men?
July 8th, 2009 at 1:54 am
“Only the fool says in his heart: There is no god – The wise says it to the world.” – Anonymous
-The arrogant ones will surely agree on this… Why miss the opportunity to say to the world “I’m wise ’cause I don’t believe in God”, and be acknowledged by people who has the same belief and be referred to as “wise” for doing it?
July 8th, 2009 at 1:57 am
“Faith does not give you the answers, it just stops you asking the questions.” – Frater Ravus
-There are two things why you stop asking questions:
1. You were never satisfied with the answer, but decided to just believe it because everyone else seem to believe it too… or;
2. You were already satisfied with the answer.
July 8th, 2009 at 1:58 am
Hehe.. I’ll be back…
July 8th, 2009 at 2:02 am
“Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence” – Carl Sagan
-Like this quote that I heard from ssomewhere “Extreme situations call for extreme measures”… hehe… It’s obvious Carl Sagan never saw the “extraordinary evidence”, because he never looked for it, and he never TRULY saw it…
July 8th, 2009 at 2:05 am
“If I were not an atheist, I would believe in a God who would choose to save people on the basis of the totality of their lives and not the pattern of their words. I think he would prefer an honest and righteous atheist to a TV preacher whose every word is God, God, God, and whose every deed is foul, foul, foul.” – Isaac Asimov
-Did judgement came yet? Oh, I must’ve missed it… His quote proves one thing: He is an atheist…
July 8th, 2009 at 2:07 am
“If God cannot be taken literally when He writes of the rising sun, then how can one insist that he be taken literally when writing of the rising of the Son?” – Gerardus Bouw
-Simple, it was never literal…
July 8th, 2009 at 2:07 am
“Calling Atheism a religion is like calling bald a hair color.” – Don Hirschberg
-Haha!
July 8th, 2009 at 2:11 am
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.” – Anonymous
-The man will die if everything he does is just pray, pray, pray… Again, the inclusion of a quote from the Bible and bending it like it was meant to go with the last part is really like desperation to me… Let me rearrange it back to how it really was…:
“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man to fish and he will eat for a lifetime…”
True, isn’t it?
July 10th, 2009 at 7:28 pm
God has a grand plan.
God see things from start to end
God is unchanging as he is all-knowing
So, what is a pray for?
July 17th, 2009 at 11:16 am
Edwin, God does not change, IMMUTABLE nga sya Eh…
July 17th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
I wonder why Atheist hate a God. May I know what are the negative effects to a person’s life in believing there is God?
July 17th, 2009 at 12:33 pm
Elvis, God is nothing more than just a delusion. Tell me, is there anything good in delusion?
July 17th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Mike, do you really hate God??
July 17th, 2009 at 2:53 pm
edwin, prayer is an expression of gratitude. its not overcoming God’s reluctance or something, but an expression of complete reverence and dependence.in simple terms, prayer is worship.
July 18th, 2009 at 12:19 pm
How I can hate someone who doesn’t exist?
July 20th, 2009 at 11:28 am
Mike.Does delusion exist?
July 21st, 2009 at 10:44 am
Geez, do you even know what delusion means???
July 21st, 2009 at 10:46 am
Hmmm, so why do people ask for things in prayer if it is just an expression of gratitude? You do ask your god for something sometimes right?
July 25th, 2009 at 12:09 am
Belief in God is dangerous because people are dangerous. People have power, God does not. People’s behavior is determined by what they think, feel, and experience. To say belief in God has nothing to do with the Crusades, racism, and attacks on science is foolhardy.
You ask, what harm comes from belief in the non-existent? I ask, what good comes from it?
July 29th, 2009 at 11:25 am
why dangerous? you’ve been God?
July 31st, 2009 at 12:38 am
How can you be something that doesn’t exist?
August 5th, 2009 at 8:57 am
mike, prayer is an expression of gratitude. when you ask you say thank you right? Unless your ungrateful enuf not to do dat.
Mike Qualify the term “Delusion”.
August 5th, 2009 at 8:59 am
matt, unbelief in God is even more dangerous. people’s behavior is determined by our “evil human nature”.
August 5th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
Hi Brainless,
You seem to miss the point. You say that prayer is an expression of gratitude. Gratitude is merely thanksgiving, it doesn’t involve asking for anything. Prayer on the other hand is always about asking – thanking second.
As for delusion – you can just look it up in the dictionary.
Mike
August 5th, 2009 at 1:02 pm
Brainless, You seem to be a very very active commenter and I thank you for that. What makes you think that our nature is evil?
August 6th, 2009 at 2:00 am
Brainless, brainless. nuff said.
August 11th, 2009 at 9:41 pm
Whoever this Martin guy is, will you stop spamming? Your attitude is unbefitting of what your god taught you. Gandhi was right: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.”
Sooner or later, I’ll find you, kick the living shit out of you, slowly saw off your limbs, rape you, and fucking shove that cross up your ass til you see Jesus.
Have a nice day.
August 17th, 2009 at 8:40 pm
Whoever this Martin guy is, will you stop spamming? Your attitude is unbefitting of what your god taught you. Gandhi was right: “I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians.”
Sooner or later, I’ll find you, kick the living shit out of you, slowly saw off your limbs, rape you, and fucking shove that cross up your ass til you see Jesus.
Have a nice day.
Almoravid,
-Haha! I am not spamming… You seeing it as spamming is of no surprise to me… I was just answering those misleading quotes that this site is showing people…
Go on, find me… and if you do, do as you say… But after that, what will that prove? It’s up to you, you will be the one wasting your time anyway… Your violent reactions only mean one thing: I’m getting in your nerves because you don’t like the idea that I’m messing with your head… You may say otherwise, but you know better right?
You know whats worse than delusion? Lying to yourself…:)
August 17th, 2009 at 8:50 pm
Hmmm, so why do people ask for things in prayer if it is just an expression of gratitude? You do ask your god for something sometimes right?
Mike Lopez,
Ang gumagwa nun e yung mga taong sumisipsip lang… get the point?
Correct me Im wrong, but please don’t generalize ok?
August 17th, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Anyway almoravid, why do you seem so offended? Did I just diss one of your quotes there or something? Hehe..
Have a nice day as well..:)
August 17th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
I’m waiting for a comment from you, mr. Mike Lopez… Answer all of mine, then it’s all good… It wouldn’t take you that much of time to answer me right?
But still, if you choose to just read mine, then that’s ok as well…
August 17th, 2009 at 9:04 pm
Matthew Hiles,
Wait for my comment on your comment… My heads kinda aching right now, can’t think straight…
August 18th, 2009 at 11:20 am
mike,
man by nature is evil, that’s my blatant statement. Ok, I’ll give you a simple illustration about that. have you taught yourself to be evil? Obviously NONE. Its just our nature is naturally inclined to evil. Romans 3 is clear about that, “There’s none that doeth good, no not one”
have someone taught their(our) children to be selfish? None. The book of proverbs says “foolishness is bound to a child’s heart”. You don’t have to teach a child to be selfish, its just there. suppose you give a child a toy, do you think he will not cry if you take it from him?
August 18th, 2009 at 11:24 am
mike,
man by nature is evil, that’s my blatant statement. Ok, I’ll give you a simple illustration about that. have you taught yourself to be evil? Obviously NONE. Its just our nature is naturally inclined to evil. Romans 3 is clear about that, “There’s none that doeth good, no not one”
have someone taught their(our) children to be selfish? None. The book of proverbs says “foolishness is bound to a child’s heart”. You don’t have to teach a child to be selfish, its just there. suppose you give a child a toy, do you think he will not cry if you take it away from him?
August 18th, 2009 at 12:03 pm
Martin,
You ask nga something, but the point is whether the answer to your prayer is negative or postive, still you should be thankful about it.
di ba pagpapasalamat din? That’s the “gratitude” sense in prayer.
August 18th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
Mike you said,
“You seem to miss the point. You say that prayer is an expression of gratitude. Gratitude is merely thanksgiving, it doesn’t involve asking for anything. Prayer on the other hand is always about asking – thanking second.”
my simple point is, prayer is gratitude.the nature of prayer is Gratitude, asking comes second.if a Christian pray does he start his prayer immediately w/ asking?
at the end of the prayer
di ba nagpapasalamat rin?
December 17th, 2009 at 5:13 pm
half of the atheist population are gay! thats a proven fact. why? because they seek proof of their existence by grouping themselves and bashing god that they wish he love them. somewhat like the creature satan did.
-Arguing on the internet is like running at the special olympics. Even if you win, you’re still retarded
December 21st, 2009 at 12:49 pm
joke_on_you,
Toinkz…hahahaha nice one there.
Arguing on the internet can sometimes be fun.
December 21st, 2009 at 4:44 pm
Mike, God knows what we need and want before we even go into our room and pray/ask.
I’ll tell you this, that Christian friend of yours already got the answer to his prayer long before he even asked God for it. That is the reason why he is capable of buying that car even without praying. God already gave him the job, the wisdom, the money, the car without him even realizing it. It is all a matter of “when”, we (you and me) kneel down and pray and ask Him. It is all a matter of “when” we thought of needing or wanting something – in this case, the car.
Next you are going to ask, “then why do we need to pray if God has already given what we asks of Him before we asked Him?”
For “officiality” if you will, and of course to show gratitude, to show to Him that we recognize Him as our Provider, the Creator, the One True God.
So yes, one can get what he needs or want even without prayer, and as you yourself said, that is about yourself not about God.
That is the difference. That is why we must pray. If you pray, you recognize the Creator as your Provider, etc. If you don’t, you recognize your own effort, your own strength, your own intelligence.
It all comes down to Faith. If your Faith is to the One True God (or some other false gods and goddesses), then you will pray regardless if you are a Christian, a Satanist, a Buddhist, a Hindu, a Taoist.
If your faith is with yourself, then you will not pray – why pray to yourself, right? “Pray” means “asking”, so why ask yourself to buy yourself a car, correct?
Finally, prayer is personal. You don’t say to a king or to a lord, “Mike prays why art thee punishing him”. That king or lord won’t bother. But if you say it yourself: “Mike: I pray my lord, why art thee punishing me?” That king or lord will more likely reply back to you.
Prayer is personal. Yes we can pray for you Mike, but that’s how far we can go. Praying yourself far surpasses the prayers of all the people praying on your behalf.
December 21st, 2009 at 11:36 pm
Juan, everything you said just shows that prayer is such a waste of time!!!
December 22nd, 2009 at 9:36 am
are you sure Mike?
now tell me, honestly, do you find masturbation a waste of time??
December 23rd, 2009 at 11:11 am
@brainless Depends on who’s in my mind.
Hehe.
December 24th, 2009 at 4:41 pm
it is implied, according to your response, that masturbation per se is not a waste of time. Well in fact it gives hedonistic satisfaction to normal people. Am I right?
That question is actually coherent to your statement: prayer is such a waste of time!!!
waste of time??
.talking to the most satisfying reality is never a waste of time mike.
.communing to the One who created you is never a waste of time.
.talking to my Heavenly Father is never a waste of time.
.talking to the Absolutely Sovereign God who created both theists and claiming atheists is never a waste of time.
waste of time huh, I pity you mike. for you masturbation is not a waste of time, well in fact masturbation can enslave you.
December 25th, 2009 at 2:31 pm
don’t you brainless? don’t you masturbate? it’s just like praying, it brings you closer to heaven.
and yes, prayer is still a waste of time…
.talking to the most satisfying reality????? what reality?
.communing to the one who created me????? what creator?
.talking to my heavenly father????? yah, right! what made you think he wants you as a son (if he does exist)?
.talking to the absolutely sovereign god????? which god? jehovah? allah? krishna? zeus? tell me…
you see, you really think that what you believe in is the absolute truth – the truth that came from god himself and yet you fail to consider or even learn the other religions. you are blind my friend for you believe in what you believe without bearing thought of the other beliefs. you claim that your god is the one true god which implies that the gods of the other people are devils and/or false gods. how dare you do that.
now, let me at this very moment challenge you to ask your god to prove his power and might to the rest of the world – to all religion – to all people theists and atheists alike. are you not an emissary of your god? surely you are, your bible says so. you’re an ambassador of christ are you not. so ask your boss, your god, your father, your supreme almighty and absolutely sovereign god to prove himself in a manner that will be irrefutable to the rest of the world.
and oh, yes you can ask for help from your brethrens to pray at the same time. hopefully all your voices will reach your god and hopefully he’ll honor it… after all, you’re all ambassadors of god… and whatever you have agreed upon earth shall be agreed upon in heaven.
December 25th, 2009 at 2:36 pm
how many theists are there? i bet a huge majority. now, let’s say that there are only about 2.1 billion theists in the world each praying 1 hour per day to their god…
that will be 2.1billion x 1 hour = 2.1 billion hours
2.1 billion hours = 87500000 days
87500000 days = 239726 years!!!
now, please try spending that amount of time in something more useful like helping other people get out of poverty, feeding the hungry and letting those who don’t have shelter stay with you in your houses. i’m sure that amount of time spent in charity will do a lot in changing the world as opposed to prayer.
yes, prayer is a waste of time!
December 26th, 2009 at 2:07 pm
calm down mike.
Prayer is not a waste of time.
who am i to challenge my GOD?
This God that Im referring is the BIBLICAl God the God of abraham, jacob, jonah, john the baptist, etc.
January 3rd, 2010 at 9:56 pm
argh! that god sucks… a lot… for not doing something about all those wasted time.
January 8th, 2010 at 5:27 pm
are you sure mike?? what about my personal experience with Him mike??
do I have to dismiss my experience with God as nonsense since it cannot be proven by Limited Human Reasons??
iT’S NEvER A WASTE OF tIME mIKE…
what about my answered prayers?
January 10th, 2010 at 3:10 am
Oh well, I can’t contest your so-called experience but I think there’s another word for that – delusion
January 20th, 2010 at 2:13 pm
simply because you have no experience??
January 21st, 2010 at 7:00 am
No, simply because it’s illogical.
January 22nd, 2010 at 5:59 pm
is that so?? Illogical, how? I really find atheism as illogical, very illogical. despite the very obvious Truth, still you atheists continue to be blinded. This blindness is deliberate blindness, you decide for yourself to be an atheist…simply because you want to be an atheist.
yes, I must submit to you that faith can sometimes be illogical in a sense that it is beyond logic.
January 22nd, 2010 at 11:35 pm
see, that’s the problem with you my friend. you think that i am an atheist because i wanted to be. no, that’s not the case. it was research and study that brought me to atheism. i of course cannot speak for the rest of the atheists. what makes you think that we are the blind and not you? is it because that you have some father figure in the sky guiding you? heck, that’s exactly like kids who believes in santa (or perhaps you also do believe in santa).
February 5th, 2010 at 3:15 pm
what kind of research??
have you researched on Trducianism? Calvinisim? Total Depravity?
Have you considered all the arguments that prove the existence of GOD?
Do you believe in eternity?
Can you explain to me eternity?
I’m not saying that I’m not blind as you are…I was.If not by the grace of God I would have continued in my blindness. Im not saying that i know everything.