By use of a circular argument, a.k.a. Catch 22, we are taught that a failure of prayer is our fault. Religious leaders would lead you to believe that your faith was weak. They indicate to you that if you pray, and your prayer is not answered it is your fault. They not say this directly. It is implied. You are left to draw this conclusion. When that which you prayed for, asked God for, does not happen, it is your fault. You did not believe sufficiently. Your faith was weak. The smartest ones say, "This is a test of our faith. If we have faith, and ask for it, God will deliver." Then the smart ones stop talking, leaving you to come to the conclusion that you are the one at fault for having weak faith. If you believe that, you are hooked. No matter how much you wiggle and flop, you will never get free. I find it actually more comforting to believe that God does not answer prayers. This way I do not beg for that which I will net get. I also do not waste a lot of energy on hope. I believe that God never answers prayers because it is not in His interests to do so. If God answers prayers, He creates a dependency in us, of Him. God does not need dependents. God does not have a problem with the IRS. God does not want to weaken us. He does not want to lessen our ability to perform the tasks He has set for us to do. God needs strong, independent workers with free will. A curse directed at God is just as effective as prayer. A curse may actually be more effective than a prayer directed at God. Neither one affects Him. God does not care. One is not “better” than the other. Both may have, in fact, the same purpose: to focus one’s own mental energy and physical strength for stronger efforts. If you are angry at God, your anger causes more adrenaline to be dumped into your blood stream. If you are angry at God,your heart pumps harder. If you are angry at God, your muscles work harder. If you are angry at God, you get the job done that you could not have completed without the anger. You used God's Plan for you to do God's work. That was what was important, not a few words. God is a pragmatist. If you can't get the same result with a prayer, stop praying, and start cursing God. Get God's job done. God wants results, not worship and prayer. The true purpose for prayer, or even a curse, is not to beg a favor from a favor dispensing, gift-giving God. The true purpose of prayer is to center, or focus, one’s own mental energy. The true purpose for this mental focus is to focus your physical strength to achieve a closeness, a connection, with God. You possibly might even find enlightenment. You might thereby seek to achieve the best performance in any task set by you, or God. Use prayer if you have a math test and need to focus your skills. Use prayer if you have a sporting event and want to focus on athletic skills. Use prayer if you have a coming action on the battlefield. Use prayer if you have to deal with the illness, or death of a loved one. Use prayer to seek to achieve a connection with God. Note the differences in the examples above: the first four are high stress environments, while the last is, or should be, a calm, introspective focusing of mental energy centering on the concept of God-hood. The trick, of course, is to react the same way in all of these situations. Don’t beg God in prayer. You already know that you are less than God. Certainly God knows it. He isn’t going to pay attention to you anyway. He isn’t going to answer your prayer. So begging in prayer, only diminishes your own perception of yourself. “There are no atheists in foxholes.” This is another way of saying that in times of crisis, high stress, high danger, it is O.K. to be human. At such times it is quite natural to return to our ancient, instinctive, animalistic, childlike behaviors. We are only recognizing our own personal inability to protect ourselves in any reasonable way. We cannot control what happens to us. It is quite natural to revert to childishness. What difference does it make? Most of us were taught begging prayers by our parents, religious leaders, and community. Forgive yourself. Yes, turn to that which is larger than yourself for protection and help. What is larger than God? Don't practice harder. Don't think harder. Don't work harder. Don't try. Just beg. Why work when you can beg? God has already given you all of what you need. God will not help you. He will not hear you. He will not answer you. However, by turning to God, you will possibly feel better. You will be focused outside of yourself. You will have recognized your situation and can move closer to calmness. You will also possibly feel better. You will be better prepared to try again. I have been assured by men who know. They were there. They lived through the experience. Their advice: Spend more time digging your foxhole deeper. Then you would feel a lot better. You will also have a better chance to survive. Confession being good for the soul. Only to this extent: By saying a confession aloud to another person you are taking responsibility. Responsibility for your omissions and commissions. You are recognizing and taking responsibility for your actions. My own experience with the foxhole analogy was when our first child was being born. My wife was having some difficulty with the labor. The doctors were getting excited. I could read that. They also recognized that I was becoming unstable on my feet. They had me sit down on the floor with my head on my knees. I prayed then to a nameless “God” asking that my wife would be O.K. I prayed that the child would be “normal.” There was nothing I could do that was going to influence the outcome. Any rational thought would suggest that the time for worry had long since passed. A similar thought also suggests that God was going to be of little assistance in that delivery room. When you are knocked down, get back up, and go again. Get back on the horse. That’s real. That’s life. General Patton is supposed to have said, “Your task is not to die for your country. Your task is to help the poor bastard on the other side to die for his country.” It seems to apply to the discussion. War is a competition in which the weak and unlucky are weeded out. War is the ultimate excitement activity. It activates primal responses for maximum strength and physical capacity. War requires maximum use of intellect for survival. Seek personal inner strength to deal with whatever situation confronts you. God best helps those who help themselves. A prayer, itself, will probably not enhance performance on the playing field, or on a math test. Practice and study is at least more likely to be of assistance. A prayer can be very useful to you to calm you down, relieve stress, and allow a better focus to your thoughts and memory.
(c) Copyright 2006: George Wallace recently published a book on religion which lashes out at nearly all of the comfortable ideas about God, the trappings of organized religion, and the priesthood. His pithy comments and suggestions for a return to a God-centered personal religion will interest everyone. This article may be freely reprinted so long as all copyright attributions, and the full content of this resource box are included. www.OhGodIsThatYou.com
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