Prayers and Calling on the God Card

[Checkerboard Strangler]

I am living proof there are atheist in fox holes. This boy never prayed during his 2 Iraqi tours. The urge never came over me to bow down to some creator.

I was shooting news footage of the 1992 LA Riots downtown by Parker Center when a bullet hit my BetaCam and damn near knocked the camera off my shoulder, it slammed into my head pretty good and suddenly smoke was pouring out of the tape deck section, even though the camera side was still working.
I wasn't praying about almost getting shot in the head, but I did thank God for the bullet hitting the camcorder instead of me.
I prayed that I could disconnect the camera section and hook up a portable U-Matic VTR, and my prayers worked and I was able to shoot another hour's worth of material.
Yes, it was a BVV-5, which was a two piece unit stuck together with a 40-pin connector between the DXC camera head and the VTR.
Later BetaCams were unified one piece rigs.

 

[calamity]

I was shooting news footage of the 1992 LA Riots downtown by Parker Center when a bullet hit my BetaCam and damn near knocked the camera off my shoulder, it slammed into my head pretty good and suddenly smoke was pouring out of the tape deck section, even though the camera side was still working.
I wasn't praying about almost getting shot in the head, but I did thank God for the bullet hitting the camcorder instead of me.
I prayed that I could disconnect the camera section and hook up a portable U-Matic VTR, and my prayers worked and I was able to shoot another hour's worth of material.
Yes, it was a BVV-5, which was a two piece unit stuck together with a 40-pin connector between the DXC camera head and the VTR.
Later BetaCams were unified one piece rigs.

Awesome description of what I am referring to here. Perfect actually.

 

[calamity]

My car was spinning 360's like a figure skater after I ****ed up at 135 mph. As it drifted toward the underside of a semi's trailer, I quit fighting it, took my hand off the wheel and said, "I'm yours."

20 years later, I'm still here. None the worse for wear. Not that I ever, for one second, take that gift for granted.

 

[yankintx]

Just means that little war didn't really scare ya. Like I said. I maybe prayed five times. I've been in bad spots a few dozen. I'm very selective in my praying moments.

Hence, I'm batting a 1000.

If road side bombs and snipers bullets don't get me to pray, nothing will. As a species humans have been very superstitious. As science explains much of what used to be attributed to a higher power, religion will fall away. Europe is turning more secular, the complete opposite to us. But then again Europeans are overall better educated than American children. I

 

[yankintx]

I've been known to pray from time to time but the movie "Steel Magnolias" tells me that I probably pray the way Ouiser Boudreaux does, even though I'm a man.

What can I say, too many folks in my family who "pray at the drop of a hat".

And we've lost too many "Shelbys" in our family.

Now there is one over rated film.

 

[Angel]

William James (1842-1910)

"But petitional prayer is only one department of prayer; and if we take the word in the wider sense as meaning every kind of inward communion or conversation with the power recognized as divine, we can easily see that scientific criticism leaves it untouched. Prayer in this wide sense is the very soul and essence of religion."

The Varieties of Religious Experience (1902)

 

[devildavid]

I disagree. Chants are prayers....in principle. They are an attempt to connect to something abstract, be it a god, the universe, some vibration within, whatever.

Not really. They are attempts to influence our state of mind, which is a physical state. The same effect that can come from partaking of or participating in all human art forms, or observing nature, or physical activity, or whatever particular thing does it for you. Prayer has a more limited connotation, usually associated with belief in a deity of some sort.

 

[devildavid]

Just means that little war didn't really scare ya. Like I said. I maybe prayed five times. I've been in bad spots a few dozen. I'm very selective in my praying moments.

Hence, I'm batting a 1000.

You are crediting something that had zero impact on what happened to you. It is statistically insignificant.

 

[devildavid]

Awesome description of what I am referring to here. Perfect actually.

You are both referring to luck, not to anything that you had in your head that actually influenced results.

 

[calamity]

Not really. They are attempts to influence our state of mind, which is a physical state. The same effect that can come from partaking of or participating in all human art forms, or observing nature, or physical activity, or whatever particular thing does it for you. Prayer has a more limited connotation, usually associated with belief in a deity of some sort.

Odd, you know, because I don't believe in a deity of some sort, but yet "pray" nonetheless. :roll:

 

[calamity]

You are both referring to luck, not to anything that you had in your head that actually influenced results.

Perhpas

 

[calamity]

You are crediting something that had zero impact on what happened to you. It is statistically insignificant.

No. I know for a fact that I would be dead had I continued to fight that steering wheel. Letting go is literally what saved my life.

 

[devildavid]

Odd, you know, because I don't believe in a deity of some sort, but yet "pray" nonetheless. :roll:

That isn't really prayer, it is wishing for an outcome. I think everyone does that.

 

[devildavid]

No. I know for a fact that I would be dead had I continued to fight that steering wheel. Letting go is literally what saved my life.

So it isn't the prayer, but the action you took. And once again, a lot of luck.

 

[calamity]

That isn't really prayer, it is wishing for an outcome. I think everyone does that.

I wasn't wishing. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I used it to force my mind to do nothing but recite the prayer....or, as was the case during the accident, I managed to do and think nothing at all without even needing the mantra.

 

[calamity]

So it isn't the prayer, but the action you took. And once again, a lot of luck.

One required the other.

 

[devildavid]

I wasn't wishing. In fact, it was quite the opposite. I used it to force my mind to do nothing but recite the prayer....or, as was the case during the accident, I managed to do and think nothing at all without even needing the mantra.

So how is not thinking the same as prayer? You reacted, and your reaction was fortuitous. The physical results were not caused by your thoughts, but by you actions. You did something during the accident; you stopped fighting the steering wheel. This action had more to do with the result than not thinking. That, and good fortune. We can never know the state of mind experienced by those who don't survive similar situations.

 

[devildavid]

One required the other.

The physical action is all that matters. And luck.

 

[Northern Light]

Depends on the context really.

The expression "God helps those who help themselves" comes to mind.

Prayer is often the placeholder for denial, apathy and inaction. How many times do people say "my prayers are with you" but they don't do the actual praying?

If you say you're praying for someone, you better be literally doing it, otherwise you are full of it.

I see this all the time on social media... or equivalent things like, "Sending healing vibes!", "Sending positive energy!"

How about you get off your ass and actually do something like lend practical support?

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Now there is one over rated film.

Oh shux, it was a GREAT film. And I don't even care that it was a "chick flick"...I laughed hard.
The other Herbert Ross film I really loved was Soapdish.
Kevin Kline, Sally Field, Whoopie Goldberg, Garry Marshall, Rob Lowe...pure ****ing magic.
"Don't call me Mister Loman!!"

 

[Checkerboard Strangler]

Odd, you know, because I don't believe in a deity of some sort, but yet "pray" nonetheless. :roll:

I don't believe in an "anthropomorphic" deity, you know; some giant old bearded man living in the sky. For all we know, "God" might be a black hole.
After all, that's definitely something which is omnipotent...it is even able to bend the fabric of space and time, and nothing in the universe can survive it, as far as we know.

 

[calamity]

The physical action is all that matters. And luck.

Not true. If my mind went to a different place, a different outcome would have been the result.

 

[calamity]

I don't believe in an "anthropomorphic" deity, you know; some giant old bearded man living in the sky. For all we know, "God" might be a black hole.
After all, that's definitely something which is omnipotent...it is even able to bend the fabric of space and time, and nothing in the universe can survive it, as far as we know.

Sure. We have absolutely no idea what lies beneath the universe. What lies inside of a black hole is also impossible to define.

 

[calamity]

Depends on the context really.

The expression "God helps those who help themselves" comes to mind.

Prayer is often the placeholder for denial, apathy and inaction. How many times do people say "my prayers are with you" but they don't do the actual praying?

If you say you're praying for someone, you better be literally doing it, otherwise you are full of it.

I see this all the time on social media... or equivalent things like, "Sending healing vibes!", "Sending positive energy!"

How about you get off your ass and actually do something like lend practical support?

It was the inaction aspect of most praying people which triggered this thread. I was watching a movie where a small group waited for their doom with prayer. Another chased after a futile solution. The third simply fought on and ended up finding a small window or opportunity, which allowed them to escape death. Fiction, of course, but it certainly provided me food for thought.

I guess, for me, I'm the say a quick prayer or stop to think (if you prefer it put that way) and then react kind of guy, even if said reaction means letting go of control. Funny to me is how that can actually lead to seeing another option.

 

[Northern Light]

It was the inaction aspect of most praying people which triggered this thread. I was watching a movie where a small group waited for their doom with prayer. Another chased after a futile solution. The third simply fought on and ended up finding a small window or opportunity, which allowed them to escape death. Fiction, of course, but it certainly provided me food for thought.

I guess, for me, I'm the say a quick prayer or stop to think (if you prefer it put that way) and then react kind of guy, even if said reaction means letting go of control. Funny to me is how that can actually lead to seeing another option.

I find that in popular media there is a bias toward one or the other, depending on the bias of the creator of the work. In reality, anything can happen because of anything. I do believe prayer works in some situations, but people shouldn't get righteous about it... i.e. "if you never pray then you'll never be helped". I believe God helps everyone on their path, regardless if they take notice or not, just like how sometimes the pragmatic or materialistic solution wins out. People who claim one or the other is "best" are not using the full toolbox.

Whether you want to call it prayer or intentional thinking, it helps move situations forward a lot. I believe there is more to reality than meets the eye and we still don't fully understand how our consciousness can interact with it as part of it. I've been in situations that were total hell and somehow the activation of prayer attracted solutions. Likewise I've been in situations where I prayed when I should've been using my logical brain instead.

It takes all kinds.