How to pray?

[dimreepr]

14 hours ago, Peterkin said:

 

I didn't say both were correct. I said the analogy of Newton-Einstein and Jesus-Muhammad was good: in both cases, the person who lived later had the other's ideas to draw on.

However,

With science, we can test hypotheses and measure the degree of accuracy of any prediction. 

With prophets, we have no way of measuring or testing the "correctness" of their pronouncements and denouncments. We have no standard of comparison for any two prophets' degree of accuracy; we don't even know how to interpret the meaning of their prophecies. 

I'm suggesting contentment as an hypothesis in how to interpret their meaning and see beyond the 'so called' contradictions.

"I didn't say both were correct. I said the analogy of Newton-Einstein and Jesus-Muhammad was good: in both cases, the person who lived later had the other's ideas to draw on."

Einstein had the benefit of understanding the language Newton used and could build on that. 

Muhammad only understood the concept of what Jesus was trying to teach, not the language; so he had to build again.

It's remarkable how similar the building's look with no blueprints, measurements or testing... 

[Peterkin]

44 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

Muhammad only understood the concept of what Jesus was trying to teach, not the language; so he had to build again.

He understood far more than the concept: he understood the importance of faith as a unifying force - which Jesus apparently had not, but Paul did and Constantine used. Of course, that was before Christian sects broke away in all directions and started fighting one another.

The language of prophets is not an issue, since they speak to different peoples, under different historical conditions. I think we've pretty much exhausted any commonality between religion and physics.

Edited September 7, 2021 by Peterkin
correction

[dimreepr]

15 minutes ago, Peterkin said:

The language of prophets is not an issue, since they speak to different peoples, under different historical conditions. I think we've pretty much exhausted any commonality between religion and physics.

I'm not your enemy, winter is your enemy...

[Peterkin]

25 minutes ago, dimreepr said:

I'm not your enemy, winter is your enemy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dm1p9mE9RBw

[potrzebie]

23 hours ago, noquacks said:

How to Pray? Well, I was taught how by the nuns at the Catholic school I attended. So, I guess I was following directions as best a child could. And i continued to pray that way for.......another 45 years or so. Thats how I pray, not sure how you pray. Maybe there are different methods. But my experience is that praying does not work. Mathew, 7.7, "ask and it shall be given to you". I asked, begged, knelt, bowed, dutifully, in subservience but never received what I requested. So, disappointed, I quit praying for favors. Does it work for you? It has been shown that praying does not work. There is no evidence that it does so. Despite this, I kept praying for 50 years or so til I read one book too many. 

 

In our youth, me and two close friends were just walking around the living areas of a mid-size swedish town and ended up in an apartment talkning to some foreigners that turned out to be christians. Not long after we walked in the door, one of them hurried to another room, kneeled at his bed and started to pray in what I suppose was his native language.

Actually, I may have imagined that he kneeled, and that it was in front of his bunk bed, I could've added that to the memory later. But why would I do that, I wasn't an easily impressionable person, I wasn't in an emotionally strong situation, and I certainly had no interest in anything christian being true 'cause eventually I'd discuss it with my mother and she'd get one right.

Considering my personality, It's more likely that I already needed to pee. When we sat down in the kitchen I thought that five minutes is enough before you ask to use the bathroom. And I had a look to my right when I opened the door. No freedom, no responsibility. I could tell that it wasn't "the tounge of the holy spirit" though, that sounds like jibberish and christians scare their kids with at meetings.

A couple of decades later, an acquaintance with drug habits visited me in my 25 square meter apartment. I had lost my driving license and was about to sell the car, so I simply gave him the box from the trunk, with a new axe, start cables, etc. Stuff that meth users love. In retrospect, I could've put some extra stuff in it first, for example bought some food cans. Was there a quality rope in the box? Anyway, later in the evening, after he left, I suddenly felt a lot of love for him.

More than I have experienced earlier or later. Of course, this means nothing, I suspect that normal people could walk around with this feeling everyday. You've learned to handle it, it's routine. My response was to ask myself what I should do to avoid wasting it (not the feeling, the situation). Without any God answering, I reluctantly went down on my knees and even did some of the other silly things, because that's what you're supposed to do. No more than ten seconds though The next day, I read in the paper that he was almost killed that night. Two guys put his head on the front of a car and used the hood to bash his head in.

Add to this the fact that my mother often has told me the day after I've been in deep sh-t, that she woke up and knew that I had put myself in danger. The percentage of failure is more interesting than the number of successes, and it's a low number. Add other minor miracles in my life. Adding people that's believing/religious is harder, even if they're reasonable, and loving, is harder.

So, the question, what is "praying"? In swedish translations of the bible, our word means "to ask for" in the simplest way, no different from asking for more food or a cigarette. Negative if there's a deeper meaning and "praying" captures it better, positive if "prayer" is a way to make us sound better in front of God when he want honesty. In the same way "having faith" is translated to just "believing".

My best conclusion, based on my own experience and the bible which says that that no man seeks God, he seeks man, the wind (sometimes translated as "the spirit") blows wherever it wants, that faith in God/Jesus is a gift in itself, is that "supernatural" things happen and when they do we try to control them. Of course, the quote that whenever two or more people gather in my name, I'll be among them, could be true. You'll have to ask a christian about that.

In that case, the best way to find out is having the courage to try it. Sometimes christian books, and the bible, don't even call it courage, but foolishness. In a passage, Paul praises God that he chose the one's that are as children, to put the wise to shame. In another one, Jesus says that you have to become like a child to enter the kingdom of God. I would have asked him if I was there: aren't children supposed to be curious? In others, God says that all knowledge will be gone when it has filled it's purpose, and all that will be left is hope, faith and love, the biggest of them love.

Before my attempts of decent logic get too bad (too late), i.e. rambling (too late for that too), I'll end with a last comment. Generally, you turn to Jesus when you have no choice. This could happen in at least two ways: 1. You're life is so down the drain to the point where you have to put your blind trust in him. It could be the last moments of your life. What he requires, everything, isn't that important anymore then. 2. You meet him, he shows himself to you before you take this step yourself.

I suspect that all religious people have a combination of more or less of those two, not caring about 1 enough according to God, trying to make 2 happen themselves, and that the rest, to get to 100%, has to be filled with the unability to reason, easily turned into worse thing. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. An interesting question becomes if there's a God that helps these people more than others.

Another interesting question, part of the other, is if they deserve it or if they're just spoiled. Or anti-human to begin with. For ordinary people, learning to break free happens with more or less magnitude, and more or less frequently, while you're growing up. Revolt, the knowledge to know when to do it, and how much, sticks in your reflexes and makes you a better person.

Edited September 7, 2021 by potrzebie

[Phi for All]

On 9/6/2021 at 2:57 PM, Conscious Energy said:

You should believe in Nature, and that Science is our best religion to explain it's functions

Most definitions of "religion" involve supernatural facets (omnipotence, unobservable deities, etc). Since science is focused on the natural world (as you claim we should believe), I think your use of the term "best religion" wrt science is highly inaccurate.

[Conscious Energy]

46 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

Most definitions of "religion" involve supernatural facets (omnipotence, unobservable deities, etc). Since science is focused on the natural world (as you claim we should believe), I think your use of the term "best religion" wrt science is highly inaccurate.

There were times when animals, planets or the sun were worshiped as gods. All natural entities. 

When Science gave every answers on physical functions, how and why spacetime expands, what is the origion of energy, does the universe finite or infinte, discovered the answer on how the Universe begun exactly and why, realized all of the Laws of Nature, the religious aspects of science (for me) will deminish and we will be left with pure knowledge. I pray for this times to come. 

Until that, it is up to me what and how I believe, It is my basic human right I think, if it harms no one.

Definition of religious

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality

Edited September 9, 2021 by Conscious Energy

[Phi for All]

20 minutes ago, Conscious Energy said:

There were times when animals, planets or the sun were worshiped as gods. All natural entities. 

When Science gave every answers on physical functions, how and why spacetime expands, what is the origion of energy, does the universe finite or infinte, discovered the answer on how the Universe begun exactly and why, realized all of the Laws of Nature, the religious aspects of science (for me) will deminish and we will be left with pure knowledge. I pray for this times to come. 

Until that, it is up to me what and how I believe, It is my basic human right I think, if it harms no one.

Definition of religious

 (Entry 1 of 2)

1: relating to or manifesting faithful devotion to an acknowledged ultimate reality

My comment wasn't about your beliefs at all, since I don't care what you believe. I thought you might be interested in a more accurate way to distinguish between your definitions of religion and science. And your version of religious mentions "faithful", so you might want to look that up as well. It has NOTHING to do with science.

[Arikel88]

To pray you need to talk to G-d like you talk to your mother when your in trouble. Pray and pray with time you get better. Know it is ahrd because when you talk to air or the sky people don't see him but he is there always listening.

[Phi for All]

25 minutes ago, Arikel88 said:

To pray you need to talk to G-d like you talk to your mother when your in trouble.

Coincidentally, my total praying time = amount of time I talk to my mother when I'm in trouble.

[J.C.MacSwell]

On 12/3/2021 at 2:02 PM, Phi for All said:

Coincidentally, my total praying time = amount of time I talk to my mother when I'm in trouble.

I learn something new everyday Phi...I never would have guessed you prayed that much!

[RamaRaksha]

You can pray several ways - with words and with your body

In Hinduism a dancer dances in a Temple and asks God to see her prayer(her dancing)

When you work, that is also Prayer

When you help others, that is also prayer

But most religions do not like the body prayer, they stress the prayer using words - because these words they can control. The time to pray, when and where to pray, what words one must use - hint: use words that only WE approve!

The problem with Body Prayer is that religions cannot control it

An Atheist or Hindu doctor or Nurse is spending ungodly hours in a day trying to save covid patients. He or she doesn't even have the time to sleep or eat, much less pray with words. But according to Hinduism they are praying with works!

And such prayers are disliked by religions because then it says ALL Good people are with God - it is actions that matter, not belief or religion

Hard to believe but in the 21st century the dominant religions are those that stress belief, religion and not Action

Doesn't say much for our education, intelligence & morality

[Cognizant]

Well, I can share an idea how to pray in Christianity. It's not like it's shown in films where there are tons of emotions, rolling eyes, banging head on the floor, tearing clothes etc. It's very calm and with huge concentration. That kind of concentration as when you solve mathematical problems or write a difficult computer program.  But ofc more pleasant))  and then the prayers often "come true" but not always as... our true inner desires are sometimes too difficult to understand and we ask for the things we don't actually need to be happy. But God knows what will make a certain person happy.

[ertzlreagam234]

On 9/4/2021 at 11:41 AM, Istiak said:

I don't know how many Abrahamic Religions are right there. I have found 4 now. 

1. Judaism
2. Christianity
3. Islam
4. the Bahá'í Faith

I have studied Islam, Christianity and Judaism. So, I am just talking about them and ignoring another one. 

>Old Testament:<br/>
"You shall have no other gods besides Me" (Exodus 20:3)<br/>
New Testament:<br/>
"You shall worship the Lord your God. and Him only you shall serve" (Luke 4:8)<br/>
The Quran: "You shall know that: "There is no other god beside God" 47:19<br/>
Jesus preached love and submission to God. He proclaimed that he has not come to change the law (of the Torah) but to confirm it (Mathew 5:17-18)<br/>**Prophet Muhammad did not bring any religion by the name of Islam**. It is written in the Qur'an that Islam (Submission to God), is as old as Abraham (22:78)<br/>"Abraham was neither a Jew, nor a Christian; but he was a monotheist submitter. He was not one of the those who set up partners with God." 3:67 ~ [Quora](https://qr.ae/pGactx)

Currently I believe in Abrahamic Religion. 

In Quran (Hadith maybe) : You can pray in any Language but, you will get less [virtue](https://www.wordhippo.com/what-is/the-opposite-of/sin.html) than you pray in Arabic

Since, I haven't read Bible or Tanakh completely so I don't know if there's similar thing like this. Above I mentioned that I believe in Abrahamic Religion but I didn't mention any Religion name cause, according to my research God exists but, I don't know if he gave a specific Religion. Allah (mentioning Muslim God) allows people to pray in any language. Even, Christians also can pray in any language (according to my study). But, I don't have any idea of Judaism. Even, history of those religions are little bit related so I can simply believe those histories either (I have some other opinion about Christianity but I am not saying anything about that since those words are likely to show disrespect to Christians) 

Christians say God sent a person to heaven called Adam later when he said to God that he is alone; he needs someone else. Then God sent a woman to him called Eve. There was a tree of Satan; God told Adam to not take "apple" from that tree but, Eve had gone there and took an apple she shared apple with Adam. Later, God sent them to Earth not to listen to him. 

The same thing goes here : https://www.chabad.org/library/bible_cdo/aid/8167/jewish/Chapter-3.htm

In Quran also, all the differences was available in Islam that is name. The man was called Mohammad Adam (a:) but, the woman was called Hawa (a:). 

All above Religions claim that they were prophet. So, there's no difference. So, I can simply believe those Religions altogether. 

 

<hr/>

 

written above things [here](https://judaism.codidact.com/posts/283924). I think there's lot of religious people in the community. And, I think I can discuss with every people of above stated religion. My question is : Since I am believing in Islam, Judaism and Christianity (adding it since I had talked about it above. I have some problem in the religion but, I don't want to discuss with anyone here or there) altogether than how can I pray? I meant Muslim pray this way  and, jews this way. But, they are praying different way so, I don't want to disrespect any method of praying. I just believe that God exists. He didn't give any Religion. But, he said us lot of things by prophets. I am confused how should I pray. Should I believe a religion or it is OK to believe all religions? I think I should pray the way I want but, I want my seniors suggestion. 

moses  jesus.  abraham. fel on face in prayer.  muslims prostrate in prayer as did the prophets including Muhammad