IF you believe in a particular God/Gods and you pray and believe this God answers your prayer, how do you feel about all the other religions where believers pray and they say their different God answers their prayers as well?

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6 Answers

PJ Stein Profile
PJ Stein answered

Honestly I think it is the same higher power. I think the prayers that are answered are spiritual ones. Ones where people pray for individual peace, whether for themselves or for someone else.

Walt O'Reagun Profile
Walt O'Reagun answered

I don't believe in any deities.  Partially due to this question.

Those who say "it's all the same god, with different names" overlook a major point.  God speaks all languages, so there is no reason for its name to be different.  It would be like me inventing a different name for myself every time I cross state lines. >> Not to mention the other major point that since those various gods often have different teachings, that "higher power" would be mentally unstable.

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Just Ice
Just Ice commented
TY WOR

The implied "according to them" helps me see that you didn't compromise your atheism.

I didn't understand your explanation in #2 though. I guess our reasoning must be different which in turn probably explains why yours has led you to atheism while mine sees no option but theism
Walt O'Reagun
Walt O'Reagun commented
Perhaps I can approach #2 from a different way.
In most religions, there is "good" and "evil". Yes?
"Evil" is the side that sows confusion and conflict.
Thus, the "evil" side would be the one causing confusion and conflict by calling god different names, depending on the language/culture.
YET ... since the text of every religion is allegedly inspired by their god, and the names used are different ... then we are left with a few choices:

1 - There is no god, and the texts were written by men without any divine guidance.
2 - There is one god, who is unstable.
3 - There are multiple gods.
4 - There are unknown god(s), and religious texts were written by "the evil" to sow conflict and confusion.

To me, #1 is the simplest option.
Just Ice
Just Ice commented
ok it's a different subject but worthy of exploration nonetheless.

I have option 5 which I think is more reasonable.

- There is only one God. He is the creator of all. It therefore follows that He cares for the guidance of all humanity. He did not wait till Moses, or Jesus or Mohammed was born to give people guidance. That means ALL peoples who ever they were and wherever they were, had guidance from God, and that Noah, Abraham, Moses, Jesus and Mohammed were just a few greats among the huge number of conveyors of guidance from God.

As each guide passed away the guidance he left behind slowly got irrelevant, got lost or got corrupted, and God updated His guidance to keep pace with the needs and development of mankind. So the source is one but the differences are the result of corruption.
Tom  Jackson Profile
Tom Jackson answered

Supplication (the action of asking or begging for something earnestly or humbly) is a typical response of humans to "things" it calls gods.

If God does exist and if He is the only one, it would appear that He has no problem with the obvious confusion that man has with regard to Him, how He works, and / or what we should call Him.

In that perfectly reasonable scenario, I would expect Him to respond to all who direct prayers to "God."

And, if He's ok with it all, so am I.

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Just Ice
Just Ice commented
in your case one has to update that and insert "and the ad hominems that come out of them"

have a nice day
Tom  Jackson
Tom Jackson commented
@JI

Can't leave you forever when you when you rewrite the bible.

(Are you perhaps a closet Jehovah's Witness?)

Try again for a "last word."
Just Ice
Just Ice commented
i don't have to rewrite the Bible it's been done ad infinitum. The JW's New World Translation is just one of the numerous 66 book Protestant versions. Then there are the 73 book Catholic versions, the 81 book Ethiopian version, the 84 book Eastern Orthodox version and, if we include what the Christ preached from then there was a Bible with far fewer books than the Protestant Bibles. People have played yo-yo, in and out, with words, phrases, verses, passages and even whole books. Such is the inerrant word of God. Which then is THE Bible, one wonders.
Cookie Hill Profile
Cookie Hill answered

There is only one true God Jehovah, according to 1Corthians 8:5,6 and the Bible teaches that God does not listen to all prayers. Isaiah 1:15, "And when you spread out our palms, I hide my eyes from you. Although you make many prayers, I am not listening; Your hands are filled with blood."  Proverbs 15:8, "The sacrifice of the wicked is detestable to Jehovah,But the prayer of the upright is a pleasure to Him."  Proverbs 28: The one refusing to listen to the law Even his prayer is detestable."

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Darik Majoren
Darik Majoren commented
Many religions teach that their God/Gods are mutually exclusive as well.
So, it stands to reason that whatever religion, based on Culture and Region of the world, that someone believes in would be the right or correct one and that the others would be the incorrect one.
Michael Poland Profile
Michael Poland answered

It takes all kinds to make a world.

("Remember its your job to be you")

Believe and Receive.

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Darik Majoren
Darik Majoren commented
LOL . . . I'm not so sure I wanted that job, and if I have it . . . I am not well compensated for the effort.
Just Ice
Just Ice commented
ha ha ha good one DM. Intrigued by how you cannot be you. Could you list the options please.
Just Ice Profile
Just Ice answered

IF you believe in a particular God/Gods and you pray and
believe this God answers your prayer, how do you feel about all the other
religions where believers pray and they say their different God answers their
prayers as well?

============================================================

If your “true” God authentication criterion depends on a
sort of response-to-prayers index then you’ve got problems. You might end up
with a league table of gods with different levels of trueness.

My definition of God does not have that as a criterion of authentication.


thanked the writer.
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Just Ice
Just Ice commented
.....and turn instead to preaching that 1+1+1=1 I suppose!
Tom  Jackson
Tom Jackson commented
@JI

For the number of persons in God, you would be absolutely correct.

Amusing that you stumble over the truth and consider it a falsehood.
Just Ice
Just Ice commented
truth is that which sets you free not that which gets you tongue tied when you're asked to explain it.

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