Rosiel

They probably didn't leave much of a tip, either.

Arrowman

I wonder if the prayerful Biblical literalists who pray for God to fixe their car or heal their sick grandmother or win the Superbowl....

...ever remember what that Jesus guy actually said, you know, in the Bible? about prayer.

Matthew 6
[emphasis mine]

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.
8 Be not ye therefore like unto them: for your Father knoweth what things ye have need of, before ye ask him.
9 After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.
10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven.
11 Give us this day our daily bread.
12 And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors.
13 And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

That's it. That's all there is. I don't see anything in there about asking God for specific good things to happen - quite the opposite, in fact.

jdawg2

a friend of mine recently gave thanks to "Him" because she got a B on her test. "He's the one who deserves it" or something to that effect. It seems to me that she was the one doing all the studying, and she actually went in the class to take the test, so shouldn't she be thanking herself? How does one discern that "God" helped her pass a test, when there was probably another student who flunked and also prayed to God?

It's strange that God always likes helping people do stuff that people are already more than capable of doing on their own. When there's a serious problem like AIDS, world hunger, huge holes in the ozone layer, or people about to crash planes into buildings, he's suspiciously absent...

DarkBronzePlant

Plus, if god's so smart, why didn't she get an A?

Arrowman

It must have been an evolutionary biology test

That, or Systems Design.

jdawg2

lol...yeah, one would expect a bit more from an omnipotent being

btw, the test was dealing with Java (the programming language, not coffee)

I made 2 A's on my recent tests over C and I'm an atheist so does that mean that Satan is making me arrogant in thinking I can pass tests on my own?

Arrowman

Well, C is the language of the Devil, you know!

Of course, I was brought up in more primitive, Egyptian cat-god style faiths such as FORTRAN and COBOL. 4GLs are heresy! And C is but the Fallen Version of Pascal.

jdawg2

hehe, I guess C++ and Java would be related to the eastern religions...polymorphism/polytheism anyone?

wow, this thread is approaching a high level of geekitude...

DarkBronzePlant

Yes, I think we've figured it out! It's amazing that god even got a 'B' on a test dealing with polymorphism--because we all know that the objects he creates can't change type!

Now if it had been PERL or some ugly, messy language like that, god probably would've gotten extra credit...

Jamie_L

I always liked Rosie O'donnel's joke at some music awards show she hosted.

She told everyone that God told her they didn't all need to thank him in their speeches. (i.e. Keep the speeches short, folks.)

Some award recipient bashed her in their speech.


Rosie replied later on the show: "It's just that I don't think God's up there saying 'World peace. Hunger. Oh, and I gotta make sure Whitney Houston wins that grammy."

People are dying all over the world in all sorts of horrible ways, and people think their God would care about how they score on some test?

Jamie