I currently find myself in one of the most difficult situations I have known to date. I happen to have a few Christian aquaintances and after I have told them of my plight, they claim they will and/or have prayed for me. They tell me their desert deity will cause some miracle to happen. In real life I have a high degree of tolerance for religious delusion, which usually manifests itself in the form of avoidance of interaction with such people but recently I have been hearing this gibberish ridden prayer silliness a bit too often. I suppose under the extremely, extremely unlikely circumstances that my situation improves, they will claim credit as their 'prayers' have been answered. Alternatively if the much more probable outcome of my current situation manifests itself, these delusional people will claim that their deity has simply said no for inexplicable reasons, wholly unknown to mortals. Either way it is a win/win situation for them. I had someone write me a long and tiresome e-mail that I initially could not even read through because it is so delusional:
I recall that one day you told me you only accepted the existence of God if somebody showed the proof. I have found something that I classify not as the proof - for i believe that our very existence and the existence of this beautiful world and perfect nature is the proof of God's existence - but as one pretty strong evidence of that in which you do not believe. Thus, this is a 50 min video about the discovery of Noah's Arch. I do know it is a heck of a long video but I beg you to watch it. Why am I pushing? Dude, first Jesus who is God loves you. Second, as there is no scientific evidence of the existence of God there is no scientific evidence claiming the nonexistence of God, either. Third, if there is such God this presumably means He is an entity of unlimited power, wisdom and existence. Therefore, He would not have to prove his existence in humans terms. I mean, when we say : If an earthquake strikes that certain region of the world then I shall say that God exists. Or, God truly exists if he does this or that.
It is not hard to doubt the existence of what we do not see. However, our commitment to things is not constituted on what we may have seen or on what we may not have seen. We can see passion and not feel passion. We can see disgrace and not commit ourselves with disgrace. We can see terror and not be repel it. Last, we can see love and not commit ourselves to love. This is one of the reason God does not give interviews to CNN and does not give lectures at universities. Other reason is that we as mortal could not bear his presence. It can even be said that everything has been proven that the universe was not created by God. But, wait. It was not said what or who created or began it. All the scientific evidences never said that indeed. What was discovered was how everything happened, again, not what or who made it happen. Putting God on the defensive by requiring a scientific proof of his existence - even tough science itself cannot prove the contrary, in fact, never could because science's main achievement so far concerning the origin of the universe and life has been how it happened not who or what made it happen - is considerably more likely to happen when we face the thirsty of our knowledge and senses for more information. Specially, when it comes to the existence of who we were always told to exist. The human anxiety is based on the fact that all our improvement - concerning the methods and the science - has not being able to drive us to the what would be the main discovery of all times : the (non) existence of God. This anxiety leads to premature statements when we just do find the answer we want or when we face the failures of our society governed by us.
But would not it be premature to assert that God lives forever since there is proof whatsoever of his existence?
God is not far away from us reigning lonely absolute and we might think. On the contrary because He created us after his likeness He does have feelings too. And among these feelings is love by us, the masterpiece of his creation. In the beginning God and us lived in peace, as father and son, we could see God and be in his presence. We could live by the side of our creator throughout all eternity. Instead we chose not to obey God anymore and fallow our very will and judgement, even though God had given us the authority over all creation. Nowadays, it can be seem the consequences of disobeying God and being away from him, governing ourselves. After that, God could have wiped mankind off the map, or could not even have created man himself. The reason why God created man although he knew what man would do is that He created mankind with love, and he would not create with love such a complex and almost perfect creature (after his likeness) without the power of making decisions for itself. In another words, God did not want to create robots.
A promise was made to humankind that a salvation was going to be sent by God. The salvation was going to deliver man from the captivity of sin and death. God has since the beginning of times given the method to know him. God does not need to be discovered since he is not covered to us. Jesus Christ has already carried on the cross the shame of sin and all offense that separated us from God. Our creator is with open arms waiting for us just like a father and a mother wait for his children. This is the method:
"Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me."
"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest."
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink."
"But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life."
"And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst"
That is the method. To open our hearts and call for him and he will come to us. I hope you have read the whole thing, I spent almost 3 hours writing it checking on the dictionary you showed me on the net (thanks by the way, it was a very useful tool) but specially because God told me to write this. He loves you man, he loves you so much. And to worry, because if a miracle is needed in order for you to stay it will happen because there is nothing impossible to the Lord Jesus. I am going to pray for this and Jesus who is God and who cares about this matter because He loves you, He will make it happen. Do not worry, please before listen to this song , it is called He'll take care of the rest..... believe it.
After I had forced myself to read through this screed I became severely annoyed, thinking about the time I lost bothering myself with it and the unfortunate time the Brazilian had wasted in its composition.
When things like this are foisted upon me I lose my tolerance. Why do these delusional people actually believe they are helping? For the life of me I don't get it.
Prayer: how to do nothing and still think you are helping.
