Introduction
Petitionary prayer is a common practice amongst religions. This paper will argue that it is rational to petition God as it expands man’s moral agency.
The problems of petitionary prayer
Petitionary prayer is asking God for something believed to be good. Unlike prayers of thanksgiving or adoration, petitionary prayer presupposes that there are goods in the world that are only given when requested.
Here is a common argument against petitionary prayer:
(P1) God is perfectly good and will never make the world worse than it otherwise would have been.
(P2) God will not fulfil a request that makes the world worse than it otherwise would be.
(P3) A perfectly good God will always make the world better than it otherwise would
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(Choi, 42) A partnership with God does not presuppose that petitionary prayer is effective, whereas expanded moral agency does. Smith and Yip's account of partnership is a commitment to engage in the works of God. One can still be willing to commit oneself to God without petitions being granted. Consider a sincere petitioner who requests God for help and has a desire to further God’s will, if, in a world where expanded moral agency does not exist and therefore prayer doesn't influence God, petitionary prayer remains pointless. The partnership between God and man is not what make prayers efficacious. Instead, petitionary prayer is only valuable if it brings about goods. Expanded moral agency presupposes the petitioner be held responsible for bringing about good outcomes. Since petitionary prayer enables this, it is a rational practice to engage in. (Choi, 42)
I accept that the institution of petitionary prayer supposes a partnership and so enables an expansion of moral agency. However, I refute that partnership alone is what make petitionary prayer effective. Partnership is only valuable if it motivates one to act in expanding their moral agency. According to my reading of Smith and Yip, even defective ‘lazy’ prayers, where no actual vow of partnership is made, allows one to still engage in moral agency albeit in a limited sense. (Smith & Yip,
If God were omniscient, omnipotent, and perfectly good, then the world would not contain evil.
If there is a God, horrendous things wouldn’t happen. According to Inwagen, there is sufficient reason behind why God allows evil or even created it in the first place. This argument provides an anchor to the argument of God’s existence. God has outweighed reasons to allow evil and has a very real logical motivation why it might be. God being the omnipresent prefect being he is wouldn’t want evil. The key word is ‘want’ in this context, because want is a strong desire for something, doesn’t mean obtaining it or getting it are two very different things.
Prayer is an essential to any kind of religious faith. Over the years and years of believing in a higher power,
Therefore, it is not the case that God is an omnipotent and wholly good being.
2. God want people to be good nice, and fair to each other, as taught in bible and by most religions,
An argument against the existence of God is based on the presence of evil in the world. This deductively valid argument is divided into two categories; human action and natural evil (Sober, 2005, p. 120). Human action discusses how experiences makes us better people, while natural evil are tragic events that are not under the control of humans. Each category is used as evidence to refute God as an all-powerful omniscient, omnibenevolent, or omnipotent being. In order to understand the strengths of this argument, it is important for an overall assessment of how the presence of evil questions if a Supreme Being actually exists, by arguing why a being of all-good would allow evil, importance of evil in a good world, and questioning God’s intervention in evil.
If god was all good, all powerful and all knowing, he would not allow the existence of evil.
The problem of evil questions the nature of God and threatens his status as a figure worthy of worship. Surely human beings would not wish to worship a God that is neither all good nor all-powerful? The figure we call God is seen to be entirely perfect and flawless in every way. The problem of evil also questions God’s omniscience, in respects that he is all knowing. If God is omniscient then he must know the harm that evil does and the suffering it will cause. The attributes in question are the essence of the nature of God and without them he becomes more like a human than a God. If any of God’s characteristics are omitted, he
The consequences of accepting that the goodness of actions consists simply in the fact that God favours them are obviously disagreeable. However, the consequences of accepting the alternative also appear unfortunate. If it is maintained that God favours certain actions because they are objectively good, it seems that their goodness is independent of His will. But such a view appears to be inconsistent with the conception of God as the omnipotent creator and sustainer of all that is. It means that there is a realm of moral values which exist quite apart from God's creative will and to which His will must conform. Such a view must inevitably appear blasphemous to all those who believe in God, for it makes God out to be less than He is.
This is a significant problem to the revealed religions because they believe in a wholly good and omnipotent God. Why then, would this God allow evil? In this paper, I will provide, explain, and evaluate St. Augustine of Hippo’s
I think there is a problem, but not a serious worry, in the first thesis because the only explanation for why things are good is because of God and how he feels towards the thing. If “things are good because God loves them,” is the only explanation for why things are good, then there really isn’t a good thing in the world. It isn’t true that everything in the world is good, but if God loves all things, does that make everything good? If that is true, then if God thinks that things are bad, does it make them bad? What if things really aren’t good or bad because of what God says? I guess there is a concern with the first thesis because questions come up. If god decides what is good, then he also decides what is bad. For the second one, I don’t think there is any big problem or worry with this one. If someone does something good, then God will love them. In a real life situation, if someone does something good, they will sometimes get some sort of reward in return. It isn’t expected though. So, there can be a slight worry to this thesis. If someone does something good and God loves them because the thing they did was good, then if they do something bad, God might not love them. Or again, in a real life situation, if someone doesn’t do something good, for example, if someone doesn’t pick up a piece of trash they see on the ground, that doesn’t make them a bad person, and doesn’t mean bad things will happen. People might try to only do good because if they do, God will love
In the course of this essay I will argue that evil is not compatible with the existence of god. This means that evil and God cannot coexist because if god were present, the existence of evil would contradict all that god is believed to be. Abrahamic religions insist that God both created the world and that he preserves and maintains it. Christianity claims that God is all knowing and is boundless in his abilities. Religions claim that God is benevolent, and only wants the best for humanity and the universe, as his creations. If all of the above statements be true, then it is hard to understand why god would allow evil to thrive right from the beginning of time.
Religion is one of the most controversial issues in society today. The concern of allowing prayer in schools is an on-going debate and has resulted in numerous lawsuits. Religious school clubs, after school activities, curriculums, and moments of silence during school are just a few of the court cases that judges have administered. People in favor of prayer in schools believe that their children can only learn certain values through religious practice. On the other hand, an individual against religious practice in schools views this issue as an infringement on his or her children’s rights as Americans.
Therefore, we might best respond by saying that God does not Will "bad" things to happen in life. Rather, "bad"
9 “So I say to you, Ask, and it will be given you; search, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened for you.