A question for those who aren't spiritual

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: rudeguy

Originally posted by: LS21
what happens if 50,000 fans pray for 1 football team to win and 50,000 fans of equal faith and qualifications pray for the opposing team to win?

Or if 2,000,000 people all pray to win the lottery on the same night?

I don't have all the answers. I was trying to find out what non-spiritual people do in tough situations.

We just let the chips fall where they may after we've done all that's within our control to maximize the chances of a favorable outcome

 

[RocksteadyDotNet]

You just deal with it.

Being an intelligent human I don't need the support of an imaginary figure to get through hard times.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: rudeguy

Originally posted by: LS21
what happens if 50,000 fans pray for 1 football team to win and 50,000 fans of equal faith and qualifications pray for the opposing team to win?

Or if 2,000,000 people all pray to win the lottery on the same night?

I don't have all the answers. I was trying to find out what non-spiritual people do in tough situations.

We cope. If you need spiritualism to cope with life then you're a weakling.

 

[clamum]

Prepare myself the best I can and hope for the best.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I do everything that I consider to be realistically helpful toward the goal I'm trying to accomplish and then I stop worrying about it. It hasn't occurred to me to include prayer in that for more than 10 years. It comes from the suspicion that whatever I or other real entities actually physically do is all that will get done about anything no matter how much penitent mumbling we do in private.

 

[BoomerD]

Originally posted by: rudeguy

Originally posted by: lifeobry

Originally posted by: rudeguy
What do you do when you are preparing for something that is out of your control? Say you are going for a job interview? Or maybe a close relative is going in for a major surgery?

I pray my ass off when I am faced with situations like that. Even when my faith wasn't the greatest, I would pray that things would work out. What do you do if you don't believe in a higher power?

do you think praying has any impact on the actual outcome or do you do it to make you feel better?

It accomplishes both.

Because the great sky-fairy is just sitting around waiting for someone to ask for his help...

Waidaminit..if that was the case, why the fuck is there so much suffering and injustice in the world? I thought churchers prayed for GAWD to end such things?

Does he just intervene for YOU and ignore the other peons in the world?

 

[datalink7]

Originally posted by: rudeguy
What do you do when you are preparing for something that is out of your control? Say you are going for a job interview? Or maybe a close relative is going in for a major surgery?

I pray my ass off when I am faced with situations like that. Even when my faith wasn't the greatest, I would pray that things would work out. What do you do if you don't believe in a higher power?

I guess just hope for the best? Sometimes thinking statistically helps me. Like when I'd go on patrol in Iraq, I'd sometimes think that, statistically speaking, I wasn't likely to die or get hurt on one particular patrol

 

[BW86]

Originally posted by: clamum
Prepare myself the best I can and hope for the best.

 

[destrekor]

Originally posted by: datalink7

Originally posted by: rudeguy
What do you do when you are preparing for something that is out of your control? Say you are going for a job interview? Or maybe a close relative is going in for a major surgery?

I pray my ass off when I am faced with situations like that. Even when my faith wasn't the greatest, I would pray that things would work out. What do you do if you don't believe in a higher power?

I guess just hope for the best? Sometimes thinking statistically helps me. Like when I'd go on patrol in Iraq, I'd sometimes think that, statistically speaking, I wasn't likely to die or get hurt on one particular patrol

What's interesting, I have two ways of looking at that, depending on one circumstance: whether I have a male kid or not...

as of now, no kids. So I'm a little cautious in almost everything I do. I feel in life, that once I have a male kid, I'll lose all my cautiousness and will do everything and anything in my power to do what has to be done, regardless of what happens to me. At least, that's kind of what I hope to have, and have a sincere hope that if I'm going to die, it's gotta be doing something I have passion for. Not that I hope to die, as I would rather you know... live a long life. But my only goal in life, honestly, is to make sure I have a male kid.
Then again, maybe once I actually have a kid and family of my own, my outlook on life will change. Right now, I'm a realist/pessimist, which I guarantee has had a few negative effects in my life right now, mostly in regard to school.

 

[Mo0o]

Originally posted by: destrekor

Originally posted by: datalink7

Originally posted by: rudeguy
What do you do when you are preparing for something that is out of your control? Say you are going for a job interview? Or maybe a close relative is going in for a major surgery?

I pray my ass off when I am faced with situations like that. Even when my faith wasn't the greatest, I would pray that things would work out. What do you do if you don't believe in a higher power?

I guess just hope for the best? Sometimes thinking statistically helps me. Like when I'd go on patrol in Iraq, I'd sometimes think that, statistically speaking, I wasn't likely to die or get hurt on one particular patrol

What's interesting, I have two ways of looking at that, depending on one circumstance: whether I have a male kid or not...

as of now, no kids. So I'm a little cautious in almost everything I do. I feel in life, that once I have a male kid, I'll lose all my cautiousness and will do everything and anything in my power to do what has to be done, regardless of what happens to me. At least, that's kind of what I hope to have, and have a sincere hope that if I'm going to die, it's gotta be doing something I have passion for. Not that I hope to die, as I would rather you know... live a long life. But my only goal in life, honestly, is to make sure I have a male kid.
Then again, maybe once I actually have a kid and family of my own, my outlook on life will change. Right now, I'm a realist/pessimist, which I guarantee has had a few negative effects in my life right now, mostly in regard to school.

Why a male kid?

 

[Baked]

I think talking to myself is crazy enough, I don't need to make up another imaginary being to talk to thank you. Everything happens for a reason, talking to your imaginary friend isn't gonna change anything.

 

[Farang]

I think you can be spiritual without having to pray to God in hard times. I read a lot of religious type material and I take from it mostly practical lessons. So these kind of situations where things seem like they're out of your hands and you pray, I take bits of different religions and philosophies I've read about and piece them together to get a train of thought going that will help me out. Always deferring to a higher power to help you out limits your ability to grow and control yourself, I think.

 

[TallBill]

I realize that we live in a world without luck or god.

I leave everything down to chance. If something wasn't meant to be, then it won't be, and there's nothing more you can do.

 

[CKent]

If I can't affect the outcome, nothing. Logic dictates that nothing I do can change the situation, so...

If I can affect the outcome, it depends on the situation. For example, for a job interview, I'll do my best to relax and think about how to answer possible questions that might come my way, and also try to come off as upbeat and positive even though I suffer from chronic depression :laugh:

In either case, deep breathing (aka simple meditation) can do wonders for calming the nerves.

 

[SirStev0]

Roll a D20 hope I don't roll a zero and crit fail.

 

[randay]

Originally posted by: SirStev0
Roll a D20 hope I don't roll a zero and crit fail.

you point over the dms shoulder and go look! someones drinking your mountain dew! and then nudge the dice over.

 

[Jeff7]

Hope for the best? That's about all you can do if it's something truly out of your control. (Job interview isn't out of my control though.)

Why pray your ass off? If your deity of choice wants your relative to die in terrible pain, as does happen sometimes, then that's the way it's going to happen. And apparently you can then thank the deity for the beauty of that act, since it was all part of some perfect plan that we can never know.
That seems rather sadistic, too. "Pray harder, or I'll let your loved one perish. Heh heh heh, yeah, tell me I'm awesome again."

Originally posted by: rudeguy
Praying for a specific outcome isn't wise. That would be trying to tell God what to do. I don't think he is up to taking orders from me (or you).

What qualifies as "specific" then? You're one tiny person among billions of others, and those are just the ones alive at this instant, not counting the billions of others who have lived, or the even greater number of billions yet to be born. In that respect, anything you pray for which only concerns you or one other individual is very "specific."

Scope it out.
Earth is one planet in a galaxy of hundreds of billions of stars, and likely hundreds of millions of solar systems, quite possibly with life on some of them. If you pray for "peace on Earth," that's pretty specific. Why not pray for "Peace in the Milky Way?"
Scope it out again.
You've got trillions upon trillions of galaxies in the Universe, some of which dwarf this one.

So back to the original question: How do you define "specific?"

 

[Ryan]

I hope - it requires no supernatural being, I have faith in MYSELF.

 

[dighn]

Hope for the best.

 

[Kadarin]

Originally posted by: rudeguy

Originally posted by: lifeobry

Originally posted by: rudeguy
What do you do when you are preparing for something that is out of your control? Say you are going for a job interview? Or maybe a close relative is going in for a major surgery?

I pray my ass off when I am faced with situations like that. Even when my faith wasn't the greatest, I would pray that things would work out. What do you do if you don't believe in a higher power?

do you think praying has any impact on the actual outcome or do you do it to make you feel better?

It accomplishes both.

Please provide proof, or any evidence whatsoever that prayer had any effect on some such outcome.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

So I guess those in Congo or Sudan who are getting murdered or raped just didn't pray enough eh?

 

[aesthetics]

I talk to my dollies.

 

[DangerAardvark]

What's the difference between prayer and fondling sheep intestines to predict the future? Not a damn thing.

"When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours." -Stephen Henry Roberts

The quote works just as well if you replace the word "God" with "superstition".

 

[Shawn]

Nothing. It's not like praying is going to do anything anyway.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: Baked
I think talking to myself is crazy enough, I don't need to make up another imaginary being to talk to thank you. Everything happens for a reason, talking to your imaginary friend isn't gonna change anything.

I find it ironic that you belittle his spirituality and go on to say, "everything happens for a reason", a highly spiritual outlook.