Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/18/84; site rochester.UUCP Path: utzoo!watmath!clyde!burl!ulysses!unc!mcnc!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!rochester!sher From: sher@rochester.UUCP (David Sher) Newsgroups: net.religion Subject: Re: what does it mean to talk to God [a brief attempt at an answer] Message-ID: <7085@rochester.UUCP> Date: Thu, 7-Mar-85 15:04:08 EST Article-I.D.: rocheste.7085 Posted: Thu Mar 7 15:04:08 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 10-Mar-85 05:40:53 EST References: <893@topaz.ARPA> Reply-To: sher@rochester.UUCP (David Sher) Organization: U. of Rochester, CS Dept. Lines: 36 Keywords: Prayer Summary: I found that the article that I excerpt below is a fairly good description of the way I think of prayer (aside from direct references to Christ). I am a Jew and the author is clearly a Christian. Undoubtably other Jews and Christians will disagree with this article. Never the less I think it is interesting that at least one Jew and Christian agree on the fundamental nature of prayer. Is this the case for the greater mass of monotheists in general? -David Sher >Now on to communication with God... There are certainly times when God hits >people over the head, but for most of us, most of the time, communication >with God occurs in the context of prayer. When I say that "God showed me >X", I think I normally mean that I realized X when I was praying. If you >want to look at this from the worldly perspective, it could probably be said >that no information actually arrives from an extraterrestrial source when I >pray. I think most insights could be regarded as coming from one of the >following sources: > > - considering events around me and seeing patterns in them > - Scripture, particularly meditating on the life of Christ > - the views of other Christians (or non-Christians, for that matter) > >However in my view, God is still responsible. One can see something like >this even in the case of human teachers. I have found that it is not always >possible to teach something just by lecturing about it. Often you have to >find some way of pointing to it. Socrates is well known for trying to bring >his students to see matters for themselves. Nevertheless, one would still >say that a teacher of this sort is communicating. In my view, God has >arranged the world, and our lives, to help bring us to certain insights. He >has provided Scripture to remove any ambiguity that might otherwise be >there. Prayer is when I take time to think about things carefully enough >that I can see what God is trying to tell me. (NB: This is not a complete >description of the role of prayer. I am completely omitting intercessory >prayer, and no doubt other types of prayer as well.) -No signature at end of article