why do i pray?

[PureX]

wow. thank you for all the replies!

i look around and i see that a belief in "God" is helpful to so many people. but who is god? what is god? where do you find god?

catsup

For most of us, "God" is the personification of the 'great mystery' that creates and sustains all that exists, and therefor expresses the purpose of all being.

We humans have the intellectual capacity to ask some questions that we do not have the intellectual capacity to answer. And as we are creatures that survive and thrive by our understanding of ourselves and our environment, we feel threatened by the realization that there is essential information that we need but don't have, so that we fear the unknown. And this fear could very easily overwhelm us, confuse us, and incapacitate us if it were left unchecked.

So we humans have invented an interesting kind of intellectual 'trick' within our own minds that allows us to imagine, and then believe, that we have some degree of control over this cognitive phenomena of the 'unknown'. We conceptualize the unknown as a personage, of sorts, or sometimes as a collection of personages that we call "God", or "the gods". And these personages are very powerful beings, because the unknown is a very powerful and frightening idea in our own minds. And these personages that we imagine and call "God" are similar to ourselves, so that we can then imagine that we 'understand' them. And through that understanding, that we can influence them, and so gain some control over them.

Most religions are based on this idea of imagining that we can understand the unknown by applying a human personality to it, and then placating what we imagine that personality desires. They only differ in the names and number of their 'gods' and in what the adherents imagine their gods desire from us.

And this 'trick' works pretty well, because we humans have been employing it for a very long time, and of course we are still doing so. The scientific process has eroded this sort of religious practice somewhat, but as science has not even attempted to answer the really big and significant questions we humans have, but can't answer, it has not yet been able to threaten the foundations of the practice of religion. And perhaps it never will.

There is more to the practice of the 'belief in God' than just overcoming our fear of the unknown through self-delusion, of course, but this is a very basic 'thumb-nail' sketch of how and why the idea of "God" and the practice of religion begins.

 

[Town Heretic]

I'd call that an inherent recognition of a larger truth and context.

And al's focus notwithstanding, we can all be right in the foundational recognition of God. Tolkien and Lewis spoke to the true myth echoed in other myth. But for now, I think you pray because on some level you recognize that you were built for relation with God.

 

[catsup]

very enlightening, thank you. and PureX, the personification of the unknown - helps me get a handle on why i am praying and encourages me to keep on doing so.

i know that i see god in natural things. i feel awed by their beauty. the beauty of nature is god to me. am i a pagan then? i don't see god in people, except perhaps when a person does something extraordinarily giving.

so, how do i find a group of like minded prayers?

sorry i am so confused and my newness to all of this certainly is apparent.

catsup

 

[PureX]

i know that i see god in natural things. i feel awed by their beauty. the beauty of nature is god to me. am i a pagan then?

Do such labels really matter?

I was raised Catholic, but as a small child, I was taught by my parents and by a couple of very kind Catholic nuns that "God" is in the "green of the grass and the warmth of the sunshine", etc., and for some reason that was something I could understand and believe. And I still do, though in a more sophisticated way. I like reading about cosmology and quantum physics and that sort of thing, and I still believe that the universe is a wondrous expression of "God", just as I did when I was a kid.

Is that a form of 'paganism'? I don't think so, really, as I learned to think of it this way from a couple of Catholic nuns, but to tell the truth I don't much care either way. Most people of any religion would agree that "God" is the source and sustenance of all that exists, so my thinking is right in line with most of humanity.

i don't see god in people, except perhaps when a person does something extraordinarily giving.

Seeing "God" in the world around us (and it's people) is a choice, I think. I certainly didn't see God in people for most of my life. In fact, I was just the opposite. I saw human beings as a kind of scourge on the Earth, killing it and everything on it with our endless selfish ignorance, fear, and greed. But the circumstances of my life forced me to have to reassess my attitude, and helped me to see that I was choosing to see humanity this way, and that my choice was biased by my personal circumstances (a chronic addiction). So I was able, in time, to let go of that view and to develop a new, much more positive and forgiving way of conceptualizing humanity. And the result, in the end, was that I eventually came to see the mystery, joy, and wonder of "God" in humanity just as I could see it in the rest of the universe. People are, after all, very much a part of the whole. We are as real and as natural as any other aspect of 'nature'.

To my mind, now, we are even more so, because we can express and experience 'love'. That makes us even more extraordinary, and we do so in transcendence of our own bio-physical natures.

so, how do i find a group of like minded prayers?

That depends on how you like to pray, and what it's purpose is for you, I guess. There are universalist churches that accept people of varying religious beliefs, and of unspecified beliefs, that I'm sure would be accommodating. But I would think almost any church would be happy to open and share their prayer groups.

If it's just fellowship you're looking for, you'll probably have to do some 'trial and error'. Unfortunately, a lot of organized religious believers seek to either indoctrinate or reject newcomers. And that can be both very confusing and disheartening for someone like yourself.

sorry i am so confused and my newness to all of this certainly is apparent.

It sounds to me like you have a wonderfully open and natural internal inclination toward "God". You may not be as confused as you think.