You two carried me through that war. Now I need you to carry me just a little bit further. If you can.

Tracy ,'The Message'


Natter 37: Oddly Enough, We've Had This Conversation Before.  

Off-topic discussion. Wanna talk about corsets, duct tape, or physics? This is the place. Detailed discussion of any current-season TV must be whitefonted.


Connie Neil - Aug 02, 2005 12:40:53 pm PDT #5125 of 10002
brillig

a bunch of Zoroastrians digging up bodies from church graveyards and properly exposing them in the center of a maze so the spirits can be properly released to heaven.

They do that? What an interesting belief.

Or, I'm being more than usually gullible today.


Topic!Cindy - Aug 02, 2005 12:43:03 pm PDT #5126 of 10002
What is even happening?

Scientists set up the prayer intervention in the way that the proponents claimed it would work and used an appropriate study to see if it did work. It didn't.
I read about this a while back, but I thought what they tested was having a people from a whole bunch of religions pray, and that overall, they could not prove prayer had any effect.


Betsy HP - Aug 02, 2005 12:43:12 pm PDT #5127 of 10002
If I only had a brain...

The thing is, no sane believer thinks s/he's got God in a box. No matter what religion you practice, it is obvious that God doesn't grant all prayers. Otherwise we'd all be bathing in ice cream and James Marsters would be worn down to a nubbin.

Some people claim prayers aren't answered because you didn't pray (A) hard enough (B) sincerely enough (C) to the right God. Me, I say it's ineffable.


§ ita § - Aug 02, 2005 12:43:49 pm PDT #5128 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

James Marsters would be worn down to a nubbin.

Based on his prayers, or yours?


Betsy HP - Aug 02, 2005 12:44:33 pm PDT #5129 of 10002
If I only had a brain...

Based on his prayers, no fangirl would get within 20 yards of him. Based on my prayers, every book in the world would be immediately FedExed to me and nobody I love would ever get sick.


Cass - Aug 02, 2005 12:44:56 pm PDT #5130 of 10002
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.

Of course, in "I'm flying out of that airport tomorrow" news, I guess I'll try to get there a little early.
I'm just gonna throw a lot of travel~ma your way for the nonce.
This isn't always an indicator of general assholishness though. My immediate boss has a brusque e-mail manner that can rub people the wrong way, but he's very personable face-to-face or over the phone.
I would find any any any excuse to not call the rude client and just deal with her in email where I had a chance to unHulkSmash-ify my responses. Then I got caught on the phone with her and it turned out she was nice. A flake, but nice. Still want to flay her alive when she emails me but if there is ever a real issue, I call.


§ ita § - Aug 02, 2005 12:46:24 pm PDT #5131 of 10002
Well not canonically, no, but this is transformative fiction.

Based on his prayers, no fangirl would get within 20 yards of him

This doesn't jibe with everything I've heard.


Wolfram - Aug 02, 2005 12:46:39 pm PDT #5132 of 10002
Visilurking

Some people claim prayers aren't answered because you didn't pray (A) hard enough (B) sincerely enough (C) to the right God.

Or (D) because you're not important enough. Seriously, it's not like everybody's calls get put right through.

Me, I say it's ineffable.

So stop trying to eff it. (Used to be my Betsy tag.)


Cass - Aug 02, 2005 12:46:50 pm PDT #5133 of 10002
Bob's learned to live with tragedy, but he knows that this tragedy is one that won't ever leave him or get better.

The thing is, no sane believer thinks s/he's got God in a box.
I might lose any sane cred I have but this is the best visual today.


Trudy Booth - Aug 02, 2005 12:46:53 pm PDT #5134 of 10002
Greece's financial crisis threatens to take down all of Western civilization - a civilization they themselves founded. A rather tragic irony - which is something they also invented. - Jon Stewart

Some people claim prayers aren't answered because you didn't pray (A) hard enough (B) sincerely enough (C) to the right God. Me, I say it's ineffable.

Personally I believe all prayers ARE answered -- but often the answer is "no".