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If God is all-present, it doesn't need us to be in certain places for certain things; if God is all-knowing, then we don't need to pray in order to tell it our feelings and wishes, if God is perfectly good and just, then our prayers asking it to help others are pointless, God will help those that deserve it without or without our persuasive attempts. The idea of God is pretty much incompatible with all religious dogma and practice!
Telling God Things in Prayer
When we pray, we are conveying our thoughts to what we think of as God. But, if God is all-knowing then it already knows anything we say. If we pray because we are feeling insecure or frightened... God already knows how we feel. If we pray because we want God to make a friend recover from illness... then God already knows that we want it to help our friend. So what is the point of praying to God for these things? It is certainly not because it needs us to, or because we want it to tell it something that it already knows!
Praying For Someone
When we pray for someone, we are asking God to involve itself and help them out or punish them. However, as the typical God is all-knowing, it already knows that we want it to what we're about to ask. So there's no point in actually asking! It already knows what we want to say and what we feel. But also God knows its own actions, as an all-knowing being it knows what it itself will do in the future (it has no free will). As such, any argument or thoughts we have are irrelevant to it. Also, if god is perfectly just and follows the most perfect course of action, then, it already knows if any given person is to be healed or punished. Our imploring arguments cannot possibly change its mind.
God Doesn't Need Prayer
If God is all-knowing then it doesn't need anyone to pray because it already knows what we're going to say and what we're thinking. If God is perfectly good and just, then any praying we do for others is pointless as it will not change the facts of whether it is right for a particular person to be benefited or left. If it right, God will do it with or without prayers, if it is not right, God won't do it. What use is there for prayer?
"Who are we Really Praying to?
Given that prayer is irrelevant to an all-knowing or perfectly good god, why do theists do it? The answer is that praying is for ourselves. The standard Christian response to the above arguments is just that... that it is us that psychologically need prayer. But, however, the Christian response is narrow. The function that prayer plays is as the facilitator of introspective reflection. Theist religions call it "prayer", Eastern ones call it "meditation". Psychologically it is introspection. In all cases it is connected to the internal states of the person involved.Selfishness
Prayer or meditation, be it Christian, Buddhist, Muslim or Jewish, is all for the self, not for God, as God doesn't need it. But most Christians and theists do not admit that it is an essentially selfish action!In Satanism, my own religion, it is common knowledge that religious symbols are reflections of the self, nothing more. But those who meditate and those who pray delude themselves into thinking it is "God" that wants them to do it, rather than admitting they're doing it for themselves. Self-help works better when it is done honestly, "prayer" should be called "meditation" or "philosophical introspection"."
God is present everywhere, omnipresent. This must be true if God is either omniscient or omnipotent; both grant God instantaneous access to every possible location. As such, God does not need us to be in particular places. Anywhere where we are, God is. Anything we say, God hears and anything we do, God sees. Therefore gathering in particular places such as Churches, Synagogues, Temples and buildings is not something God needs us to do. If God doesn't need to do it, why do we do it?
Selfishness
We do it for social reasons; gathering amongst others with similar beliefs is a cultish behaviour that strengthens group belief. We do it for ourselves. All groups do it, scientists, philosophers, experts, football fans and students. Sharing with others on mutual topics is worthwhile human behaviour. But it is not essentially religious behaviour nor is it something that God needs us to do. We do it for ourselves, whether we do it under the banner of knowledge, science, entertainment or religion. Even when the ultimate cause is charitable or good we are doing it in order to strengthen ourselves and consolidate our psychological identity.
If God wants a particular person to know a particular fact, then an all-powerful God has it perfectly within its capability to impart that person directly into that persons' mind. God has the power to be able to put knowledge straight into our heads. I am sure it also has the know-how to do it in a non-harmful way.
If God wants someone to know the facts about a particular religion, then God would automatically make that person know. What God wants, God can do, because God is all-powerful. If God is also perfectly good, then if it is right for someone to know something then God will make them know it.
Evangelism, therefore is pointless. That is to say, for religious adherents to go around telling people about their religious views makes no sense if they believe in an all-powerful or perfectly good God. An all-powerful good god will want (and can!) give anyone any knowledge it is good for them to have. It is not the job of religious adherents to run around trying to pretend to know what God wants people to know!
If God wants to convert me to your religion or teach me the facts of its own existence so that I can judge for myself, then God will directly give me the knowledge required. It would be immoral to judge me according to my actions if I don't have the correct information!
Evangelism is selfish
God requires no evangelists. If God wanted the world to know about its funky new religion, it would tell the world directly and everyone would instantaneously know about it. It wouldn't need inefficient humans to translate and write books for it! The only possible reason that evangelists evangelize is selfishness:
But it is obvious that evangelists are going against God's will, if God has a will. If God wanted someone to know something, and it was right for them to know it, God would tell that person directly. There is no point in doing it any other way. The only reason people need to tell each other things is if it is things that God doesn't think it is best for them to know. This absurd state of affairs means that evangelists are least godly, trusting least in the abilities of God to tell people what they need to know!
God Could Tell Everyone Everything
Taking it further, God could tell everyone everything. Everyone would know all the facts. However God doesn't do this and this is an indication that if there is a God, it is an evil God preferring us to live in confusion than in truth:
"If we knew the truth, our existential crises, mental angst and warring world religions would have no grounds to vex. If god revealed itself to everyone, in no unclear terms, there could be no disagreement. But god does not do this. God remains hidden - and if god is the source of any of our world religions, it seems that it is intentionally giving conflicting messages. Saying one set of things to one group of people; appearing as a multitude of gods to others, and appearing not at all to many. These appear to be the tactics not of a god that wants us to understand and unite, but of one that actively encourages division, war, conflict, confusion and stress, it is clear that if knowledge is important, God is evil for denying us what it could easily give us.""If there is a God, it is an Evil God" by Vexen Crabtree, 2003
In Christianity, God performs miracles and stunts (including re-animating dead bodies like some morbid puppeteer) in order to convince certain people of certain things. As we have discussed, to say that God requires the use of magic tricks is to undermine the all-powerful nature of God. If God wanted us to know things, it would tell us directly and efficiently, not via magic tricks.
"The crucifixion did not empower God as God is omnipotent. It did not aid his understanding of Humanity, as God is omniscient. God did not need to become Human to experience Human suffering: God already knew. God is able to judge us perfectly, because God is perfect, just and all-knowing. The crucifixion of Jesus did not improve God's judgement of us, as God was perfect both before and after the crucifixion. The crucifixion did not aid us, as knowing of Jesus was not the point of the crucifixion: If people such as Moses can know Jesus, and this is good, then God should be able to grant everyone the knowledge of Jesus. Note that Moses lived before Jesus was born. For anyone to know of Jesus before Jesus was born means that the crucifixion was unnecessary in order for people to know Jesus.""The Crucifixion Facade" by Vexen, 2002
Prophets are people who come conveying some new message from God. They have a limited range of influence, take a long time to convince people and are a pretty inefficient method of communication. If God wanted groups of people to know things, God would tell those people those things directly or just put the knowledge straight into their brains.
Prophets are therefore people who believe that people should know things that God itself doesn't want them to know. If God wanted them to know, God would have told them already as god is all-powerful. If it is right for them to know, then God would make them know instantly. It wouldn't need to beat around the bush, and go get some random person to go around and tell other people for it. God is all-powerful and doesn't need the help of anyone. Prophets are people who believe they know better than God, they believe that although an all-powerful, perfectly good god hasn't imparted a particular idea to someone, that they themselves should do it instead. They undermine God's power by taking it upon themselves to tell people things that it isn't good for them to know. If it was good for them to know it, God would have already told them as god wants to do what is good and can tell them. Prophets are therefore deluded liars, and prophets that believe in an all-powerful benevolent God are also hypocrites and illogical.
"Souls are unnecessary. Consciousness can come from flesh. God's memory is infinitely perfect and it knows our personality and memories better than we do. God can simply revive and restore our consciousness without the need for souls. To claim God needs souls is to deny God's omnipotency. It doesn't need "souls" to be able to do this; the biological and chemical make-up of our brains is known perfectly to God, its own memory is sufficient. The belief in an all-powerful God is logically incompatible with the belief in necessary souls.To talk of "souls" is merely to talk of individuals, and to pray for someone's "soul" is an attempt to tell God what to do! God knows who deserves what and why, God doesn't need our prayers, our petty thoughts about what God should do to this-or-that soul is irrelevant and what's more would be patronizing! Souls play no part in Gods scheme, nor can they play any part in our wishes."
"Souls" by Vexen Crabtree 2004 Oct
Praying is pointless because God knows everything we are thinking, we don't need to tell it things. Praying is for ourselves and is essentially selfish, a self-help psychology disguised as religious behaviour. An omniscient God doesn't need us to pray. Also as God is everywhere it doesn't need us to go to specific places to do specific things. The reasons we do so are social reasons, or in other words, egotistical and materialistic reasons disguised as "religion". God can tell us anything we need to know, and if there are things we need to know, a perfectly good-god would tell us. Therefore evangelism is pointless, merely a social exercise that feeds the ego of the evangelists. God therefore doesn't need prophets such as Jesus, Muhammad, or magical tricks such as the Resurrection, to tell the world what it wants the world to know. If it is good for us to know something, God would tell everyone instantly and directly, not via magical tricks and public relations stunts. God, as all-powerful and the facilitator of our personalities and consciousness, does not need the operation of "souls". All these things are trappings and frauds of religious neurosis and deluded minds.
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By Vexen Crabtree 2004 Oct 17