I suppose I should begin by saying that I do not believe in
God. I do not believe there is some sort
of supernatural entity that created everything, is omniscient and
omnipotent. It is all a myth.
One of the ways I reached this position was to look at prayer. If you have been following this blog you know
my faith crisis began with the crash of the Germanwings flight in March of
2015. (http://one-eyedbobongod.blogspot.com/2018/05/i-didnt-want-to-be-atheist.html.) Since then the evidence just grows and
grows. Prayer is not answered. And the best way to demonstrate that is to
look at the prayer attributed to Jesus.
Matthew 6: 9-13 is where Jesus taught his disciples how to
pray. Let’s look at that prayer. OK, our father who art in heaven is a belief
statement though we have no idea where heaven is nor do we have any proof that
this god is our father. (Kind of bothers
me that god was willing to sacrifice his son and then believers turn around and call
god their father. Are believers the
children of god? If so, clearly he is
willing to sacrifice them.) Even so,
Jesus suggests that we hallow his name, that is make his name holy and honor
his name. Next Jesus asks that his
kingdom come. Has that happened and I
missed it? I see no godly kingdom
anywhere, and those Muslims who fight for such are considered radicalized
terrorists. So no, there is no evidence
that Jesus’ request for god’s kingdom to come was answered.
Then Jesus asks that god’s will be done on earth the same
way it is done in heaven. This is really
almost funny. Since there really is no heaven
and no god to rule it believers could argue that this portion of the prayer was
fulfilled. Again, there is no evidence
that god’s will is being done on earth.
If what we see around us is god’s will then some are worshipping a truly
evil god. Or, as conservatives believe, god picked Trump. Only good I can see from
that is it awoke the liberals. So no,
there is no evidence that god’s will is being done on earth.
Give us this day our daily bread has come true for many, but
for the millions who are starving that has not happened either. One would think that Jesus would also have
asked for clean water for all, but he didn’t.
Again, there is no evidence that god is providing food for his
subjects. US food stamps are doing a
better job of that than god, and the same people who love Trump hate food
stamps.
Jesus then asks that god forgive our debts or our trespasses
as we in turn forgive the debts of others and/or the trespasses of others. Right.
I called my mortgage company and asked them to forgive my debt and they
laughed. If we are talking about sin
here, then seeking god’s forgiveness for sin does not seem to work well if
there is also a hell where god is willing to punish sinners for all
eternity. If Jesus died for our sins and
he requested that god forgive us all our trespasses then why is there a
hell? Nope. Makes no sense. So no, even within the circle of believers
there is no evidence that god has forgiven us debts or trespasses, much less
evidence outside the circle of believers.
And I wonder if it would simply be easier for an all-powerful god to
defeat the devil and end sin.
Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Clearly this request has not been
answered. We are tempted every day so
Jesus’ request to keep us out of temptation was obviously ignored. We have not been delivered from evil. All one has to do is read the news to see the
evil men and women do every day. The
real bone of contention for me is that if god created us he gave us the
appetites for evil then blames us when we act on those appetites. What kind of parent would knowingly give
their kid a drug addiction and then blame their children when they used drugs? The whole notion is insane. No, there is no evidence that god has removed
us from temptation and delivered us from evil.
Jesus concludes his model prayer bragging on god. He is the kingdom, the power and the glory
forever. Really? He cannot seem to
answer simple prayer requests from his number one son. What kind of power is that? What kind of glory does such a being deserve? What kind of kingdom is he running where he
asks us to pray and provides no evidence that those prayers are answered? So no, based on previous unanswered requests it
appears this god is not worthy of such bragging. If we are to pray it would be nice if god at
least answered the prayers of Jesus as a model for us all. Rather than giving us a model prayer what we
need are some model answers.
We have no evidence god answered Jesus’ model prayer
requests. If so, why pray for anything?
