Does God play favorites in religion, politics?

Washington Post ^ | May 11. 2010 | Kathleen Parker

[TBP]

Oh well, it doesn't matter where one prays, right? All prayers lead to heaven. Or do they?

If the whole world prays for a common good, will no good come of it? If so, then what's the point of a National Day of Prayer? Oh ye of little faith.

When it comes to whose prayers carry more weight in the heavenly realm, well, who really knows? But brain research supports the likelihood that one man's prayer is as good as any other's.

Barbara Bradley Hagerty, the award-winning NPR religion reporter, participated in a peyote ceremony in Arizona, meditated while wearing a brain scanner at the University of Wisconsin, and donned a "God helmet" in a neuroscientist's lab in Canada in her quest to discover the secrets of prayer and, possibly, proof of God.

Her research led to some startling conclusions among those who believe theirs is the one true way. She found that whether one is a Sikh, a Catholic nun, a Buddhist monk, or a Sufi Muslim, the brain reacts to focused prayer and meditation much in the same way. The same parts light up and the same parts go dark during deep meditation.

Apparently, we have a "God spot" and "God genes."

[TBP]

I pretty much agree with what Kathleen Parker has to say in this column. The only God we can know is the God we experience, and God shows up in the way in which we will be most receptive to that experience. It's a unique experience for each of us.

[hoosierham]

Interesting,aren’t the Sufi Muslims the ones that don’t go around converting at the point of a sword?

[loveliberty2]

The one thought which comes to my mind when reading this pitifully shallow column is a long-ago remark by Dr. Ralph Sockman to the effect that "when we examine such matters, we much put away our little finite measuring rods."

[wildbill]

I don’t know how many times I’ve told God that if he’d only get me out of that particular jackpot, I’d be good. Those prayers never work.

However, this has proved to me that God IS omniscient. SHe knows I’m lying.

[TBP]

Right. The Sufis are the mystics. When you gt to the mystical end of any religion, you get into a lot of common ground.

[hoosierham]

Watch the movie “God’s Little Acre”.

[verity]

Someone once said that God answers all prayers. However, the answer could be a resounding “NO.”

[The Future 2012]

Faith is what leads us to heaven. And those who have faith keep God’s word.

[Jack Wilson]

He does pick the winner of sporting events.

[dfwgator]

He does pick the winner of sporting events

"God must be a Gator because the sun is orange and the sky is blue."

[patriot preacher]

Ever heard of King David?

The answer is YES.

And if Kathleen Parker wrote it, that in itself is almost enough alone for me NOT to agree with it. To wit, trusting that the “God that we experience” is the “only God we can know.” Far be it from ME to disagree with the know-it-all who lives just down the road from me, but I think I’ll trust God’s Word over HER “experience,” thank you. In fact, I’ll trust His Word even over MY “experience,” because GOD Himself defines how we can know Him, and NOT we ourselves.

Sorry, Kathleen. You don’t get to make the rules for God, either. And I know how that SO disappoints you. You like to call the shots. If not, you get Soooo catty! Meeeooowwww!

[vpintheak]

Our Nations founders know the truth and so do I. Visit www.wallbuilders.org and you can learn about the truth too.

[armydoc]

I pretty much agree with what Kathleen Parker has to say in this column. The only God we can know is the God we experience, and God shows up in the way in which we will be most receptive to that experience. It's a unique experience for each of us.

So, the same God commands one person to self-detonate in a crowd and another to love his enemies? Hey, as long as they are both "sincere", right?

[guitarplayer1953]

Ah the many religious experiences I had back in the 70’s eating righteous mushrooms and LSD along with a few good mescaline trips, snorting MDA and smoking HOG. /S

[xzins]

The only God we can know is the God we experience, and God shows up in the way in which we will be most receptive to that experience

God exists, is the great I AM, regardless of our experience.

[xzins]

Apparently, we have a "God spot" and "God genes." And though some are more generously endowed than others, spiritual experience is a human phenomenon, not a religious one. Different routes to the same destination.

Any location in the brain that lights up when people assume a particular attitude is, as this says, a physical phenomenon.

Therefore, it is in no way a measure of God, who is a unique, sovereign Being, and whose name is I AM.

He is before all, and He created all, and He is not boxed in or measured by some area in a human brain.

Parker has demonstrated here, if one follows through on the logic, that she thinks god is everything anyone wants him to be. Therefore, he is nothing. This is the subtle direction an unbeliever took this article.

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so very much for sharing your testimony and insights, dear brother in Christ!

Truly, God is not a hypothesis. He lives. His Name is I AM. I've known Him for a half century and counting.

That a certain area of the physical brain lights up when a Christian is in prayer is no more remarkable than an LED on a transmitter/receiver when signals are being processed.

The message, the successful communication of it, is one thing - the physical equipment that facilitates sending and receiving is not the message, it does not constitute the communication.

Or to put it another way, the letter in your mail box has no meaning until you read it and are "informed.".

More to the point, the words of God are spirit and life. The words of men are neither spirit nor life. They are not "processed" the same way.

It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, [they] are spirit, and [they] are life. – John 6:63

"Ears to hear" are a gift of God which all Christians have.

So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. - Romans 10:17

Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life. – John 5:24

But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God. – Matt 4:4

Why do ye not understand my speech? [even] because ye cannot hear my word. – John 8:43

And he said, Therefore said I unto you, that no man can come unto me, except it were given unto him of my Father. – John 6:65

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: - John 10:27

After all, Jesus' Name is The Word of God.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men. – John 1:1-4

And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him [was] called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes [were] as a flame of fire, and on his head [were] many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he [was] clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies [which were] in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on [his] vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS. – Revelation 19:11-16

Truly, man is not the measure of God.

[TBP]

That a certain area of the physical brain lights up when a Christian is in prayer is no more remarkable than an LED on a transmitter/receiver when signals are being processed.

As the article notes, it's not just Christian prayer. The results are eseentially the saem no matter the religion of the person praying. All prayer, from any tradition, lights up the brain similarly.

[xzins]

All prayer, from any tradition, lights up the brain similarly.

The only significance of this is that the human being's engineering works a specific way when any human assumes a particular position and attitude.

It really is no different, for example, than the heart slowing when people sit quietly after taking deep, calming breaths.

This research, if it is showing anything, is showing nothing about the spiritual dimension. It is simply showing the physical manifestation of the brain when activity has slowed due to a "meditation posture and attitude."

God is a unique Being who communicates with those who belong to Him. His sheep hear His voice and they follow Him.

In other words, those who are not designated sheep do NOT hear and follow Him. As Jesus said to his opponents: "You are of your father, the devil." In other words, there are those who are his sheep and there are those who are not.

[TBP]

Your God is too small. If God is infinite, then how can anything be not of God?

Your dualism makes no sense. How can any part of God’s Universe not belong to God? Isn’t God infinite?

“In the beginning was God.” Not God and anything, just God. So where could anything that is have come from but from God?

And BTW, it’s questionable whetherJesus actually said what you wrote. Examination of the history of the Bible as well as study of his quotes (by Biblical scholars more knowledgeable than I) show that Jesus would almost certainly agree with a quote I posted in the Yogi Berra thread: “I didn’t really say all the things I said.”