″ If people nod to this, as humans often do, these people will be affirmed in believing that a deity is micromanaging their parking experience. I imagine this leads to quite warped perspectives on the world. ”
I think there is validity in this, but with a caveat, and there is a much stronger downside that exists alongside this one.
The caveat is that people in general need more gratitude and humility in their lives. I agree that imagining God consciously deciding to give you a parking place is going to lead to warped perspectives. But I also believe that we ought not overlook little positives in life. The human mind evolved to weigh negatives much more than positives and this has consequences for happiness. It keeps us alive in dangerous situations, but it holds us back in safety. Consciously and deliberately fostering gratitude and humility counteracts this force.
It is way too easy to drown in negativity. Rates of depression and drug addiction are very high. There are 55+ violent conflicts and wars going on right now per the UN. Gratitude counteracts despair. It is a strong force against hopelessness. So even if the thank you is offered for a silly thing, there is a way to hold the gratitude to God for making a world where the good things happen, rather than consciously deciding at every moment to give some good to this person and something bad to that one. Like the divine clockmaker theory. A good clockmaker makes a clock that works. A terrible clock maker makes a clock that requires constant tweaking. Gratitude for living in a well made, but largely random, world is much healthier than God decided He had inflicted enough frustration on me so I was finally given a park ng space, and I am thankful for that mercy.
There was a rabbi who wrote articles for Newsweek (I think) and one was about how to pray. I could not find it when I went to look, just articles about that one. The short version is that every prayer any human has ever spoken is one of four: gimme, thank you, oops, or wow. In general people have too many gimme prayers, and not enough thank you and wows. In Catholicism, this appears even in the gimme prayers, with the focus on the Lord’s Prayer which is a humble gimme, because you aren’t putting your gimmie into it, just “Thy will be done”. And I repeat, we need more thank you and wows in our lives.
This leads into the second downfall I see: external locus of control.
***
There is a joke about a man praying as a storm bears down on his town. The mayor orders an evacuation, and the man’s neighbors offer to help him pack and drive him to safety. No, thank you, says the man, I have been praying and God will take care of me,
The storm comes and brings flooding, the man prays as waters fill the first floor of his home. An emergency boat sees him on the roof praying, and offers to take him to a shelter, but he again says, no thank you, I am a good man, and God will answer my prayers.
The waters keep rising, nearly to the roof and a helicopter comes, they actually try to take the man against his will, but he fights back saying what good is my faith if I forsake God after being true for so long, He will answer my prayers.
The water rises and the man drowns. As he stands before God in judgement he asks, what did I do wrong Lord that you forsake me?
And God said, I sent you a car, a boat and a helicopter, what more did you want from me? In the end, David still had to pick up his weapons and fight Goliath.
***
This is a Christian joke, but I have seen the.depicted attitude in my Hindu and Buddhist friends too. When faced with a difficult task, they will often say “next life”. There’s no point in trying, maybe next life. Some of my Muslim friends also, just take the tenet pray five times a day and if God wills it will happen, as an instruction not to try hard on tasks. One actually tries to convince her sister, stop working so hard, just pray more. I have not known any of my Igbo friends who hold traditional animist beliefs to have this external locus of control, But I have seen it in every other religion. And I certainly am not an expert on all traditions. It definitely extends past Christianity though. There is a risk with prayer that it develops into a belief in the powerlessness of the self and therefore becomes a barrier to action. Even a reason to stop trying to understand or learn. “I don’t need to understand, I know what I want and I pray for it, God will handle the details”. This is not healthy.
Prayer has value, internally at minimum. But don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing, or to believe that you have no power.
″ If people nod to this, as humans often do, these people will be affirmed in believing that a deity is micromanaging their parking experience. I imagine this leads to quite warped perspectives on the world. ”
I think there is validity in this, but with a caveat, and there is a much stronger downside that exists alongside this one.
The caveat is that people in general need more gratitude and humility in their lives. I agree that imagining God consciously deciding to give you a parking place is going to lead to warped perspectives. But I also believe that we ought not overlook little positives in life. The human mind evolved to weigh negatives much more than positives and this has consequences for happiness. It keeps us alive in dangerous situations, but it holds us back in safety. Consciously and deliberately fostering gratitude and humility counteracts this force.
It is way too easy to drown in negativity. Rates of depression and drug addiction are very high. There are 55+ violent conflicts and wars going on right now per the UN. Gratitude counteracts despair. It is a strong force against hopelessness. So even if the thank you is offered for a silly thing, there is a way to hold the gratitude to God for making a world where the good things happen, rather than consciously deciding at every moment to give some good to this person and something bad to that one. Like the divine clockmaker theory. A good clockmaker makes a clock that works. A terrible clock maker makes a clock that requires constant tweaking. Gratitude for living in a well made, but largely random, world is much healthier than God decided He had inflicted enough frustration on me so I was finally given a park ng space, and I am thankful for that mercy.
There was a rabbi who wrote articles for Newsweek (I think) and one was about how to pray. I could not find it when I went to look, just articles about that one. The short version is that every prayer any human has ever spoken is one of four: gimme, thank you, oops, or wow. In general people have too many gimme prayers, and not enough thank you and wows. In Catholicism, this appears even in the gimme prayers, with the focus on the Lord’s Prayer which is a humble gimme, because you aren’t putting your gimmie into it, just “Thy will be done”. And I repeat, we need more thank you and wows in our lives.
This leads into the second downfall I see: external locus of control.
***
There is a joke about a man praying as a storm bears down on his town. The mayor orders an evacuation, and the man’s neighbors offer to help him pack and drive him to safety. No, thank you, says the man, I have been praying and God will take care of me,
The storm comes and brings flooding, the man prays as waters fill the first floor of his home. An emergency boat sees him on the roof praying, and offers to take him to a shelter, but he again says, no thank you, I am a good man, and God will answer my prayers.
The waters keep rising, nearly to the roof and a helicopter comes, they actually try to take the man against his will, but he fights back saying what good is my faith if I forsake God after being true for so long, He will answer my prayers.
The water rises and the man drowns. As he stands before God in judgement he asks, what did I do wrong Lord that you forsake me?
And God said, I sent you a car, a boat and a helicopter, what more did you want from me? In the end, David still had to pick up his weapons and fight Goliath.
***
This is a Christian joke, but I have seen the.depicted attitude in my Hindu and Buddhist friends too. When faced with a difficult task, they will often say “next life”. There’s no point in trying, maybe next life. Some of my Muslim friends also, just take the tenet pray five times a day and if God wills it will happen, as an instruction not to try hard on tasks. One actually tries to convince her sister, stop working so hard, just pray more. I have not known any of my Igbo friends who hold traditional animist beliefs to have this external locus of control, But I have seen it in every other religion. And I certainly am not an expert on all traditions. It definitely extends past Christianity though. There is a risk with prayer that it develops into a belief in the powerlessness of the self and therefore becomes a barrier to action. Even a reason to stop trying to understand or learn. “I don’t need to understand, I know what I want and I pray for it, God will handle the details”. This is not healthy.
Prayer has value, internally at minimum. But don’t use it as an excuse to do nothing, or to believe that you have no power.