Is it immoral to believe in anecdotal "answered prayer?"

Subfallen · #1 09-10-2007, 04:54 AM

I know a late-twenties missionary who is working in Turkey. While he was swimming at the beach, he lost his wedding ring. Later, after praying over Psalms 33:7 ("He gathereth the waters of the sea together as a heap: he layeth up the depth in storehouses."), this spiritually minded young man recovered his symbolic jewelry from a tidal pool.

He believes this was a Divine miracle of direct answered prayer.

At first blush you probably dismiss my friend as a clinical egomaniac who should not be held morally accountable for his beliefs. But say we ignore this contention. Is he is immoral to believe in a God that intervenes for the recovery of lost trinkets while innocent children are starving to death?

MidGe · #2 09-10-2007, 05:51 AM

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Is he is immoral to believe in a God that intervenes for the recovery of lost trinkets while innocent children are starving to death?

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Not only is it immoral but it is sheer madness, indication that something is not right up there! [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

chezlaw · #3 09-10-2007, 06:12 AM

I don't think beliefs can be immoral but maybe he believes in an immoral god.

SNOWBALL · #4 09-10-2007, 07:28 AM

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I don't think beliefs can be immoral but maybe he believes in an immoral god.

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You have to be immoral to worship an immoral god.

MidGe · #5 09-10-2007, 07:32 AM

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I don't think beliefs can be immoral but maybe he believes in an immoral god.

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You have to be immoral to worship an immoral god.

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It seems that the only requirement be that you are a believer that your god full of love, exists, whether he really is so or not, whether what you see in the world fits a god of love or not!

chezlaw · #6 09-10-2007, 08:11 AM

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I don't think beliefs can be immoral but maybe he believes in an immoral god.

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You have to be immoral to worship an immoral god.

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its not immoral if you believe you worship a moral god but are mistaken and in fact worship an immoral god.

chez

SNOWBALL · #7 09-10-2007, 09:04 AM

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its not immoral if you believe you worship a moral god but are mistaken and in fact worship an immoral god.

chez

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I was gonna edit my post to say that, but I knew that you'd be sharp enough to correct me [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

tame_deuces · #8 09-10-2007, 09:31 AM

I think it is immoral that 99% of all people pretend that starving children means more to them than a lost wedding ring, when from all my observations of people this clearly isn't true.

And note that I'm not judging those who care more about their wedding ring, I'm being judgemental towards so many people having obvious double standards.

Metric · #9 09-10-2007, 12:57 PM

If I ever have kids of my own, I'm reasonably sure I'll treat them better than I treat the starving children in Africa. E.g. by granting requests that are somewhat trivial compared to starving to death.

Subfallen · #10 09-10-2007, 01:59 PM

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If I ever have kids of my own, I'm reasonably sure I'll treat them better than I treat the starving children in Africa. E.g. by granting requests that are somewhat trivial compared to starving to death.

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Is this a reply to tame_deuces or to me? I don't see how this is an appropriate analogy to my friend's belief, since there is a qualitative difference in your relation to your children and your relation to African orphans.

A more reasonable human analogy of my friend's God would be something like a person who tortured one of his children in the basement while spoiling another one of his children. My question is whether my friend is immoral to believe that such a Being is the Source of all truth and beauty.

Obviously my friend is...um...not smart (and terrifyingly credulous.) But is the profound depravity implied by his belief sufficient to make holding that belief immoral, in your opinion?