Conservapedia - User contributions [en]

Prayer

2008-04-21T17:08:29Z

Baldeagle: /* Praying in secret */

[[Image:Prayer.jpg|right|300px|Praying Hands]]
In [[Christianity]] and many other religions, '''prayer''' is the process of directly connecting to [[God]], usually for the purpose of deliberate communication.

Through prayer our thoughts and hopes are heard and understood. Oftentimes, prayer will result in feeling God's presence or feeling like one is touched by God. This feeling of a connection is cited by many theists as proof of God's existence. It is through prayer that man can understand God's will in his life and ask God for the courage and strength to carry his message to the world. Prayer is common throughout the [[Bible]] in both the [[Old Testament]] and the [[New Testament|New]].

The capability of prayer are often misinterpreted as proof of the non-existence of God. In a common argument, a Christian may be asked to pray for something which cannot possibly occur through natural means, or which is so unlikely that the possibility of it occurring without supernatural intervention may be discounted - asking God to ensure that a fair coin lands on heads forty times in succession, for example, which has a statistical probability of approximately one in a trillion. When the prayer has no apparent effect - the coin lands on heads after a few flips - the argument is made that God as described in the bible cannot exist, as this God claims to be able and willing to grant prayer requests.

A similar argument is based upon scientific study of the effects or prayer, particularly in medical contexts - asking why patients who receive much prayer fair no better than those who receive no prayer at all, or questioning why Christians would pay for health insurance when God has demonstrated in the bible the capability for supernatural healing.

Both of these arguments are fallacious, resting on the false assumption that God will grant all prayers. This is not true: While God hears all prayers, it is His judgment that decides which are worthy of His intervention. There is no reason God needs to provide additional proof of his existence by flipping coins or holding 'publicity stunts' when His existence is already manifest in His creation. Similarly, there is no reason for God to aid or hinder in matters of medical survival - the patients' eventual destination is determined only by themselves, and their time of arrival there holds little importance. God grants the prayers of those who pray in faith and true need.

But, some argue that the Christian Bible promises answers to prayers. E.g.

Mathew 7:7-12
" Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

== Praying in secret ==

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told followers how to pray and offered an ideal prayer ({{Bible ref|Mathew|6|9-13}}). He cautioned against praying hypocritically, such as praying in public to look good, and said that instead one should pray alone, secretly, and should not announce one's prayer. Some Christians interpret this as direct instructions and for this reason oppose prayers in schools, public meetings, or other non-religious meetings.
{{Bible quote|And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.|book=Matthew|chap=6|verses=5-7}}

[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/mount/lordsprayer.asp Instructions for praying] Sermon on the Mount.

Other religions, and even different traditions within Christianity have developed their own practices related to prayer.<ref>"The Modes of Prayer," from the Nazerine Way of Essenic Study [http://www.thenazareneway.com/modes_of_prayer.htm]</ref> However, God forbids praying to any other god in the ten commandments.

== Praying in public ==
Various figures in the Bible prayed in public or otherwise not alone and in secret.
* [[Solomon]] prayed publicly in dedicating the [[temple]] ({{Bible ref|1_Kings|8|22-61}}).
* [[Daniel (prophet)|Daniel]] prayed alone in his room, but by an open window where he could be seen ({{Bible ref|Daniel|6|10-11}}).
* Jesus sometimes prayed with his disciples ({{Bible ref|Luke|9|18}}).
* Jesus prayed in public, such as in {{Bible ref|Matthew|19|13-15}} when Jesus prayed for the children brought to him.

== References==
<references/>

== See also ==

*[[The Lord's Prayer]]
*[[Rosary]]
*[[Hail Mary]]

== External links ==

* [http://www.catholic.org/prayers/ Prayers] Catholic Online.
* Mates, Nathan, [http://www.visi.com/~nathan/xtian/publicprayer.html Praying in Public] 9th April 2000.

[[Category: Religion]]

Prayer

2008-04-21T17:04:49Z

Baldeagle: /* Praying in secret */

[[Image:Prayer.jpg|right|300px|Praying Hands]]
In [[Christianity]] and many other religions, '''prayer''' is the process of directly connecting to [[God]], usually for the purpose of deliberate communication.

Through prayer our thoughts and hopes are heard and understood. Oftentimes, prayer will result in feeling God's presence or feeling like one is touched by God. This feeling of a connection is cited by many theists as proof of God's existence. It is through prayer that man can understand God's will in his life and ask God for the courage and strength to carry his message to the world. Prayer is common throughout the [[Bible]] in both the [[Old Testament]] and the [[New Testament|New]].

The capability of prayer are often misinterpreted as proof of the non-existence of God. In a common argument, a Christian may be asked to pray for something which cannot possibly occur through natural means, or which is so unlikely that the possibility of it occurring without supernatural intervention may be discounted - asking God to ensure that a fair coin lands on heads forty times in succession, for example, which has a statistical probability of approximately one in a trillion. When the prayer has no apparent effect - the coin lands on heads after a few flips - the argument is made that God as described in the bible cannot exist, as this God claims to be able and willing to grant prayer requests.

A similar argument is based upon scientific study of the effects or prayer, particularly in medical contexts - asking why patients who receive much prayer fair no better than those who receive no prayer at all, or questioning why Christians would pay for health insurance when God has demonstrated in the bible the capability for supernatural healing.

Both of these arguments are fallacious, resting on the false assumption that God will grant all prayers. This is not true: While God hears all prayers, it is His judgment that decides which are worthy of His intervention. There is no reason God needs to provide additional proof of his existence by flipping coins or holding 'publicity stunts' when His existence is already manifest in His creation. Similarly, there is no reason for God to aid or hinder in matters of medical survival - the patients' eventual destination is determined only by themselves, and their time of arrival there holds little importance. God grants the prayers of those who pray in faith and true need.

But, some argue that the Christian Bible promises answers to prayers. E.g.

Mathew 7:7-12
" Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask him! So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, for this sums up the Law and the Prophets."

== Praying in secret ==

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus told followers how to pray and offered an ideal prayer ({{Bible ref|Mathew|6|9-13}}). He cautioned against praying hypocritically, such as praying in public to look good, and said that instead one should pray alone, secretly, and should not announce one's prayer. He taught that if you violate the sanctity of prayer you run the risk of ending up in hell. Some Christians interpret this as direct instructions and for this reason oppose prayers in schools, public meetings, or other non-religious meetings.
{{Bible quote|And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by men. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full. But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you. And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words. Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.|book=Matthew|chap=6|verses=5-7}}

[http://www.lifeofchrist.com/teachings/sermons/mount/lordsprayer.asp Instructions for praying] Sermon on the Mount.

Other religions, and even different traditions within Christianity have developed their own practices related to prayer.<ref>"The Modes of Prayer," from the Nazerine Way of Essenic Study [http://www.thenazareneway.com/modes_of_prayer.htm]</ref>

== Praying in public ==
Various figures in the Bible prayed in public or otherwise not alone and in secret.
* [[Solomon]] prayed publicly in dedicating the [[temple]] ({{Bible ref|1_Kings|8|22-61}}).
* [[Daniel (prophet)|Daniel]] prayed alone in his room, but by an open window where he could be seen ({{Bible ref|Daniel|6|10-11}}).
* Jesus sometimes prayed with his disciples ({{Bible ref|Luke|9|18}}).
* Jesus prayed in public, such as in {{Bible ref|Matthew|19|13-15}} when Jesus prayed for the children brought to him.

== References==
<references/>

== See also ==

*[[The Lord's Prayer]]
*[[Rosary]]
*[[Hail Mary]]

== External links ==

* [http://www.catholic.org/prayers/ Prayers] Catholic Online.
* Mates, Nathan, [http://www.visi.com/~nathan/xtian/publicprayer.html Praying in Public] 9th April 2000.

[[Category: Religion]]

Earth

2008-04-21T16:58:32Z

Baldeagle: /* Young Earth Creationist view */

{{Planet|image=Blue Marble.jpg
|symbol=Earth symbol.svg
|order=3
|primary=Sun
|periapsis=147,098,074 km (0.983 AU)
|apoapsis=152,097,701 km (1.017 AU)
|semimajor=149,597,887.5 km (1.0 AU)
|bode=1.0 AU
|eccentricity=0.016710219
|sidereal=365.256366 da
|synodic=365.256366 da
|orbitspeed=29.783 km/s
|inclination=0°
|reference=the ecliptic
|siderealday=23.9345 h
|solarday=24 h
|rotatespeed=465.11 m/s
|axialtilt=23.439281°
|mass=5.97599 * 1024 kg
|density=5,515.3 kg/m³
|surfacegrav=9.780327 m/s²
|escapespeed=11.186 km/s
|meanradius=6371 km<ref>http://www.solarviews.com/eng/earth.htm</ref>
|equatorradius =6378.135 km
|polarradius =6356.750 km
|surfacearea=510,065,600 km²
|landarea=148,939,100 km²
|waterarea=361,126,400 km²
|mintemp=185 K
|meantemp=287 K
|maxtemp=331 K
|moons=1
|composition=Rock
|albedo=0.37
}}
The '''Earth''' is the only known planet in our '''Solar System''' which can support life. It contains water, reasonable levels of oxygen, and a stable temperature range. Geometrically speaking, Earth is the largest of the terrestrial (rocky) planets in the solar system.

==Physical Description==

Within the [[solar system]], Earth is the third planet from the Sun. It is approximately 8,000 miles (13,000 km) in diameter, which means that its equatorial circumference (measured around the equator) is 24,901 miles (40,075 kilometers), and the polar circumference is slightly less at 24,809 miles (40,008 km).<ref>http://geography.about.com/library/faq/blqzcircumference.htm</ref> The reason its metric circumference is so close to the "round number" of 40,000 is that the [[kilometer]] was defined (by the French) as 1/10,000th the distance from the equator to the [[North Pole]].

Its surface area is approximately 4·π (4000 mi)2 = 200 million square miles (510 million km2). It has been said that Earth should really be called "water", as the larger part of it—about 70%—is covered by water. In fact, the Pacific and Indian oceans alone cover about half of the Earth's surface.

The Earth orbits at an average distance of about 93 million miles (150 million km) from the Sun in an almost circular orbit. The plane of this orbit, or '''ecliptic''', is the common reference plane for the inclinations of the orbits of all [[planet]]s and [[dwarf planet]]s in the [[Solar System]], though in fact Earth's orbit is inclined 7.25° to the plane of the [[Sun]]'s equator. It takes light (and other forms of electromagnetic radiation) approximately 500 seconds to travel from the Sun to the Earth, i.e. the distance can also be stated as "500 light-seconds." The distance to nearby stars is made by measuring the stellar [[parallax]] between observations when the earth is at opposite ends of its orbit, so the earth's orbit itself is a measuring stick for astronomical distances, and is known as the ''astronomical unit'' (A. U.) It is worth noting that if the Earth were slightly closer to the Sun, it would be too hot for life while if Earth were slightly further away from the Sun, water would freeze and life would be impossible.

==Origin==
People disagree about when and how the Earth was created. The three most popular ideas are:
#That God created the Earth several hundred generations ago, as recounted in [[Genesis]]. By adding years and other time indications in the [[Old Testament]] chronologies, one can calculate the age of the Earth as approximately 6,000 years (see [[Date of creation]] and [[Young Earth Creationism]]).
#That God created the Earth billions of years ago (see [[Old Earth Creationism]] and [[Theistic Evolution]]).
#That the Earth came into existence billions of years ago, but entirely through natural processes and without any intervention by God

Clashes between adherents of these ideas have gone on since time immemorial (see [[origins debate]]), though the last theory has only matured in the last 200 years.

== Young Earth Creationist view ==

===Formation and Age===

Young Earth creationists believe, on the basis of the biblical account in Genesis and biblical geochronologies, that the entire Earth, including animal, plant, and human life, was formed in six days, around 4000 B.C.
Mainstream scientific journals, committed to a [[naturalism|naturalistic]] worldview, contend this view.<ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs2005/0822sternberg.asp 1</ref><ref>http://www.answersingenesis.org/docs/538.asp 2</ref><ref>http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53400 3</ref><ref>http://www.discovery.org/scripts/viewDB/index.php?command=view&id=3833&program=DI%20Main%20Page%20-%20News&callingPage=discoMainPage 4</ref>

Some scientists believe that the Earth was formed by natural processes instead of being supernaturally created. However, as one scientist noted, “... most every prediction by theorists about planetary formation has been wrong.” <ref>http://www.creationscience.com/onlinebook/ReferencesandNotes43.html</ref> Many people inside and outside of the scientific community understand that the dominating theories of planetary formation in scientific circles are guesses at best. People who have read the Bible know that God knows more about the formation of the earth than scientists.

===Shape of the Earth===

Some people dispute the shape of the earth, saying that according to the Bible, the earth is flat rather than spherical (presumably square, given that it is described as having "four corners" (Revelations 7:1)). However, no credible organization has ever expressed support for this theory.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/crea-fe.htm</ref> Some have disputed the idea that the earth rotates around the sun.<ref>http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek/febible.htm</ref>

In Revelations 7:1 it is stated:

"And after these things I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the earth..." (Revelations 7:1)

A sphere has no corners. The four corners are also mentioned in Isaiah 11:12. This is often accepted to be a figure of speech.

It is also stated:

"Then was the iron, the clay, the brass, the silver, and the gold, broken to pieces together, and became like the chaff of the summer threshingfloors; and the wind carried them away, that no place was found for them: and the stone that smote the image became a great mountain, and filled the whole earth." (Daniel 2:35)

AND

"Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and was strong, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth:" (Daniel 4:10-11)

AND

"Behold, [Jesus] cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him" (Revelations 1:7)

AND

"Once again, the devil took him to a very high mountain, and showed him all the kingdoms of the world [cosmos] in their glory." (Matthew 4:8)

Apologist [[JP Holding]]'s take on this is that this may have been a vision. <ref>http://www.tektonics.org/af/earthshape.html#globe</ref>

==Christianity and the Earth==

===Christian Historical-Grammatical Bible Exegesis or Bible Literalism===

According to [[Creation Ministries International]], most young earth creationists use a [[hermeneutic]] "best described as the [[Historical-grammatical exegesis|historical-grammatical method]] in which historical narrative (such as the book of Genesis) is interpreted as literal history, prophecy is interpreted as prophecy, poetry is interpreted as poetry, etc."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/images/pdfs/tj/tjv16v2_forster.pdf</ref> Creation Ministries International further states that "Historical-grammatical exegesis involves a systematic approach to analyzing in detail the historical situation, events and circumstances surrounding the text, and the semantics and syntactical relationships of the words which comprise the text."<ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/4880/</ref>

Bible scholars have estimated the age of the earth based on the Creation account in Genesis and the genealogical accounts in Numbers and other books of the Pentateuch. One famous estimate was published in 1650 by [[James Ussher|James Ussher Archbishop of Armagh]] in a book called ''Annals of the World,'' in which he estimated the Creation to have occurred on 23 October 4004 B.C. Other Biblical scholars maintain that there are possible gaps in the genealogies, often using the ideas of the 19th century Calvinist theologian [[Benjamin Warfield]] on the issue. <ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/primeval_chronology.shtml</ref> However, [[James Barr]], regius professor of Hebrew at [[Oxford University]], wrote in 1984 the following: "… probably, so far as I know, there is no professor of Hebrew or Old Testament at any world-class university who does not believe that the writer(s) of Genesis 1–11 intended to convey to their readers the ideas that: … the figures contained in the Genesis genealogies provided by simple addition a chronology from the beginning of the world up to later stages in the biblical story.’" <ref>http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/1606/</ref> Furthermore, it should be noted that Barr himself rejects supernatural Christianity, and so is not a priori biased in favor of creationism. <ref>http://www.reasons.org/resources/apologetics/pca_creation_study_committee_report.shtml</ref>

Many [[Christian|Christians]] believe that the Earth is the perfect distance away from the Sun and take this to be evidence of [[God]]'s existence. <ref>http://www.everystudent.com/features/isthere.html</ref> Secular scientists, however, reject this reasoning using the anthropic principle<ref>http://www.anthropic-principle.com</ref>.

===Christian Non-Literalism===

Many mainstream Christian denominations believe the story of Genesis is not meant to be read literally, and believe that the age of the Earth is on the order of millions or billions of years, not thousands of years. <ref>http://webusers.xula.edu/cporter/2000n/evolution_and_religion.htm</ref>

===Scientific Uniformitarianism===

Uniformitarian scientists believe that the earth is beyond 4 billion years old.<ref>http://pubs.usgs.gov/gip/geotime/age.html</ref> They also refute that the Earth is only 6,000 years old by quoting older human societies dated by their dating method as older than that.<ref>http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/</ref>

== Evolutionary view ==

Estimates by uniformitarian geologists of the age of the Earth and the beginning of life give about 4.55 billion years and 3.5 billion years ago respectively. These estimates are primarily based on radioactive dating of meteorites and fossil specimens. The majority of scientists conclude that the Earth formed by natural processes, specifically by the accumulation of debris orbiting the sun billions of years in the past.{{fact}}

==References==
{{reflist|2}}

{{Solarsystem}}