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Some years ago, I heard a retired Lutheran priest ponder, in radio, about the concept of a prayer, and whether, as an edge case, an unborn child could be able t
by atakiel 14d ago
Some years ago, I heard a retired Lutheran priest ponder, in radio, about the concept of a prayer, and whether, as an edge case, an unborn child could be able to pray, with the child of that age having no understanding on the required concepts. This is apparently one of those questions that people ponder under the umbrella of philosophy of religion. His conclusion was that prayer was about harmonizing one's self with the universe. It's a beautiful thought, (and I think religions, of all kinds, are really good at providing the fertile ground for thoughts like these).
It's akin to how the saying goes, that when we argue, we need to reach the same wavelength where the other one is to reach an understanding.
In communication studies or sociology or linguistics or one of those fields, there's the idea that communication is about making pacts about meanings, and finding the common ground to understand and delimit the message.
In a sense, from that basing, one could argue that understanding can be seen as an act of harmonizing. I think there's something universal in it.
- Archer6621 14d agoFor a lot of people, I think religion provides this basis or promise of harmony with the world, in a simplified way that stipulates what you should or shouldn't do and how things work, and those people find comfort in having these clear "rules"; we want to be able to rely on our understanding of the world, so that we can act within it with confidence, or faith. Ultimately, the "god" that is present in many religions is synonymous with this absolute truth of how the universe works, it's an unattainable standard that we all try to aim for, intuitively and knowledge-wise, or seek wisdom from, and I believe the intention of prayer is to have a way to get closer to it, to tune the self to the god in order to sense and know this absolute truth more clearly. I reckon that conceptually, prayer and meditation are very similar in this sense, but with a focus on different areas of the self.
- IX-103 14d agoIf "god" is synonymous with the absolute truth of how the universe works then it can't address moral issues at all, since you can't prove an "ought" like "people shouldn't stab people" from an "is" like "stabbing hurts people and may kill them". You need to add extra axioms like "hurting people ought to be minimized". The universe (and its intrinsic functions) holds no special value for people or trees or life in general. The best we can say is that it seems to have a slight preference for matter over antimatter for some reason. All our moral codes and social norms we live by are purely human invention, derived from things that happen to work to produce a somewhat functioning society.
- HarHarVeryFunny 14d ago> All our moral codes and social norms we live by are purely human invention I'd say much of it is selected for by evolution. e.g. Most animals don't fight or kill more than they need to since this is not optimal - risk of personal injury and depleting a food resource (there are exceptions of course such as the fox in the henhouse), and this is so universal it seems it has to have a genetic basis.
- teleforce 14d ago>All our moral codes and social norms we live by are purely human invention, derived from things that happen to work to produce a somewhat functioning society. Religious people would disagree, and the evidences are all to see, hear and ponder from their sacred holy books. But the main questions are that which holy books are truly sacred, meaning that purely and utterly God words. Otherwise it's human innovation/exaggeration or something in between (i.e corrupted God words). Based on these holy books, religious people adhere and follow their prophets teachings and actions to the best of their ability since the prophets are their fellow human beings and not angels send from the heavens.