The Bible: Commentary and Controversy

So let’s talk about prayer, which at least one dictionary describes as “a solemn request for help or expression of thanks addressed to God or an object of worship.” It’s described variously in the bible as seeking God’s favor, pouring out one’s soul to the Lord, crying out to heaven, drawing near to God, and kneeling before the Father.

It is also commonly described as “talking to God,” which is a quite different thing. No pleas, no seeking favors, no crying out. Just talking. I like that definition best, but that’s just me. But all those definitions raise an important question: to whom and/or what god are we praying?

If you read my post on sin, you already know the answer; it depends on your belief system, and on the specific situation in which you find yourself. I remember the old adage: “there are no atheists in foxholes,” and believe there is a great deal more truth than poetry in that quote.

But is that universal? Must we need god in order to believe in him/her/it/they? That’s a really interesting question. Was Voltaire right when he said “If God did not exist it would be necessary to invent him?”

Do atheists pray? And if they do, who or what are they praying to? When my favorite atheist, Bill Maher, gets in a dicey situation, does he “pray” to anyone for help? If a child of his was injured, or stricken with a terrible disease, would he simply hope his child survived, or that the doctors would do the right thing? When my son was diagnosed with cancer at age two and a half, I looked up God in a hurry, and begged Him to save Angus. Didn’t work, but I’m not sure it was God’s fault.

It’s my contention that everyone prays in some form or another, to some person or thing – or another. The horseplayer hanging on the rail at the track may pray to jockeys or horses: “Please run faster, Midnight!” Wives making dinner might silenty pray to husbands: “Oh, please mow the lawn tomorrow.” Children shrinking in their seats might pray silently and fervently to the teacher: “Oh, please don’t call on me today.” After the event there are thankful prayers: “Oh, thank you horse,  or husband, or teacher. And if their prayer wasn’t answered, they might pray in another way: “Damn you, why didn’t you… etc.”

Strictly secular. But that can change with the insertion of one little word. “Oh please make Midnight run faster,” “Oh please make him mow the lawn tomorrow,” “Oh please make her not call on me today.”  Which raises the prayer to a higher power (pun intended).

Which answers the question: must prayers acknowledge the presence of, and be directed to, god? Well, yes. At least a god of some sort. Which brings up another question: If we admit the existence of a higher power, and decide to pray to him/her/it/they, how do we define that higher power?

God – or the apostles – brilliantly answered that question with the creation of Jesus, which anthropomorphosed an indistinct, shadowy figure spoken of in the old testament, and gave us a real live person to pray to. Much easier than praying to an all-encompassing being floating somewhere up in the sky, which whom we have no earthly connection. Jesus was the lifeline thrown to us to pull us out of the murk into which we had sunk. Or at least that was the premise. And it worked beautifully. Jesus became a handhold to heaven we could see, and touch, and talk to, and take pictures of – a human being that was also God himself.

I don’t know what I believe, only that I believe. I don’t know what I believe in, only that I believe in something. Perhaps because the human mind (or at least my human mind) can’t fathom a being that created the world and everything in it, and watches over each of his creations every minute of every day, and gives them help when they pray for it, and either permits bad things to happen to them or permits another being, an evil one, to cause those bad things, I can’t believe in the biblical concept of “God.”

The problem is, several times I have felt the effects of such a being in my life. How can this be? I don’t know; I’m still searching.

One concept that intrigues me is that of “guardian angels,” alluded to many times in both the old and the new testaments. I’m not talking here about the “angels” that appeared to various old testament figures, conversed with them, and advised them on a proper course of action. I have a problem with those, because in the old testament these “angels” walked and talked pretty much like people, not phantoms, robed figures with wings, or beings sporting halos. Of course God did a lot of that, too. Then, largely coinciding with the appearance of Christ, the angels disappeared, as did God. This inconsistency bothers me.

I understand there have been thousands of “sightings” since the resurrection. Most describe angelic beings, ephemeral creatures, luminous flying figures, etc. Many, however, describe the presence of a man or woman who was seen at a critical time in a person’s life, then never seen again. I don’t know, of course, whether any or all of these involved angels. I only know I have experienced events in my life that could be explained by the presence of some being watching over me, responding to prayers, helping me in a time of trouble, and in general watching over me. I have no idea what or who that being is, and no tangible proof of its existence.

When my wife gave birth to our youngest child, she unexpectedly started hemorrhaging. The doctors couldn’t stop it, and in a few minutes her heart stopped. The doctors tried valiantly to revive her, with no success. When I heard her heart had stopped I went into the little chapel at the hospital, got down on my knees, and started talking not to God, or an angel, but to my firstborn son, Angus, who had died of cancer the year before.  I told him how difficult life would be without my wife, how much our other children and I needed her, and begged him to talk to God or whoever had the power to bring her back to life.

As I knelt there, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a nurse, who told me my wife’s heart had started to beat again, and the doctors couldn’t explain why. She’d lain on the table, dead, for many minutes. The doctors had given up hope. Then, inexplicably, her heart started beating again. She was in a coma for weeks afterward. When she eventually awakened we found the event had wiped her mind almost clean of her former life; she didn’t recognize me, her children, her home, or anything except the baby that had just been born. But she was alive, and still is to this day.

I believe something or someone brought her back to life, perhaps based on my prayers and pleas. I believe my son, Angus, was partly or totally responsible; either he was able to accomplish it on his own, or convinced some other “being” to do so. I know the atheists, humanists, and agnostics will scoff; but of course I don’t care what they think. I remember the presiding physician bringing his young daughter into my wife’s room after she had awakened and saying “You’ve always told me you believe in miracles; I just wanted you to see one in real life.”

While this event proves to me that something out of my normal experience occurred – that there was some kind of intervention that saved my wife — I’m aware it has little to do with the possible presence of guardian angels. But it does give me food for thought.

I’m pretty sure there’ll be more on this subject later.