Why won’t a god / a higher power / etc answer my prayers?
Ever wondered that? If so, let’s talk. But before you click here, beware: I won’t be sugarcoating it.
First of all, let’s keep one thing in mind. Even if you forget all else, remember this:
You belong on Earth, for better AND for worse. You can’t just have the good bits of belonging on Earth with none of the discomfort.
I’m opening the article with the above because when people say they’re feeling hopeless, usually what they’re REALLY feeling is envy, not a real lack of hope. They’re envious that others “have it better”, others are “lucky”, others “get all the good stuff” and “nothing is left for me”. Throw the first stone if you haven’t ever had these thoughts. I know I have.
So, let me tell you a secret: your mind is mistaken. It means well, it just wants to care for you and spare you from suffering, but it’s mistaken. Don’t believe everything you think. Take your own thoughts with a grain of salt.
As a Buddhist, I believe suffering is part of life. This is often oversimplified and misunderstood by westerners as “let’s just conform and do nothing and keep suffering”. That’s so NOT what I said. Read it again.
Suffering is part of life.
Nowhere in that phrase is the implication of action or no action. It’s simply stating a truth. It’s not dictating what you should DO (or NOT DO) with that truth. “Oh but that’s not comforting at all”, some crybabies would say. I get it… When you’re used to dogma, when you’re used to “do this or go to hell”, “don’t do that or you won’t go to heaven”, scaremongering, shame, guilt, fear… When you’re used to all these things, you mistake them for guidance. But in fact, they’re not guidance. As I see it, they’re just imprisoning you.
It’s ok and valid to feel lost when you’re given freedom, because the trauma of getting bossed around by a control freak would have you believe THEIR approach is the only valid approach.
But no, it’s not.
You don’t need to be told what to do all the time. You’re capable of deciding for yourself what to do. When you see a truth that comes with no instructions whatsoever, try not to think of it as “dismissive”. Try to think of it as “empowering” instead. It’s not saying “there’s no hope”. Instead, it’s saying “it’s in your hands. Do what you will. It’s not my place to boss you around”.
You see, we’re more powerful than we give ourselves credit for. And no, I’m not blaming you for that. It’s advantageous for the elites to have you believe that sort of thing, because that’s how they’re able to control you and have you stay docile like a doggie on a leash. It’s not your fault you have a negative voice constantly telling you “you’re helpless” — that was deliberately put there by the people who don’t want you to be free. And this goes beyond religion, by the way. It’s a universal phenomenon, human beings trying to rule over other human beings (and it goes way, way, way beyond politics too. It’s a social class thing. You know the rich and powerful who are “not politicians”? Yea exactly, they’re not innocent at all. If anything, politicians are their puppets. Don’t simp for them just cause “apparently” they’re not ruling. They’re ruling indirectly with the power of money. Just saying). Don’t be naive to think it’d change overnight, but don’t turn a blind eye to it either.
But wait! I’m not saying you’re “all powerful” either. Hold your horses. There are no extremes here.
This is the sort of belief that turns a lot of people into narcissists. “Oh, I hate myself, but let me just hide this and pretend I absolutely love myself and I’m the most amazing person ever to walk on Earth because fuck the haters, am I right”
No you’re not right. You’re very, very wrong. Get off that pedestal or I’ll knock you off it myself.
Let me repeat a thing I’m always saying: are there instant solutions? Can we instantly solve our deepest issues and most pressing problems as quick as we make ramen in the microwave?
No, we cannot. There are no instant solutions.
So, when you’re faced with the realisation you have a negative self talk, you can’t INSTANTLY turn it into a positive self talk. You’ll just be hiding it under a mask. And was that intentional? No, it wasn’t. I know it wasn’t. I know you mean well and genuinely want to solve the problem.
But child, come here, understand one thing: this problem… see this problem? It can’t be solved fast. Yes I know we have fast food today, and fast lives, and a lot of fast things — but this ain’t it. This will take time.
No, stop it! By “it will take time”, I don’t mean a week. No, I don’t mean a month either. Not even a year. Not even ten years.
Exactly.
So, how do you want to try and solve it gradually? Is it by following a bossy scaremonger who just “seems” to have all the answers (because apparently you can’t come up with answers yourself — come on, where’s your worth? Where’s your power? Do you really think god/the gods/etc put you on this planet to act like a complete doormat like that?) Ok, let’s look at an alternative: maybe you could rely on yourself alone, all the time, and pay no attention whatsoever to anyone or anything external (but then… Do you really belong? Do you? Honest to god? Well, why are you putting yourself in a vaccuum then, if you belong? Food for thought?).
Do you see where I’m going? The “suggestions” above are instant solutions, too. Don’t follow them. They override the entire critical thinking by establishing preset rules to follow no matter what. That’s lazy.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but we need to exercise critical thinking differently, every single time, in every single context. It depends on the context. It takes effort and it doesn’t stop taking effort. It’s constant. No one single person (be it “somebody else bossing you around” or be it “youself bossing you around” — it’s the same thing, different name and face to it. Stop it) has all the answers. Life is more complex than that. Planet Earth is more complex than that. And you belong on it.
You belong on it for better AND for worse.
“God won’t answer” when the answer is already in your hands and you’re just not seeing it.
But don’t worry, don’t beat yourself up for not seeing it. That’s why oracles exist.
Anyway, before you whine that you’re not getting heard, try first to ask yourself if there is a possibility YOU did not hear GOD first. Whichever god or whatever it is you believe in. Because let’s be honest here: it’s very easy to be self-centered, to think the world spins around you, and you must be served everything you want whenever you want on a silver platter. Let me tell you what’s harder (but necessary): getting out of that selfish mindset, and trying to see if you’re not doing onto others what you complain about. Maybe your situation feels unfair, but hypocrisy is also unfair.
“Oh but I have this bad habit because I’m in pain” — Okay, valid. I won’t take it away from you. As I always say and always repeat, I’m not here to boss anyone around. It’s not my place.
What I’m doing instead is sheding light onto your blindspot. I’m helping you see it. When you see it, what do you do? I don’t know, YOU tell me. It’s in YOUR hands.
So… In the “I’m hurt so I can hurt others” situation, I’ll just say this: ok, go ahead. Just don’t complain if it becomes a vicious cycle. You’re helping give it continuity. Just shedding light. Do what you will.
“Are you saying it’s a sin to get revenge? it’s a sin to take things onto your own hands?” — No, that’s some people’s assumption. I didn’t SAY it. Re-read the article if in doubt. I didn’t say it. I take revenge on others all the time. Who am I to lecture you? Lol. Do it. All I’m saying is, it could be a good idea to know when to stop, even if you don’t get the “last word” every time. In fact, one day you will stop. Even because, we all die. So if you don’t give up and get out of this tit-for-tat because you decided to, you’ll get out of it because of fate. And what will you look back on? What will you see when you look at the story of the life you left behind? Hopefully, “a revenge here and there, but also other and happier things”. That’s my personal answer. Yours could be different.
“But Lucy, I’m suffering an injustice, you don’t understand” — To that, I usually say: ok. So are others. Why do you feel more valid than others? Again it comes back to self-absorption. That’s the root cause. But it’s ok, one day you’ll realise that.
Do you suffer? Others suffer too. Do you rejoice? Others rejoice too. Are you bored? Others are bored too. I’m not invalidating anything. In fact, I’m validating every living being.
You belong on Earth. For better AND for worse. Hence, you share the planet with others. And on that note:
Do you agree a higher power needs to be, well, higher? Do you agree it’s greater than you? Do you agree it’s mightier than you?
I’m not preaching. If you’re an atheist, feel free to skip. I’m speaking to believers.
Regardless of your religion, regardless of what name you give god(s), if any, there’s one thing every faith agrees on: it’s a higher power. It’s bigger than just you, or just me. It’s bigger than, even, just a small group of people. Right? If it wasn’t, there’d be no point in looking UP to it.
The problem (and I mean a problem in logic, a lack of wisdom) is when we contradict ourselves by believing this higher and mightier power, so much bigger than just you or just me or just yours or just mine… Would have a reason to directly interfere in such a small scale.
How could someone so much bigger than you see you in detail? It can’t, you’re just a teeny tiny dot somewhere. Whatever this higher power does, won’t ever “only affect you” — it will affect others too, or it won’t affect anyone. It can’t cherrypick. When you say “god is not answering me”, sometimes it’s a case that he is indeed answering you; but he happens to also be answering everyone else around you, so you don’t get exclusivity, you don’t get to feel special, and you don’t think it’s a valid answer because your ego didn’t like it.
But anyway, what’s this expectation all about? Why do so many people think their individual, small, teeny tiny problems should be seen and solved by a way bigger god?
This comes from a logical fallacy implanted in Christianity by the Romans when they usurped the religion, because dare I say, it wasn’t a thing before Rome: god is “all powerful”. Sorry, that’s not true. This god is VERY powerful, don’t get me wrong, but whatever he does affects more than just a tiny dot somewhere. Hence, he does not have the power (see what I did there?) to cherrypick. It’s an either/or situation. Logic won’t allow it.
Yes I know we’re talking about belief, not scientific facts. I know we’re talking about faith. I know we’re talking about things you can CHOOSE to believe because they’re impossible to prove or disprove. I know it already. I don’t mean it’s “wrong” in that sense. I just mean, plain and simply, it doesn’t make logical sense. Sure, you can stubbornly insist that you want your god to affect things in both big AND small scale, because it’s your faith and you decide and yadda yadda. Okay, my little spoiled brat. You do you. I’m simply saying, although you “can” believe that… “should” you? There are things you can, but shouldn’t. Yes it’s “doable”… But is it helpful? Does it have a purpose? Let’s grow up a bit, shall we. Let’s be adults.
You can’t have an all-powerful god in a scenario where a lot of things escape this god’s control. And even if you’re just going by Biblical canon, well guess what: the Bible couldn’t even exist if this assumption was true. There would be no story to tell. “God is all powerful”, oh, okay, that’s it then. Where there’s absolute control, nothing else has agency. So, there is no story to tell.
Why is it a thing, then? Why did this logical fallacy make its way into Christianity? Well, it is my understanding that the Romans just wanted an excuse to make everyone conform to their rule. “We’re all powerful from now on, nothing escapes the empire. Here, take this god whose followers we used to persecute, he belongs to us now. He is all-powerful because we said so”.
Do you see where I’m going? I’m not saying Christian faith is “wrong”. I’m saying it’s been usurped. And it happened so long ago, we now take these deliberate edits as canon when in fact they shouldn’t be. Christian faith is valid; If you want to be Christian, great, you’re valid. But go by the very first, pre-Roman scriptures. If you include the “god is all-powerful” thing, you’ll distrust it — and rightfully so. It’s not true. It’s a logical fallacy. The entire doctrine, the entire teachings of Jesus and all that good stuff can be valid, sacred, and helpful for Christians WITHOUT this “all powerful” logical fallacy. It doesn’t do anything. It has no reason to exist. You can literally take it out of the Bible and the whole story keeps making sense without it. The entire reason it exists is the Roman empire, which has fallen (ironically…) wanted everyone to believe it wouldn’t ever fall because it was “all-powerful” apparently. Well, guess what… Somebody was very, very wrong.
Similar problems happen in every faith: people (human beings, just teeny tiny dots somewhere…) USING religious scriptures to control other human beings POLITICALLY. It’s not just Christianity, it’s everywhere. That does not invalidate any religion or spiritual doctrine; But it does mean you need to be careful where your beliefs are coming from. Does it have a moral behind it, does it make religious sense? Or could it be an edit by a greedy political leader who appropriated the teachings at some point in History? Always discern. “God is all powerful” doesn’t have a moral behind it. It’s not teaching you anything useful for YOU; it’s only useful for whoever wants to control you.
Okay but what about polytheism? Can “the gods” cherrypick, since they’re smaller and less powerful than the idea of god Christians have?
This will anger so many people, lol, but here we go: a lot of people get into “paganism” CLAIMING they no longer want to be Christian, but in fact what they REALLY MEAN with that is “I actually still believe god is all-powerful. I just want him to have more avatars to choose from and be smaller so I can have him all for myself”.
*Sigh*
This is also the root cause of neurotic questions I see pop up in forums every now and then: “I did [insert small thing here], will [insert god here] punish me for that?”; or even “I did/offered/said [insert small thing here], will [insert god here] acknowledge me?”
The answer, my friend, is no. Every single time. I don’t even need to know the context. It’s easy to answer because it comes from the assumption that in a polytheistic context, a god can micromanage someone’s life. But no, that’s wrong. They can’t.
If in doubt, let me help you:
Think of ants. You’re a lot bigger than any single ant, since you’re human. If you step on a colony, will you only hit ONE ant? No, you’ll hit several at the same time. That’s because your foot is way bigger than all these ants together. Are you evil for that? No, that’s just how things are. Maybe you’ll even feel sorry, but you can’t help being bigger.
Now think of an elephant, a very angry out of control elephant. Could this animal crush (or at least severely injure) both you and a bunch of other people together? Aye, it could. You’re smaller than elephants. But how come you could still do the same to an ant colony, if you’re not the biggest being there is? Well, that’s how different species work, they come in different sizes. Humans happen to be bigger than some, but smaller than other ones.
The above is obvious. Maybe you even found it patronising — I don’t blame you. But I just mentioned it in order to help you see another blind spot of yours: nothing is stopping you from applying the same logic to gods. Maybe some gods aren’t the biggest they could possibly be (aka, all-present and distant — hence very big — like the Christian idea of god), but here’s the thing: they’re still bigger than you. Bigger than you AND a bunch of other people together. To them, perhaps we’re all part of an ant colony.
“But what about channelling”
This is another common question. “If the gods won’t cherrypick, why is it only a specific priest / group / whatever can channel a god?”
This exists in nearly every culture. I’ll give you a well-known example from Ancient Greece but you can apply the same logic for many other contexts as well:
“Why was the oracle in Delphi one specific person? Why can’t just anyone be like, pick me Apollon, I wanna predict this person’s future over here”
There could be many reasons behind that, but I’m supposing it has to do with preparedness. You’d need a certain level of maturity and/or discipline, and that’s true with any intellectual job. Why does your boss trust you? Just ‘cause? Just “to be fair”? Because of pity? No. It’s because you proved to be capable of learning, and eventually doing, your job. Maybe others couldn’t handle it.
There is another aspect to this same question: why one person? It’s a god being channeled, right? He’s bigger than one single person.
Indeed, he is. But tell me now: does any of the surviving documents that mention the oracle say “the sun would stop shining” when profecies were given? No. So… is this sun god entirely focusing on one oracle here? No. His energy is also in the sun, that’s a thing he’s associated with. His energy is also in so many other specific places. All at the same time. So, when we say “channeling”, we don’t mean it’s done completely. No ritual can ever entrap a god and stop this god from being at least partly elsewhere at the same time. We can only do that with beings that are lesser than gods — spirits for instance. (But “we can” doesn’t mean “we should”. It’s not only psychopathic, but also bad for you).
It’s also a matter of perspective: maybe you’re just being an “ant” and forgetting to realise that a bigger creature would have a different perspective about what happened. We’re self-centered like that… But if you can, try not to be.
When you’re sitting outside in your back garden, maybe it feels super normal — but from an ant’s perspective, it’s “amazing” how you’re on a bench (sitting), on the grass (your feet), AND up in the air (your head) all at the same time. They can’t do that. You can.
You’re not too stupid to understand god(s). You’re just a bit small.
We all are.
Keep that in mind.
