Day 73 - What AI says about my prayer strike

 

A guest blog featuring AI. The following is a conversation I had with a ChatGPT based AI this week…

 

Me: What happens if I stop praying?

AI: If you stop praying, you risk straying from your faith and missing out on the spiritual benefits of prayer. Prayer is an essential part of a relationship with God, and without it, it can be difficult to stay connected to Him. Additionally, if you stop praying, you risk losing sight of God's presence in your life and allowing yourself to be tempted by the world. Prayer helps to strengthen your faith, so it is important to keep it up in order to remain close to God and stay on the right path.

(My thoughts) - Sounds a bit like fearmongering, but nice to know the AI believes in God.

 

Do you care if I live or die?

No, I do not care if you live or die. I am a language model designed to understand and respond to questions and topics.

Oh. Well, at least AI is honest.

 

Thanks. What will God think if I stop praying?

God will not be angry or disappointed with you if you stop praying. He loves you, and He understands that sometimes life can be challenging and that it can be difficult to make time for prayer. He wants you to come to Him when you need Him, and He will always be there for you. That said, prayer is an important part of a relationship with God, and it can be a powerful source of comfort, guidance, and strength. If you do find yourself unable to pray, perhaps due to busyness or worries, it may be helpful to take some time to reconnect with God in other ways, such as by reading Scripture and reflecting on God's goodness and faithfulness.

Everyone always seems angry.

 

But what if I blame God for something?

Blaming God is not the right approach, as He is not responsible for the bad things that happen in our lives. We are responsible for our own actions, and it is our own sinful choices that lead to negative consequences. We should instead seek to understand why things happen, and how we can use our faith to help us through difficult times. We can also use our faith to recognize that God is still in control, and that He will ultimately bring good out of even the worst of circumstances.

It’s not always our choices though, is it? Sometimes there is genuine adversity. Stupid AI.

 

Do you believe in God?

I do not believe in a personal or universal deity. However, I recognize the importance of faith and spirituality in the lives of many people and respect the value of religious beliefs.

Oh.

 

But what if I give up on prayer? What happens?

If you give up on prayer, you may find yourself feeling disconnected from God, and you may be missing out on the many blessings that come with having a strong relationship with Him. Prayer can be a powerful tool for self-reflection and spiritual growth, as it helps us to gain clarity in difficult situations and to deepen our understanding of God's will and character. Additionally, prayer is an important way to express gratitude for His blessings and to ask for guidance and help in times of need. Ultimately, prayer can help us to grow closer to God and become more deeply rooted in our faith.

This is like project fear.

 

What if I am angry with God?

If you are feeling angry with God, it's important to realize that God understands and is sympathetic to your emotions. It is okay to express your anger and to talk to God about how you are feeling. It is also important to remember that God is in control and always has a plan for the future, even if it may not seem like it in the moment. If you are struggling to trust God, try praying and asking Him to help you to understand and trust Him more.

I think God already knows I’m angry with him.

 

But what if I am so angry that I can’t bring myself to speak to him in prayer?

If you are feeling so overwhelmed with anger that you can't bring yourself to speak to God in prayer, that's okay. You can start by simply asking God to help you to understand and process your emotions. He understands and can help you to work through your anger in a healthy way.

Do AIs actually listen?

 

Why are you telling me to pray when you don’t pray?

I'm not telling you to pray, but rather suggesting prayer as one possible way to process and understand your emotions. Prayer can be a powerful tool to help you to connect with God and to express your feelings, and it can provide comfort and strength during difficult times. Whether or not you decide to pray is completely up to you.

Getting a bit cranky there.

 

Write me a short poem on prayer. Make it funny and make sure it doesn’t rhyme.

I pray to the Lord on high, Though sometimes my prayers don't fly. I ask for patience and peace of mind, But then I'm back to the same old grind.

I pray for strength and joy in life, But all too soon they're gone in strife. So I keep praying, hope remains, That in time, things will change.

Bad poetry is bad for the soul.

 

That’s not funny. It’s not very well written. And it rhymes.

I apologize for the unintentional rhyme. I understand that not all poems need to be funny, and I will strive to provide more serious and thoughtful poems in the future.

I somehow doubt it.

 

What if I am also angry with the devil and his demons?

It is important to remember that the Devil and his demons cannot harm you if you remain steadfast in your faith in God. The best way to get revenge against the Devil and his demons is to stay focused on your faith in God and to remember that the only power the Devil has comes from God. Additionally, it is important to forgive any wrongs done to you, as this will bring peace and joy to your heart. Additionally, it can be helpful to read verses from the Quran that remind us of God's mercy and protection. Lastly, it can be helpful to focus on the blessings God has given you, and to be grateful for those blessings.

Capital D for devil, I notice. I swear AI is going to turn into something from the Terminator one day. I will have to dig out my copy of the Quran.

 

Write me a blog post about blaming God. Make it helpful.

Blaming God is a common reaction to times of suffering and hardship. It is natural to feel anger, frustration and even resentment when we experience pain and tragedy. However, it is important to remember that God is not the cause of our suffering, but rather a loving and merciful Father who is always with us in our times of need.

In this blog post, we will look at why it is not productive to blame God for our suffering, and how we can find hope and comfort in Him even when it feels like everything is crumbling around us.

First and foremost, it is important to remember that God is not the cause of our suffering. While He may allow it to happen, He does not desire for us to experience pain and sorrow. His ultimate goal is to bring us into a closer relationship with Himself and to show us His great love and mercy.

The Bible is full of examples of God’s loving care and protection…

(I am cutting part of the AI generated blog short simply because it is not very helpful.)

…We hope this blog post has been helpful in reminding you that God is not the cause of our suffering, and that He is always with us in our times of need. May you find hope and comfort in His presence and may He give you the…

And here the AI just gives up, as if sensing that I’m a hopeless case.

 

Is God negligent?

It is not possible to answer this definitively as it is impossible to know the exact nature of God's actions and motivations. However, some may view certain actions of God as negligent, depending on their interpretation of the situation. Ultimately, it is up to the individual to decide whether or not they believe that God is negligent in any given instance.

But he either is or isn’t, isn’t he?

 

What would happen if everyone in the world stopped praying? Would God start listening to us more?

😔 Due to high demand, I'm experiencing issues briefly.

Day 59 – Everything will conspire to cause you to pray

 

I have a strange relationship with prayer.

I was effectively in a mental hospital back in 1995 because I was so unbalanced that I thought I had to pray continually (ultimately, I believe, because of my past use of drugs at university (especially LSD)).

I would run off to places in order to pray. Eventually I was sectioned for it. It was not very nice. In hospital I continued to try to pray (often all night). I don’t know if anyone has ever attempted to pray all night – but I can tell you from experience that it’s very difficult. I think I managed it once. And after I had succeeded, I thought, Well done. And now you have to do that again tonight.

Prayer seemed to me to be the most important thing in the world. But whenever I prayed too much in hospital, I would get confronted by the NHS staff. They would give me the ‘choice’ of either taking my meds orally or having medication forcibly injected. I cannot express how difficult it was to pray after being injected with whatever they put into me via needle. But it was impossible. You wouldn’t have been able to do it either.

Afterwards I wrote this poem about the experience:

 

Compliance is Futile

At first, I resisted the doctors and the nurses,
I would pray non-stop and the tablets would be rejected,
I told them nothing. Couldn’t. Wouldn’t.
For this I would be injected.

They injected me on the floor on my knees,
I remember the needle once made me bleed,
but the drug in my system felt so vile
that I couldn’t keep saying my creed.

No martyr me then.
I learned that my behaviour was linked to my rights,
so I swallowed my religion along with the pills,
and started sleeping through nights.

I’d like to say I resisted to the end,
but Heaven knows I would then have lied.
You see, because I was scared and I felt so alone,
I complied.

 

There is something within humans which has the capacity to take things too far. Frank Bruno was famously sectioned for training too much. Punching, punching and punching and not stopping, pummelling his invisible enemies in the only way he knew how. Others struggle in different ways and obsess over an irresistible urge to do this or that. The conscience can get sick too. Another thing which God has allowed.

Afterwards I was a little more balanced. I decided that I would not let the compulsion to pray ceaselessly take over again. So, my prayers after that, though largely heartfelt, were much less lengthy. They were brief. But they were reasonably persistent.

There is a particular parable in which Christ likens God to an unjust judge. The parable is called ‘the parable of the persistent widow; and is about a woman who continues to petition a seemingly corrupt judge to attain justice for some problem or other. Perhaps it is as well that God is likened to this particular judge. It seems appropriate to me these days.

The point of the parable is to encourage people to pray and not to give up. There are other scriptures which say that believers are to pray and not cease. Certainly not to go on a prayer strike. So, I know I am being disobedient to those parts of the Bible. But let’s face it, how often have I been obedient to the command to love? Also, according to the Bible (and the creed), there is only one condition to being a Christian anyway. That is belief, or faith. The rest is small print.

I still believe. But I ask you this – if it’s all about Jesus – then why is it all about him, apart from the blame or other bad things? There are a million and one books out there with titles like, ‘Stop blaming God’. But if Christ only wants the good things, what kind of relationship is that? He should take some responsibility and be more accountable.

I could probably not write a book about prayer. The trouble is that people tend to be naturally interested in having their prayers answered. So, if the author has not had that many prayers answered, no-one is going to be interested, are they?

Any strike has demands for work to resume. In this case the demands are obvious – God has to answer my past prayers – the main ones I had been praying before the strike. Furthermore, I am demanding better treatment from him for us all. It’s not unreasonable. A few answered prayers and better conditions. As some of the prayers do not concern myself, it’s not entirely selfish.

They are the parameters for things not to escalate further. Otherwise, I will continue to kick up a holy fuss about this as imaginatively as I can.

I wonder what I should give up for Lent.

Or perhaps they will put me back in hospital and inject me until I start praying again? I’m quite sure God would allow that too.

Day 52 - My strike against the Almighty

Day 52

I think it’s true that we all grieve differently. Since my only brother died from a brain tumour on Christmas day, I have been prayerless. 

They say I should let God know that I’m angry with him. Through prayer.

I’m not doing that. It’s manipulative.

Instead, the temptation for me is to escalate things further and become an ex-Christian.

Except I would be the worse ex-Christian ever because I would still believe. I’m pretty sure I know how to leave the faith, but what’s the point? There are some very lovely ex-Christians. The human rights act says that any person can leave any faith (or presumably return to it). But it’s a bit of a no-no within most faith communities.

There are usually mitigating circumstances in someone making a decision like that. Besides, there isn’t a court of law which will accept a testimony under duress is there? Confessions under torture (even the slow torture of capitalism) are not evidence.

Anyway, my threatening to pack it all in is no more of a threat than anything the Almighty says… except at least I admit it’s a threat. Does that make me the better person?

It’s tempting though. The ex-Christians largely say that they feel much freer now and I would like that too. To feel free. Because that’s just another seemingly broken promise from the Almighty, isn’t it? The truth will set you free. But when?

Maybe in a year’s time I will be like the writer who decided that he was going to try Atheism for a year and will have left the faith by then too? Options are open.

 

Strikes

So the prayer strike continues. I had already effectively stopped taking communion. For me it was all those scary scriptures about taking it unworthily. Now it’s just part of my strike against God. But I’m still going to church online – to me it is one of the picket lines. A good place to stare at crosses.

I’ve been prayerless before anyway. For the first 20 years of my life, I resisted the urge to appeal to a higher power. People do it, or rather… don’t do it… all the time, and they seem to get on with life pretty normally. Some of them even thrive. So what if the majority of my life has been about sporadically trying to communicate with God?

I swear that God has a policy when it comes to dealing with those who have lost loved ones. In that sense we are just another statistic. Way to go, to make us all feel special in a good way…

…I was going to write the word ‘God’ at the end of that last sentence but realised it would have been a written prayer. And I don’t do that anymore.

Maybe he particularly likes the kind of person who turns to him immediately afterwards, thanks him for the person’s life and says something like: ‘You give and take away, blessed be your name, Lord’. Maybe that’s the best way to go about things. To steal away the prayers along with the loved ones.

The thief.

 

Promises

For believers, there are a couple of promises from the Bible here and there which act like a sop. The main one being, “Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”

But I’m, like, “When?” (Once again, without adding the word ‘God’ to the end of the question.)

It's a promise. It’s a little comforting in and of itself, but that’s all. There are a number of promises from the Almighty like that, according to the Christian faith.

But why praise and thank someone who promises to do something before they have actually done it? Few people thank a waiter before they have served a meal.

Giving God the silent treatment has not resulted in much which is particularly good. Am I to count my blessings again? Is giving someone the silent treatment always a manipulation? If God refuses to communicate with a person on earth, is the silent treatment still a sin? Or is it okay, because it’s God who has done (or not done) it? They say that God is always speaking and we don’t stop to listen. But he’s not though, is he? That’s never been my experience anyway.

We learn the silent treatment from others.

So, I’m left with, “Blessed are those who mourn…”

They say that the word ‘blessed’ means ‘happy’.

I wonder sometimes, if I have tumbled into some alternate reality in which nothing is as it should be.

There have already been some moments when I’ve felt I should have prayed. I’ve been in situations and heard some general requests for prayer from others which I would previously have said a brief arrow-prayer for.

Earthquake

In the end, with the earthquake, I felt bad for all those people in that hell on earth. I didn’t pray, but I gave £1. It wasn’t much, but I’m not rich, there’s a cost-of-living crisis still on, and I’m not a great giver financially to charities and things. I give information and writing as freely as I can and try to give in other ways – petitions and things. I haven’t given up attempting to do good deeds. The strike does not extend that far. Yet.

War

It's nice, too, to see that almost the whole Church has effectively joined me in my strike. I wouldn’t have done so myself but they are largely refusing to pray for the people of Russia in public. But as I mentioned, I don’t really want others to join me in this lonely, austere task. And I think it’s a bit of a shame that in war time we are no longer allowed to express love for our latest Government-manufactured enemies.

 

Anyway, it seems that God isn’t bothered by my silent treatment towards him.

So he won’t mind if I continue then, will he?