Coffee Mug vs. God

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My sister and I have very different personalities. I would not do this myself because I think it is a waste of time and very offensive to theists.
She’s conducting an experiment. She is very very very into having a perfect yard. She’s going to pray to her Coffee Mug to give her the best results on one half of the yard. On the other half, she will pray to God and ask for the best results. She wants to see which side will win.
I didn’t try to argue with her that she has to consider differences on both sides, and should use a more scientific method to make sure that one side is not starting out with an advantage, or will not have an advantage over the other through the test. I just told her to have fun if that is her idea of fun. I told her why stop there, just start worshipping your yard since you spend all your time and money on it. She got upset, and I think she is mad at me for the time being.
Am I right? Isn’t this offensive to a theist? I am going to ask her to consider that when she calls me back to give me the results from this test.
 
It would be best for you to compile a list of other variables in the experiement in order to demonstrate it’s flaws; a few quick ones would be thus:

Soil quality and depth
Other plants and distribution of them
Distribution of shade
Distribution of sunlight
Distribution of rain/watering
Quality of the seeds
Bias
Etc.

These would adequatly demonstrate any reasonable variation in the quality of the garden, so even if one side were better it would not mean that either;

The coffee cup was responsible
God was responsible
  • by nessecity
And consequently the experiment cannot satisfactorily demonstrate anything (bar extreme miracle), and therefore it is not the most fruitful or scientific experiment or test.

However, it would be charitable to not mock her belief or sarcastically encourage her to worship the yard or anything - but instead encourage her to not waste time on invalid experiments and instead enjoy the garden and the outdoors; perhaps you could even help her?

I would go so far as to say it is a dangerous and selfish thing to be praying for a nice garden; perhaps instead you can encourage her to pray for people who might be suffering or sad, and just enjoy the garden - it’s not her place to be “testing” God.

👍
 
While I smile over LilyM’s mischievous suggestion
…Thanks for your concern for our position and our feelings!
I’m not very surprised though. Typical of your thoughtfulness
 
I wouldn’t say it’s offensive at all, though I don’t know what she’s trying to prove. I think gatorade helps grass grow better than coffee. 😃
 
Of course it’s offensive to theists, it’s nothing more than atheists who go out of the way to say they pray to a Flying Spagetti Monster, or go around telling others there beliefs are as valid as worshiping an invisible tea cup on the opposite side of the universe. There is no scientific test in praying, and by assumption I can only think she’s just pressing your agnostic buttons to move toward an atheist position through ‘humor’ defended mockery.
 
You should probably explain to her that was she’s doing is idolatry, and by any sense knowledge of scripture, and any logical basis, God will probably ignore her prayers, based on the fact that she’s comparing Him to a mug.
 
Actually she’ll be lucky if ALL God does is ‘ignore her’. Now, God is not a ‘destructive’ Being. But He might (He just might) think that her yard would make a perfect spot for some of His creatures (gophers and moles) to live, and ‘reward’ her by letting lots and lots and LOTS of the critters know that there is a special SPOT for them. Or He might let lots of His creatures whom some call 'pests" come to this ‘special’ yard. God has a way of answering our prayers and sometimes we don’t ‘expect’ the answer He gives. To Him, the ‘perfect’ yard could perhaps LOOK all scraggy and awful and yet be a haven of refuge for His ‘critters’. Or He might want to let her know that she should be focusing on Him and her fellow humans. . .and since she seems not to have ‘heard’ Him, He might have to allow the yard to ‘fade’ from the picture. Sink holes, for example. I mean, they are part of nature too. And heck, lightning strikes and fires and all are part of nature too. . .

Yep, I think she had better HOPE that God will simply ignore her rather silly ‘testing’. . .
Of course, I wish her the best and naturally hope that she will always be safe and happy. . .and turn to God!
 
JohnDamian said it best. If the coffee cup is responsible, God is responsible by necessity since the coffee cup is inanimate and God created the coffee cup.

Yes, it’s very offensive to theists to imply that we use such silly reasoning when we worship God.
 
You guys are great! I just wish I had not been so harsh with telling her she may as well worship her yard, but she pushed my buttons a little bit there. I think she would do well to consider how insulting her idea was. And, it is true I should spend more time with her. But, she is not very supportive of my new experiences in life. Her first reaction to hearing I went to Mass was to ask if I was taking any medications.😦
 
Well, it’s offensive in the sense that a slap is offensive to a face that has been slapped many times. Kind of used to it by now.

Where I take the offense is I get this crazy, ridiculous feeling that she might have had some biases when she designed this experiment.

Or, she might conclude from the experiment that God is, at most, as powerful as a coffee mug.

Again, I just have this random hunch that she is not really trying to embark on an earnest quest for knowledge. But as has been said, I am very appreciative that you asked about the theist position on this.

Pax
 
Flavius_Aetius said:
Of course it’s offensive to theists, it’s nothing more than atheists who go out of the way to say they pray to a Flying Spagetti Monster, or go around telling others there beliefs are as valid as worshiping an invisible tea cup on the opposite side of the universe. There is no scientific test in praying, and by assumption I can only think she’s just pressing your agnostic buttons to move toward an atheist position through ‘humor’ defended mockery.
Click to expand...
Silly! There is no Flying Spaghetti Monster. The Invisible Pink Unicorn rules!!

(Please Note: This uploaded content is no longer available.)
 
She called today. She said she wasn’t upset by my comments but, she did not like how unfair I was by taking “their side” so much.

She wanted me to ask you, and I don’t want to but I told her I would.

She said christians have the sacraments, and those themselves are “advantages” so you would expect the christian side to win. But, as in divorce stats- they don’t fare any better than anyone else.

Then she told me that is why she expects no advantages for either side in this, since God can make up for any difference in the conditions.
 
She is assuming that Christians pray for “things” all the time…That is a big flaw in her thinking. Prayer is not just “gimme, gimme, gimme”.

Actually, it sounds like she is both angry and frightened. Angry that you are spending time with believers, and frightened that she might just be wrong in her ideas.

As usual, my opinion is worth 2 cents.
 
Zooey said:
She is assuming that Christians pray for “things” all the time…That is a big flaw in her thinking. Prayer is not just “gimme, gimme, gimme”.

Actually, it sounds like she is both angry and frightened. Angry that you are spending time with believers, and frightened that she might just be wrong in her ideas.

As usual, my opinion is worth 2 cents.
Click to expand...
You need a raise! Your opinion is worth much more than 2 cents.

Seriously, I thought about that and I think it is a very valid possibility.

I’m just going to have to love her no matter how much she tries to make me feel less than her.
 
StrawberryJam said:
My sister and I have very different personalities. I would not do this myself because I think it is a waste of time and very offensive to theists.
She’s conducting an experiment. She is very very very into having a perfect yard. She’s going to pray to her Coffee Mug to give her the best results on one half of the yard. On the other half, she will pray to God and ask for the best results. She wants to see which side will win.
I didn’t try to argue with her that she has to consider differences on both sides, and should use a more scientific method to make sure that one side is not starting out with an advantage, or will not have an advantage over the other through the test. I just told her to have fun if that is her idea of fun. I told her why stop there, just start worshipping your yard since you spend all your time and money on it. She got upset, and I think she is mad at me for the time being.
Am I right? Isn’t this offensive to a theist? I am going to ask her to consider that when she calls me back to give me the results from this test.
Click to expand...
I would go so far as to say it is a dangerous and selfish thing to be praying for a nice garden; perhaps instead you can encourage her to pray for people who might be suffering or sad, and just enjoy the garden - it’s not her place to be “testing” God.
Coffee Mug vs. God
 
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