The demon of unbelief

Day 8 is here.  I prayed but didn't post yesterday, because I was working through some frustration with the project.  It really seemed silly to me, and I couldn't help but think I'm wasting my time on this.

For eight days now, I've tapped that metaphorical microphone and asked for any listening deities or supreme beings to provide a return message.  Will going another 32 days make me any more open-minded than I already am?  

I'm reminded of an experience that I had years ago with deliverance, which for the uninitiated is the term used by charismatics to describe the casting out of demons. My discipler had recommended that we pray together with an elder in our church who was purported to have that particular spiritual gift.

Together the three of us prayed at the church offices for my heretofore unnamed demons to be cast out.  We prayed for a few minutes, and they asked if I felt anything.  I said, "no." We prayed for a few more minutes, after which I felt silly enough that I blurted out "I just don't believe anything's happening here."

"Ah-hah!" said the elder and my discipler.  "Now we know what the problem is!"  Then they began to rebuke and cast out the "demon of unbelief."  To the best of my memory, I never noticed anything happening, but it satisfied the faith requirements of the other two.  The power of faith is amazing.

Day 6: A Skeptic's Prayer

Some of the others participating in the project have written that they're imagining responses to their own prayers or that they've noticed an unusual coincidence or two...

Day 5: Tempted by the Rosary

Much to my surprise, I find myself craving for a script in my "prayers," something I can repeat every day instead of thinking of what to say.  I find myself tempted to pray the rosary.

Day 4: What constitutes revelation- more thoughts

If communication has come so far from any supreme being, I haven't recognized it. The discussions at the Experiment FaceBook page yesterday highlighted the difficult of defining what would count as communication.

What constitutes revelation?

Coincidences happen.

Many people I love and respect don't believe that, but they do happen. And they do not count as signs from gods, unless we're going to accept all coincidences as signs from gods.

On the Experiment FaceBook page, another blogger commented that he'd had a couple of nice coincidences since the project started.

Is this thing on?

I'm back to wondering what makes it a prayer. I've been praying out loud, without a set prayer in mind.

None of the above

Which god(s) to pray to? Tim Mawson and others discussed this question before the project started. We could pray to the toaster god, for instance, though Tim seemed to feel it made more sense to pray as if one might be heard by a Supreme Being.

My answer, of course, is "none of the above." I've yet to read or hear about a god of men that lived up to the universe in which we live. It's difficult to reconcile omniscience and omnipotence with Jehovah, for instance.  His acts, as described in the Old Testament, are those of a tribal warlord.  He commands and blesses the activities one might expect from a band of cutthroat raiders looking for good luck omens.