Graduated with a doctorate in philosophy from Allameh Tabatabai University
080108
Abstract
Theists are facing challenges in the matter of prayer, including moral challenges. The inconsistency between God's moral perfection and the prayer can be expressed as follows: God is pure Good, Powerful, and has moral perfection, and He must grant every good that improves human life, and if He does not do so, He has acted against moral perfection. Therefore, God's moral perfection implies that prayer is not effective, and if God withholds a good gift at times, this is inconsistent with God's moral perfection. It is clear that this is in conflict with the view of most theists and with the claims of the main texts of religious traditions that emphasize the efficacy of prayer. In this article, we are looking for answers to these questions: Is the moral perfection of God as one of the divine attributes compatible with the possibility of the efficacy of prayer? Does God's moral perfection allow that the provision of some human needs depends on prayer? Can God, who has moral perfection, not answer some prayers? If suffering and evil happen to a person due to not praying or due to the unanswered prayer, is such a situation compatible with moral perfection? We will see that none of the situations raised in the previous questions will harm God's moral perfection. Based on this, this article investigates the incompatibility between God's moral perfection and the prayer using a descriptive-analytical method. For this purpose, first, Basinger's criticisms, which focus on the issue of God's moral perfection in prayer, are discussed; then the incompatibility between God's moral perfection and the prayer will be tried to expand and respond to what Basinger said. For this purpose, four other complications have been presented and proposed in relation to God's moral perfection and the prayer.
طبرسی، فضل بن حسن؛ مجمع البیان؛ ترجمه علی صحت، تصحیح رضا ستوده؛ تهران: نشر فراهانی، 1358.
Vincent Brummer; What Are We Doing When We Pray? London: SCM Press Ltd, 1984.
David Basinger; "God Does Not Necessarily Respond to Prayer", in: eds. Michael L. Peterson and Ray van Arragon; Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion; Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003a, pp.255-264.
David Basinger; "Reply to Murray", in: eds. Michael L. Peterson and Ray van Arragon; Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion; Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003b, pp.266-267.
Michael Murray; "God Responds to Prayer", in: eds. Michael L. Peterson and Ray van Arragon; Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion; Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003a, pp.242-254.
Michael Murray; "Reply to Basinger", in: eds. Michael L. Peterson and Ray van Arragon; Contemporary Debates in Philosophy of Religion; Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing, 2003b, pp.264-265.
Danieh Howard-Snyder & Frances Howard-Snyder; "The Puzzle of Petitionary Prayer. European Journal for Philosophy of Religion2, 2010, pp.43–68.
Thomas Morris; Making Sense of It All; Grand Rapids, Mich: Eerdmans, 1992,
Molina, Luis de; On Divine Foreknowledge(De liberi arbitri cum gratiae donis, divina praescientia, providentia, praedestinatione et reprobatione concordia); Alfred J. Freddoso (trans.); Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1988, pp.47–53.
Eleonore Stump; "Petitionary Prayer"; American Philosophical Quarterly, 1979.
