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Emmett Coyne, a Roman Catholic priest and author of "The Theology of Fear," is coming to dinner Saturday. I am looking forward to meeting him since we have had pleasant correspondence and talked once on the phone, but never actually met. Besides cooking dinner, I may even do some vacuuming.
But his advent puts my mind on a Christian frequency. Not that I am educated about Christianity, but when has ignorance ever stopped anyone from having an opinion or thought train?
And one of the thoughts that has always wondered me is this bit of child-like questioning:
If God is omnipresent (to be everywhere at the same time), then only God could pray to God. And if this is so -- as I think the word "omnipresent" suggests it is -- then I have two questions:
1. Why would anyone, deity or otherwise, bother praying to him/her/itself?
2. Who is this God who prays to God?
I have tried asking these questions in the past in serious settings and been met either by a robust silence that suggested I was not worthy enough to receive an answer or by a lengthy disquisition that managed to sidestep the question (esp. No. 2) altogether.
I realize that I have not always been kindly disposed towards Christianity in the past. The separation that belief implies strikes me as factually wrong-headed when applied as a foundational block of religion. But my crabbiness on that front does not extend to the questions I am asking.
I really would like to understand.
Maybe I will ask Emmett, but I would certainly welcome any other input.
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