Do you believe that God intervenes in any way?

[Helium]

Sorry 'bout that Sean, yeah, the world is far from perfect, I mean it's a world where most lifeforms eat other lifeforms for lunch and where other organisms (i.e. viruses and bacteria) constantly try to parasitcly get their own free lunch, and where we are subject to the whims of nature.

And then, at least in our own species, we are also subject to that one other wildcard which can cause pain and death (besides pleasure and empowerment) - free will.

To bring it back to the original question, no, I don't think God plays favourites in this reality that he created.

Rather I have to trust in God's design of the universe which allows sorrow and death along with joy and new life.

[Varokhâr]

If our world was designed by an omnipotent and omniscient creator, then we must answer the obvious question : why isn't the temperature always perfect to suit all tastes? Either <A> the creator screwed-up the design, and must continually fiddle with the thermostat (fighting those hot & cold demons), or <B> the system design was intended to allow some personal freedoms, which require a range of choices and a variety of thermostat settings. Besides, if everything was perfect, what would motivate us to get off our duffs to adjust the thermodynamic and moral balance of the world---does God have to do everything for us?

As I'm so often fond of quoting Ethan Allen, I'll just repost a snippet of my usual cut and paste job:

Rather let us exaltedly suppose that God eternally had the ultimate best good of beings generally and individually in his view...

This is something I fall back on countless times a day when my mind inevitably turns to pondering God and the universe. Since God doesn't feel it necessary to appear to us and tell us what His intentions were in creating the cosmos that He did, we can either suppose that God is mad, deranged, grossly imperfect... or simply knows what He's doing and has the best in mind for us no matter how little of The Whole we are able to take in from our exceedingly limited perspective here on earth.

I've entertained the former suppositions, that God is crazy, a lunatic, or seriously flawed. All those ideas brought little but restlessness and disquiet to my soul, and in fact seemed to encourage me towards despair at a universe that wasn't merely random, but the bizarre product of a celestial nutcase. We are what we worship, and assuming that there really is a harmony and order hidden within the seeming-senselessness of the universe by a God who ultimately has the best in mind for us has the consequence of encouraging harmony and order within our souls, I believe.

After all, God did not create a cosmic nursery wherein no one gets hurt and everyone gets what everyone wants without any effort or sacrifice. Evidently, God didn't think that was a good idea, and we ourselves can see that when people choose to live in such a fashion, they become lazy, spoiled, unbearable, and useless to the world around them. But some people insist that since the world wasn't made this way, God therefore cannot exist; as Paine said (though in reference to certain kinds of petitioning prayer), they consider God and say "Thou knowest not so well as I".

But in regards to the OP: it's hard to say definitively if God intervenes in human affairs or not. It's entirely possible that if He does intervene, it's for the best of us all, and certainly not in any way that would be contrary to the laws of physics or all other natural laws of the universe. It's a well-meaning but immense conceit to suppose that God would violate the laws and design of the universe He took the trouble to create in the first place for the wants or needs of a single individual, because what's then to stop us from going back to the cosmic nursery problem and rejecting God altogether?

However, it seems to me that human history is saturated with circumstantial evidence that appealing to the divine is (or simply can potentially be) useful. The history of the world's religions seem to indicate that requests to God/the gods can go answered after all, thought not all prayers will be answered, at least not as the pray-er wants. Most religions (particularly modern monotheistic ones) will go on to explain that God hears all prayers but answers them as He sees fit and knows best for us. Going by this much, at least, it would seem reasonable to conclude that God has the power and desire to intervene, but isn't going to reshape the universe for any one individual, or any group of them - we all have to live in the world He provided, not the one we'd like Him to provide instead.

As for myself, I do believe that God intervenes, but again not in any way that defies the laws of the universe He made. Furthermore, God's intervention depends on what is being asked for and the consequences of granting it, and in all likelihood is mostly or entirely limited to inspiration. In other words, asking God for the strength to face a certain challenge or the whole of one's day is one thing, asking God to make it snow on Christmas Day or instantly create worldwide peace is quite another. In the former, all that is asked for is help in using one's own already God-given ability to rise to and meet challenges; in the latter, God is being asked to change how the universe and human nature (respectively) function.

It's easy to fall into an illusion of contol with prayer and the assumption that God intervenes in human affairs. I know I've seen it all too many times with Christian friends who insist that all they need to do is ask God for something and they'll get whatever they want (especially if it's something of great importance). God definitely isn't a genie. If God intervenes at all, He's not going to turn the universe upside-down for any one of us, especially when He's given us the ability to provide for all our own needs and wants from birth (with the obvious exceptions of those poor souls who are born handicapped, but then one can presume God has provided for them by giving us all the ability to reason and the desire to be altruistic, which many humans use to help care for those who need it).

For my own part, I pray (most) every day, asking God for the guidance to use the gifts He has given me and live honorably in His sight. Even if God doesn't give me any guidance, I know I can manage, simply because He's already given me the ability to reason and thus make decisions and be steadfast, etc. I deliberately choose to believe, because even if I'm wrong (and all I can do is rely on the natural abilities God has given me), it's still all good.

[gnomon]

However, it seems to me that human history is saturated with circumstantial evidence that appealing to the divine is (or simply can potentially be) useful.

As for myself, I do believe that God intervenes, but again not in any way that defies the laws of the universe He made.

History is full of evidence that appealing to God is useful for emotional release. By expressing your concerns, you put that emotional burden on God. But as a practical method of fixing real world problems, prayer has a record of approximately 50/50% results. Which is what you would expect from random chance.

If God's interventions do not violate the laws of Nature, then those interventions cannot be distinguished from natural processes. Nevertheless, some people attribute positive results to divine intervention, and negative outcomes to the vagaries of nature, or to the evil interventions of demons.

[loveroflife]

I'm rather undecided but lean toward no. I keep coming back to the question of why would God need to intervene. The watchmaker analogy just plain makes a lot of sense to me. It doesn't leave me feeling abandoned as some people claim it should. It leaves me feeling responsible for my own life. I don't think of God intervening as impossible or implausible. I think there would be ways of intervening without taking away free will. But still I lean toward the view that God created the universe he wanted and doesn't need to tinker with it anymore. It's not a strong opinion though.
As for supposed miraculous supernatural events I think a lot are just misunderstood natural events or hoaxes. We are still very ignorant of the universe and exactly how it works. I think people forget this at times and claim that just b/c we don't understand it in our modern and "advanced" day and age that it must be a miracle/supernatural. As for me I'll plead ignorance.

[seanpmc69]

I suppose I should have answered the posted question instead of going off an a tangent. Intervene? No. Interact? Possibly.

[RecoveryGuy]

Intervene? No. Interact? Possibly.

I second that

[gnomon]

This is a note I made back in mid-2011 after record-setting droughts in the West, and a rare hurricane with record-setting floods in the NorthEast (US). I don't think I ever posted it, so if you have been praying for a revelation on intervention, here's your answer.


INTENTION versus INTERVENTION

The Governor of desiccated Texas recently asked his citizens to pray for rain (no mention of sacrifices or dances). But Governors along the east coast seemed to be quite content with their precipitation levels ---“thank you very much”. So why are they being inundated by hurricane Irene, from North Carolina to New England? Did God send the rain to the wrong address?

Scientifically, local weather events, such as hurricanes, are stochastic (random) not intentional (specific). But global weather & climate patterns seem to be functional parts of an overall intentional (guided) evolutionary process. From our perspective inside the swirling storm it’s impossible to know where it came from or where it’s going. Nevertheless, our satellite eyes in the sky give us a god-like view of a process guided by the Law of Thermodynamics.

The storm moves predictably from hot areas to colder areas. But its exact track is unpredictable, due to the complexity of conditions along the way. Evolution is similar in being universally directed by laws and locally randomized by contingencies. The cosmos that began in a hot Big Bang is now inexorably moving toward a cold goal.

If we look only at the local situation, evolution appears to be one accidental collision after another. But when we look at the Big Picture, we find laws and regularities that bespeak intention of some kind. Obviously though, hot & cold are merely thermostat settings with no intrinsic meaning. So we can only guess at the Creator’s reason for setting the cosmic controls where they are. Maybe it’s simply He/r comfort level.

[seanpmc69]

stochastic (random)

Chaos.

intentional (specific)

Order.

intentional (guided)

The Balance. God.

[Gman]

...Anyway I believe God and other plowing beings intervene. Do you?

Thanks

I'm not sure about "other plowing beings," nor know who they are, but other beings other than God tend to interfere than intervene. In a way I do believe that God intervenes as the Supreme Judge according to divine Providence, not to alter something against free will which God has endowed all people equally as unalienable Rights, but only to correct something against the Laws of Nature. Since I believe that God created everything, governed by the Laws of Nature, for humans, that anytime humans break the Laws of Nature, they suffer what they sow, but if humans repent by maintaining the Laws of Nature, they are blessed with Live, Liberty, to pursuit Happiness. This, to me is the source of good and evil, how we live not by what God commands, which God doesn't.

[FJunior]

In my opinion, absolutely not.
If there is something that I am 100% sure concerning my deist's beliefs, is that there isn't any kind of intervention.
Of course, we'll probably never be sure about this...

[Nada]

There is a common theistic phrase. 'There are are no atheist in foxholes.'

When times get so dark, there no hope, and the end is near. When we can not save ourselves, nor our buddy can save us, not the defenses, the generals, or the politicians. Once all rational hope is gone, we may become irrational and turn to the impossible, the Almighty. It may be only natural to believe in the impossible when the impossible belief is the only option. This does not make the impossible true, only that we believe in it.

[Gman]

Upon further thought. I see the question from three worldviews.

Theists believe that the God in holy books created everything and still intervenes with creation. Atheists believe that there is no God, that the Laws of Nature are innate within everything. But there seems to be two types of worldviews among Deists, secular and religious. Secular Deists believe that Nature's God created everything with Natural Laws but does not intervene with creation. Thomas Jefferson was a religious Deist, and he articulated in the Declaration of Independence, that "Natures' God" created the world with "the Laws of Nature" and still intervenes with creation as "Supreme Judge" ruling by "divine Providence", and "that All People are Created Equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness."

I agree with Thomas Jefferson's religious Deist worldview.