diacrisis

I hate prayer. Like most things I hate, it's because the reality is so far from my ideal. In my ideal world, the word "prayer" wouldn't exist; it'd be replaced by the word "talkingtogod".

"Palal" is the first word translated to "pray". Funny how it doesn't appear until Genesis 20, around 1900 BC (and may have been authored a few centuries later). If we say the expulsion from Eden was around 4000 BC, that's a long time with no "prayer". It's not used much even after that--2 or 3 passages per OT book until we get to Samuel and Kings. Also funny how it means "intercede" in every context--someone is interceding between 2 other parties. 1 Sam 2 says, "If one man sins against another, God will pray for him..." Could it be that talkingtogod isn't always prayer?

There's another word sometimes translated as "pray": "naw". But it's certainly not exclusive to talkingtogod. It's often translated "please" or "now".

In Genesis 3 we read: "Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, 'Where are you?'" God spoke to Adam, and Adam answered. With his mouth. Not just in Eden, either. Cain says, with his mouth, "am I my brother's keeper?" Then it seems nobody but God speaks until Noah, whose only words are "cursed be Canaan" and "blessed be the LORD". Melchizedek blesses God, and Abram replies, "I have sworn to the LORD God Most High, that I will not take a thread [from you]".

And then Abram talks to God. Often. Not "goes in his closet and prays" or "in his heart". Out loud. And God answers. Seeing a pattern? So the question of the day is, what if God can't hear you unless you pray out loud? It's not that far-fetched. God created sounds waves--maybe he uses them. Oh, I forgot--you all think God is a blind and deaf watchmaker. Does your spirit use your body to interact with creation? Maybe God's does too.

That is an amazingly tempting concept. It would, in a single blow:

1. Let you immediately know who's a practicing Christian or Jew and who's not. No more lukewarm.
2. Get rid of all those professional godtalkers. No more, "Reverend Poobah, would you please say a prayer for us?" Totally unnecessary, since the Rev. Poobah would just start talkingtogod when he felt like it. At most, you'd say, "hey, rev, can you intercede for us? we're too scared." So at least you'd know that too.
3. Abolish the whole "public speaking" stigma from prayer. Most people don't pray openly in church because they're afraid of speaking in public. Carnegie is useful, but if every Christian had to open their mouth every time they wanted to talktogod, maybe the practice would eliminate the mystery and fear.
4. Focus prayer. There's something about actually moving muscles that makes things real. There's definitely something about a tangible sense of the Other--how many times have you held a conversation in your head that was nothing like the real thing? In your head, you get to wander all over the ideation landscape without any attenuation. With your mouth, you actually have to put your ideas into communicable representations.

Now here's an interesting passage: 1 Samuel 1:

1:12 Now it came about, as she continued praying before
     the LORD, that Eli was watching her mouth.
1:13 As for Hannah, she was speaking in her heart, only
     her lips were moving, but her voice was not heard.
     So Eli thought she was drunk.

It's the first Biblical reference I can see with silent talkingtogod. This is a hilarious passage in so many ways. I'm tempted to interpret that as, "this practice was so uncommon, Eli misinterpreted it." We don't have nearly enough documentation to make that claim, but it's tempting anyway.

Reality check: would Jesus' disciples have had to ask him how to pray if he prayed out loud? And if he didn't, why not?