Religious Cringe

The world's turned into too much of a parody of itself to tell anymore

They hear their ego telling them they're the best and deserve everything they want and conflate it with the voice of God.

Not only that, but he also created them as poor and killed their baby cousin with cancer and tortures all the exploited people and animals in the world.

He is also omni-benevolent. So, if you are a good Christian, making good thing for a good person is an act of goodness, so He will do it. That’s not a contradiction, but logical consequence of His omni-benevolence.

The true paradox is in so called problem of evil. How come, for example, that small innocent children can horribly suffer in this world, with Omni-benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent god?

It's quite easy to understand. They're dumb, suffer from mental challenges, or both.

Don't overestimate humans.

This is kinda Preacher, now I think about it

I don't believe in omnipotent or omniscient gods, only normal ones, but I'll bite your hypothetical.

An omniscient god would necessarily have a perfect sense of empathy. They would know what everyone is feeling. And to know a feeling is to feel it, so they would feel every feeling in the world, at full intensity. Obviously such a being would need to be all emotionally resilient as well as all knowing. But they would care for the problems of mortals, because they would feel what mortals do. Perhaps in such a hypothetical, prayers are simply a person attaching a feeling of urgency to their needs, in hope that their god will feel this urgency too and respond.

But of course, I believe in normal gods, so this is all just an intellectual exercise to me.

"Manifestation" is a thing that people believe works.

Wish = prayer.

Always has been

God is a genie I guess.

People somehow still believe a supernatural being in the sky grants wishes.

Praying helps. Praying is a mediaeval, prescientific form of therapy. Talking out your day, and your feelings, to someone who will listen. That works just as well with a family member, a supposed god, or my imaginary friend Bill.

And given that therapy costs money and many people are poor, prayer is an appropriate self-medication option for many people who need to talk to someone about their feelings. It's even an appropriate option for people who see a therapist but not as often as they'd like.

Now this is all beside the benefits prayer has if you're trying to create or empower an egregore, of course.

Looked it up for my fellow heathens:

NIV

MATTHEW 6 Giving to the Needy 1 “Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven.

2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing,

4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

5 “And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.

6 But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.

7 And when you pray, do not keep on babbling like pagans, for they think they will be heard because of their many words.

8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him.