Can we determine the will of God through prayer?

Design of a preliminary study

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Biblical, and other, quotations about assessing the will of God:
(King James Version; updated spelling for clarity)

	Psalms 86:6-7: "Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications. In the day of my trouble I will call upon you: for you will answer me."
	Proverbs 2:3-6: "Yea, if you cry after knowledge, and lift up your voice for understanding...Then you shall understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom: out of his mouth comes knowledge and understanding."
	Proverbs 3:6: "In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
	Jeremiah 33:2-3: "Thus said the LORD...Call unto me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you know not."
	James 1:5: "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men liberally, and upbraids not; and it shall be given him."
	Arthur Koestler: "God seems to have left the receiver off the hook and time is running out."

Determining the will of God: a preliminary study

Our web site includes descriptions of many different religions. Our visitors come from a wide range of faith groups. We attempt to describe all aspects of many "hot" religious topics: often from the religiously conservative, religiously liberal, and other points of view.  We decided that ours was the ideal site to conduct a study of whether prayer can determine the will of God on a controversial question. We selected a matter about which people tend to have strongly polarized beliefs: same sex marriage (SSM). There two options are:

	Whether the state should continue to restrict marriage to heterosexuals. That is, allow only persons of opposite genders to marry, or
	Whether loving, committed couples of all sexual orientations should have an equal right to marry, and enjoy the status, economic benefits, and government services that marriage would bring to them.

Opinion among our visitors and in society generally is sharply divided:

	Most religious conservatives consider same-sex marriage to be an abomination, and an attack on the God-ordained heterosexual family. Marriage must be reserved for opposite-sex couples only.
	Many religious liberals view the question from a human rights perspective. They see no more fundamental and personal human right than the right to marry the person that we love. They feel that all mature people -- whether homosexual, bisexual, or heterosexual -- should be allowed to marry, subject to the usual restrictions concerning genetically related individuals.

The two groups cannot even agree on the nature of sexual orientation -- whether it is a chosen, changeable preference or an unchosen, fixed orientation. It is doubtful that a consensus will be reached on the matter of same-sex marriage in the foreseeable future. But perhaps we can assess the will of God on this matter through prayer.

Design of the study:

	Whether they were currently in favor of or opposed to same-sex marriages.
	Some personal data -- their sexual orientation, religious affiliation, and which "wing" of that religion that they followed.
	To seek God's will for same-sex marriages through prayer.
	To continue praying until they received a response from God or felt that they could not assess the will of God.
	If they were successful in assessing God's position on SSM, then we asked: what God's will is, and  how certain are they that they correctly assessed God's will.

We received 75 useable responses over the period 1999-JUL to 2000-JAN. A summary of the results and detailed information is available.

Copyright © 2000 to 2007 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Latest update: 2007-JUL-28
Author: B.A. Robinson

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