Hi everyone, I'm a first time poster.
I joined primarily because I realized I was missing out on a lot of potentially enriching and interesting conversations with a wide variety of Christians. However the specific impetus of my joining was a single question/story that I'd like to discuss. I'm still getting the feel of the forum, but I figure "general" is as good a place as any for this question.
Anyway, my friend is an evangelical preacher in my town. He shares my interest in cosmology, astronomy, theology, and engineering. He built a satellite dish and radio transmitter capable of transmitting radio waves into space (it's easier than it sounds). Next, along with one of his friends from MIT who now works at NASA, they determined the approximate, best guess, direction of the center of the Universe. My friend then started collecting the audio and text of prayers and transmitting them toward the center of the Universe. His thinking was "If God exists as any sort of entity in this Universe, then he's at the site of the Big Bang."
That was all well and good, but in order to finance the maintenance of the tower (pretty low cost) and raise money for the church (struggling) he started soliciting prayers on the internet to transmit to space/the center of the Universe/ God for five dollars. I know he has nothing but good intentions, but I feel like it's wrong to charge for prayers, even if the person paying can clearly afford it and is just kind of making a donation.
Thoughts?
I joined primarily because I realized I was missing out on a lot of potentially enriching and interesting conversations with a wide variety of Christians. However the specific impetus of my joining was a single question/story that I'd like to discuss. I'm still getting the feel of the forum, but I figure "general" is as good a place as any for this question.
Anyway, my friend is an evangelical preacher in my town. He shares my interest in cosmology, astronomy, theology, and engineering. He built a satellite dish and radio transmitter capable of transmitting radio waves into space (it's easier than it sounds). Next, along with one of his friends from MIT who now works at NASA, they determined the approximate, best guess, direction of the center of the Universe. My friend then started collecting the audio and text of prayers and transmitting them toward the center of the Universe. His thinking was "If God exists as any sort of entity in this Universe, then he's at the site of the Big Bang."
That was all well and good, but in order to finance the maintenance of the tower (pretty low cost) and raise money for the church (struggling) he started soliciting prayers on the internet to transmit to space/the center of the Universe/ God for five dollars. I know he has nothing but good intentions, but I feel like it's wrong to charge for prayers, even if the person paying can clearly afford it and is just kind of making a donation.
Thoughts?
