My mother was a Roman Catholic, but my father was at best agnostic. While I attended Catholic Church, I was not Baptized until I was thirteen. Finding little emotional and intellectual presence in celebrating Mass, I joined a Unitarian Fellowship when I was in high school. Here the youth group vigorously engaged in discussions about religions and had speakers from various faiths share their beliefs with us. Although my views were liberal, I remained convinced that the doctrine that I had been taught was true.
I was twenty-five when I entered college in the sixties, where I learned more about a variety of faiths and found myself drawn to Eastern beliefs – “Be Here Now” by Baba Ram Dass being highly influential. Over the next fifty-plus years, my thinking about spirituality evolved. However, before I address @JLeslie’s questions it is important that the reader know that I make a distinction between belief and thought. My thoughts are not beliefs as they are subject to further change. Also, I do not dispute what others may believe, as they may be correct.
“Does God have a plan?” That which is continuing to create the universe is not an Über Patriarch. I view this common concept to be a projection of a child’s view of a father, one who protects, nurtures, and will reward obedience or punish its lack. I imagine a spiritual force behind creation encompassing the cosmos that is analogous to a magnetic field. What appears to be a plan is the consequence of actions contributing to creation or taking from it – a continuum of selfish and altruistic behavior.
“Does praying help to get what you want?” Born with instinct primarily focused on individual and communal survival, our nature is innately self-serving. As we mature, the potential to extend awareness beyond self can increase. The spiritual force to which I eluded, which also exists within our biological being, powers it. I view prayer as a means to connect consciousness to this spiritual core.
Other than prayers asking for the strength of mind to resist temptation, the courage to confront the causes of suffering and the wisdom to recognize the foolishness of trying to change those things beyond my ability, self-serving prayers are merely wishful thinking. However, prayers reflecting one’s concerns about other’s needs may reveal opportunities to act on their behalf. Prayers of this kind are never in vain even when it seems that they have not produced preferred outcomes, for at the very least they increase our consciousness of the interconnection of all things material and spiritual.