"LH, apparently you believe in a monothesistic god rather than a pantheon of gods."

Hmm. Well, not necessarily. It's not that I believe in a monotheistic God so much as that I believe in a single Unity which manifests in an infinite number of aspects (and individuals). When people construct a pantheon of gods, all they are really doing is they are characterizing different aspects of existence and assigning them symbolic names. In India, for example, there are many gods and goddesses in their traditions, but it is clearly understood by adepts that those are simply symbols of the One, and that the One is transcendent and indescribable, but encompasses everything. It's different levels of symbolism, which is useful for people as long as they don't start worshipping the symbols blindly. The One is also described as a great Trinity in India...Brahma, Vishnu, and Shiva...the Creator, the Preserver, the Destroyer. That's a description of the 3 basic forces we see in nature: creation of living forms, preservation of living forms, death and dissolution of living forms. We see those forces in play all the time through birth, maturing, survival, aging, and death.

But beyond those the Indians still see an indescribable One which supercedes them all and out of which they flow, so to speak, as archetypes or aspects.

What is this? It's philosophy. It's an attempt to understand one's place in an existence where we must deal with birth, survival issues, change, aging, and death. I have nothing against philosophy, and I approach spirituality on that basis, because having a philosophical outlook gives meaning to one's life.

I don't take the various "gods" literally. I take them as symbolic of different aspects of existence. It is existence itself which is sacred, seems to me, and it's too large to be contained within most people's concept of "God". So I would agree with Carl Sagan that, yes, their God is too small.

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Regarding prayer, I have seen it work in some very surprising ways. And I have seen it not work also. I think that may have had to do with the inner focus and clarity of the people involved, possibly, or it may have had to do with something else entirely, it may have had to do with actual need, but I have no final explanation for it...I just have seen it take powerful effect on a couple of occasions. There are a lot of prayers that would be better NOT answered, because people tend to ask for the most foolish things! ;-)

When it does work, it does not necessarily make me think that some kind of external God "out there" answered the prayer, by the way. Could be...but I have no definite opinion about that.

When people are praying for someone to survive an illness, how do they know that survival of that illness is the best thing that could happen to that person??? They don't! Death at that time may be a much better thing for that person than they imagine. How can they know it isn't better if they haven't been dead themselves yet? They are assuming that death is the complete destruction of the person. Maybe it isn't. They don't want to lose the person. That's understandable. But maybe the person is going into a continued spiritual life that they have no knowlege of and will be happier there than here. There is no way for someone here to know whether that is the case or not, so they assume whatever they assume about it, and they act on that basis. That's all any of us can do. We do the best we can, based on what we already know...or what we think we know.

I accept death. I've lost individuals whom I cared for, and I miss them, but I accept death when it comes...as it must.