Religionists are forever yakking about the power of prayer. You know the sort of thing - ask and it shall be given, all things are possible through prayer, etc.
It's a safe bet that people who believe in prayer actually pray, and pray sincerely. And I don't doubt that well-meaning religionists pray for the good of other people ('Lord, please cure auntie Leticia's cancer') more than they pray for themselves ('Lord, please tell me the winning lotto numbers'). Since this is obviously the case, why hasn't 'the power of prayer' yielded any results?
Millions of people right round the world are at an almost constant risk of starvation. Weather events destroy hundreds of villages - and cost tens of thousands of lives - every year. Hundreds of thousands of people live with curable diseases that will eventually kill them, because they have no possible access to decent medical care. The list of human horrors goes on and on and on. The constant praying also goes on and on, and things continue to get no better.
Robert Heinlein once opined, 'You can pray hard enough to make water run uphill. How hard? Hard enough to make water run uphill, of course.' He wasn't touting the power of prayer, but the pathetic answer that theists always give to explain the failure of prayer - you simply didn't pray hard enough. Well, since prayers are 'answered' at a rate no better than that of chance, it seems rather pointless to pray at all, no matter how hard you do it. Auntie Letty's cancer is going to get better or not, irrespective of your appeals to a deity.
Given the (literally) never-ending cacophony of prayers offered up for every thing from an end to war to a cure for AIDS, it seems clear as crystal that prayer doesn't work. I don't think it's because gods don't listen to prayers, I think it's more like ringing the doorbell when there's no one at home.
Boru
It's a safe bet that people who believe in prayer actually pray, and pray sincerely. And I don't doubt that well-meaning religionists pray for the good of other people ('Lord, please cure auntie Leticia's cancer') more than they pray for themselves ('Lord, please tell me the winning lotto numbers'). Since this is obviously the case, why hasn't 'the power of prayer' yielded any results?
Millions of people right round the world are at an almost constant risk of starvation. Weather events destroy hundreds of villages - and cost tens of thousands of lives - every year. Hundreds of thousands of people live with curable diseases that will eventually kill them, because they have no possible access to decent medical care. The list of human horrors goes on and on and on. The constant praying also goes on and on, and things continue to get no better.
Robert Heinlein once opined, 'You can pray hard enough to make water run uphill. How hard? Hard enough to make water run uphill, of course.' He wasn't touting the power of prayer, but the pathetic answer that theists always give to explain the failure of prayer - you simply didn't pray hard enough. Well, since prayers are 'answered' at a rate no better than that of chance, it seems rather pointless to pray at all, no matter how hard you do it. Auntie Letty's cancer is going to get better or not, irrespective of your appeals to a deity.
Given the (literally) never-ending cacophony of prayers offered up for every thing from an end to war to a cure for AIDS, it seems clear as crystal that prayer doesn't work. I don't think it's because gods don't listen to prayers, I think it's more like ringing the doorbell when there's no one at home.
Boru
‘But it does me no injury for my neighbour to say there are twenty gods or no gods. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg.’ - Thomas Jefferson
