RE: Does Prayer Really Work? Does God Even Care?
August 16, 2014 at 10:13 am
(This post was last modified: August 16, 2014 at 11:08 am by Michael.)
Brakeman. I think it's entirely appropriate to use praying people to help understand what is going when they pray. That study allows us to say that it is likely that there is more to prayer, for those that do pray, than simply thinking about someone. I'm not saying that the something must be 'God', but the study distinguishes prayer from just thought about a person (I would have thought the criticism would me more along the lines of 'duh, ain't that obvious', as prayer has an intentional benevolence to it).
And you may not like Arthur Brooks, but, like it or not, he has published widely on economics and philanthropy in academic peer-reviewed journals. I rather trust his information (which passed peer review) more than an opinion piece blog about the Wall Street Journal you offered as a counter-argument. Brooks published that work, while working as an academic, in a peer-review journal from a respected academic publisher, so I hope you'll excuse me for not taking a rebuttal from an internet blog, which offered no data to support its opprobrium, particularly seriously (and if political views matter, let me just admit to being a socialist and long term voter for the Labour Party in England, though I have now switched to 'Green').
Anyway, I've had my say, and I try not to repeat myself too much, so I'll just sum up by saying that I don't think atheists need to think they can't acknowledge where there are benefits to prayer. I'm not a Buddhist, but I can still acknowledge the benefit of Buddhist-derived mindfulness without thinking that must mean I agree with everything in Buddhism. Likewise, I can tip my hat to how Richard Dawkins raises money for charity without thinking that I must agree with RD's philosophy. To dismiss prayer out of hand, I would say, is to not deal with real and well-established benefits of prayer. But the mechanism of those benefits is far less certain, and is open to considerable debate. But I've had my say now, so I shall climb down from my soap box and go and consider whether the blackberries I just cooked are OK to eat on my vegan diet as I know there were some bugs in with them. Ah, everyday real life ethical dilemmas for a vegan ;-)
And you may not like Arthur Brooks, but, like it or not, he has published widely on economics and philanthropy in academic peer-reviewed journals. I rather trust his information (which passed peer review) more than an opinion piece blog about the Wall Street Journal you offered as a counter-argument. Brooks published that work, while working as an academic, in a peer-review journal from a respected academic publisher, so I hope you'll excuse me for not taking a rebuttal from an internet blog, which offered no data to support its opprobrium, particularly seriously (and if political views matter, let me just admit to being a socialist and long term voter for the Labour Party in England, though I have now switched to 'Green').
Anyway, I've had my say, and I try not to repeat myself too much, so I'll just sum up by saying that I don't think atheists need to think they can't acknowledge where there are benefits to prayer. I'm not a Buddhist, but I can still acknowledge the benefit of Buddhist-derived mindfulness without thinking that must mean I agree with everything in Buddhism. Likewise, I can tip my hat to how Richard Dawkins raises money for charity without thinking that I must agree with RD's philosophy. To dismiss prayer out of hand, I would say, is to not deal with real and well-established benefits of prayer. But the mechanism of those benefits is far less certain, and is open to considerable debate. But I've had my say now, so I shall climb down from my soap box and go and consider whether the blackberries I just cooked are OK to eat on my vegan diet as I know there were some bugs in with them. Ah, everyday real life ethical dilemmas for a vegan ;-)
