(February 1, 2018 at 11:01 am)Khemikal Wrote: Well, that's the rub, if what you're looking for is a state of mind..then a placebo is a pretty cheap way to effect that. Otherwise you gotta go buy drugs, lol. Positive thinking may not actually lead, directly, to positive outcomes, but it leads to a better mood which often -does- lead to more positive outcomes..or at least a more positive experience of poor outcomes.
The silliness and pointlessness isn't in prayer or any other ritual to achieve that effect, it's in peoples misunderstanding and misattributons -of- the effect or the nature of the act.
I wouldn't put it like that. It is a placebo regardless. Prayer is one form. You can think positively about anything and do so without any pragmatic data to know you are right. Just like I was "positive" that if I just showed Ann McCarthy that I was "in love" with her, she would respond. You can be "positive" about anything but that is not evidence that what you are positive about will happen or is true. Just like kids are positive about Santa. Many get presents but that still does not make Santa real.
I would agree it is a misunderstanding and miss -attribute. Point is, you can be positive and certain and dead wrong at the same time. Prayer only works in the context that if enough people buy into it collectively as a social norm, it can create a collective group. The ancient Egyptians were successful for 3,000 years falsely believing that praying to Ra and Osiris and Horus and Isis was a REAL deal, and that false belief did allow for their 3,000 year dynasty but that still did not make their polytheistic gods true or real.
I don't see how calling pray a placebo is "cheap" because it is cheap. It is because of what you said in misunderstanding that makes it cheap. It allows one to be intellectually lazy. It is easier for our species to buy into a fantasy than it is for us to do the work to figure out what the real observable world is. It is easier for humans to think of themselves as important than it is to face the reality we are not.
