(September 26, 2021 at 6:45 pm)vulcanlogician Wrote: The historical reason it promotes prayer is that Christianity was modelled after mystery cults that were popular in Roman times. As a selling point, these cults would often claim their pet god would do things for you. You also have prayer begging for God to intercede on one's behalf in Judaism, but it's nowhere near as obnoxious as what is described in the New Testament.
Judaism is more like: "Knock... and MAYBE... if God is in a good mood, it will be opened. But probably not." Jews I've communicated to about this site gratitude as the primary motivation for prayer. I'm not sure if this is true, or that's what they said because it sounds good.
I would say that praying to a god to bring you good luck and give you stuff and not give you disease is something very ancient.
Primitive humans did not know how nature operates. When some family member was ill, there was very little to do. Perhaps the priest/doctor would prepare a drink for you, rub something on you, say some magical words and he would say that the rest is up to the gods.
These days, if you get a cut, you clean the area with soap and apply ethanol or some antiseptic and put a band-aid.
I imagine that no european calls the priest for that.
When you get cancer, people know that there is significant chance they will die (depends on the cancer as well). They try every solution: going to the hospital and calling their priest and having family members pray.
Once medical science masters cancer, all types of cancer, the need for the priest will go down.
When you get a tooth infection, you go to your dentist, he’ll prescribe an antibiotic. Once the infection is eliminated, you can go back to him and he’ll repair your tooth.
I imagine that no european calls the priest for that.
I think that a lot of christians still sit at dinner time with their family and they thank god for putting food on their table.
The reality is that food is plentiful. If you are jobless and poor, there are social programs.
Nobody starves to death in european countries. ~200 y ago was a very different world for Europe.
