That is such a typical answer!
Even cinjin expected it, answered in advanced and you still went with it.
As far as I can tell from reading this thread, prayer is when you ask god to just be with you. To provide you with the answers you seek, Some guidance, some comfort.
All these are just psychological states. You can achieve them without prayer, but I have to admit that some people (if not most) find it very easy to achieve them with prayer, thus feeding the delusion that god did something to them.
If you don't assume god exists, prayer looks as just wishful thinking or talking to yourself or (you know it happens too often) asking for impossible things.
When you ask for something impossible, you understand that that something is beyond your reach, or control... and possibly beyond anyone's reach. Hence you ask. Sometimes, you get lucky.... most of the times, you don't. Things would most likely turn out the same, had you not asked for it. But it feels good to think you're actually doing something helpful.
It's the same with engaging in wishful thinking. Sometimes, you get what you wished for. Sometimes, you don't. Depends on the probability of occurrence of whatever you asked for.
When you talk to yourself, you put some thoughts in order, which helps in seeing some details which might otherwise have missed your mind. If happens, regardless of god's existence, but you feel better to think that god helped you. In this case meditation would be a good substitute and possibly yield better results.
On average, prayer should work as well as the absence of prayer.
Unfortunately, people who believe cannot accept this external viewpoint. To them, god actually exists and it is god that actually does all those things in their minds, because they couldn't possibly have done it themselves.
Low self-esteem, low self-regard, low self-image.... it must be a bit sad to be a believer in god and relying so much in his help to set your minds at ease.
Here, have a bit of funny for free:
![[Image: funny-captions-20.jpg]](https://images.weserv.nl/?url=thechive.files.wordpress.com%2F2012%2F03%2Ffunny-captions-20.jpg)
Even cinjin expected it, answered in advanced and you still went with it.
As far as I can tell from reading this thread, prayer is when you ask god to just be with you. To provide you with the answers you seek, Some guidance, some comfort.
All these are just psychological states. You can achieve them without prayer, but I have to admit that some people (if not most) find it very easy to achieve them with prayer, thus feeding the delusion that god did something to them.
If you don't assume god exists, prayer looks as just wishful thinking or talking to yourself or (you know it happens too often) asking for impossible things.
When you ask for something impossible, you understand that that something is beyond your reach, or control... and possibly beyond anyone's reach. Hence you ask. Sometimes, you get lucky.... most of the times, you don't. Things would most likely turn out the same, had you not asked for it. But it feels good to think you're actually doing something helpful.
It's the same with engaging in wishful thinking. Sometimes, you get what you wished for. Sometimes, you don't. Depends on the probability of occurrence of whatever you asked for.
When you talk to yourself, you put some thoughts in order, which helps in seeing some details which might otherwise have missed your mind. If happens, regardless of god's existence, but you feel better to think that god helped you. In this case meditation would be a good substitute and possibly yield better results.
On average, prayer should work as well as the absence of prayer.
Unfortunately, people who believe cannot accept this external viewpoint. To them, god actually exists and it is god that actually does all those things in their minds, because they couldn't possibly have done it themselves.
Low self-esteem, low self-regard, low self-image.... it must be a bit sad to be a believer in god and relying so much in his help to set your minds at ease.
Here, have a bit of funny for free:
