Prayer does not work

[Jacob(smooth)]

Does wanking feel good to you wolf? I bet it does. I could ask a bunch of people and they'd tell me the same. I could also line up a bunch of Christians and they'd all tell you that prayer made them feel good. So does wanking "work". Can you provide evidence?

So you are comparing masturbating with prayer....Ok i'll give this one a shot!
It is conceivable that prayer does indeed make the individual feel better. It may release endorphines or whatever. If the purpose of the prayer was to make you feel better, then yes it did work. But it had nothing to do with god.
Does masturbating work? Simple answer: yes. The purpose of masturbation is primarily pleasure and most of the time, that is the outcome. I'm not sure on the exact science on how you would measure pleasure but i'm pretty sure endorphines are released in the brain and we can detect other cool stuff through brain waves.

I'll give that one a shot... Snigger...

Ahem. Sorry.
Agree with all of that.

They key bit of your post there was "if the purpose of prayer was".

Let's put it this way. Ask a rabid fundi if he could cure an amputation with prayer. Or raise the titanic. Unless completely batshit crazy he would have to admit that prayer does not work... For that.

Now let's go the other extreme and find a hardcore atheist (looks around in manner of meercat). Would you say that a prayer for comfort for a grieving widow, vulnerable and raised in the tradition, MIGHT achieve that purpose? Of making her feel a bit better?

It probably would.

So in between those extremes we have a bunch of people who agree that prayer CAN work, can have the desired effect DEPENDING ON THE PURPOSE OF THE PRAYER. As I said, it all depends on what the desired effect is.

The debate, I suggest, is on WHEN prayer works. Maybe HOW prayer works. But the statement that prayer does not work is as irrational as the statement that prayer always works.

The truth is almost always more complex than the slogan. That's why I'm always irritated by slogans.