RE: Prayer does not work
November 19, 2013 at 9:39 am
(This post was last modified: November 19, 2013 at 9:39 am by Tonus.)
(November 19, 2013 at 9:31 am)Jacob(smooth) Wrote: If I want to make someone feel better, I might give them a hug. They feel better, the hug worked.This gets into tricky territory, though. If prayer works in the same way that a hug would, or a comforting talk would, or a helping hand would, then it isn't prayer that works; it is human empathy or sympathy put into action. In other words, if you visit the bereaved person and say a prayer with her the positive effect may not be from the prayer, but from the companionship and the resulting feeling that she is not alone.
If I want to make a Christian feel better I might pray with them. They feel better, the prayer worked.
Thus, because there are circumstances where the prayer can have the desired effect, (work) it's untrue to say prayer does not work.
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-Stephen Jay Gould
