Fundamentally, what we have here is a failure to understand prayer as anything other than as it applies to religion. I will say this again, although I feel like a broken record player, the same psychological process takes place when one prays just as it does when they meditate or utilize positive affirmations.
I was going to itemize my rebuttals to the above post, but I realized that I would be here all night as there are many. Is it so difficult to understand that when one prays that it does not have to be directed at a mythical diety? You people are failing to move past the religious argument. Don't get me wrong, as an atheist I understand that it is easy to be closed-minded to anything that might even smell of religion and prayer is traditionally associated with religion. Move past the concept of how it applies to religion and you might understand what I am talking about.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_...mind/61308
http://www.jrcompton.com/words/meta/prayer.shtml
http://books.google.com/books?id=bakRAAA...q=&f=false
This really is a basic concept and it blows my mind that seemingly intelligent individuals such as yourselves have the inability to think outside the box on this one and realize that someone praying to a god is simply them praying to something they believe will produce the desired results. This could be anything, i.e. tree example above, so long as the belief is there. Instead of citing archaic definitions of what prayer is thought of only in the religious sense, do me a favor and read up a little bit on how prayer works psychologically and then get back to me.
I was going to itemize my rebuttals to the above post, but I realized that I would be here all night as there are many. Is it so difficult to understand that when one prays that it does not have to be directed at a mythical diety? You people are failing to move past the religious argument. Don't get me wrong, as an atheist I understand that it is easy to be closed-minded to anything that might even smell of religion and prayer is traditionally associated with religion. Move past the concept of how it applies to religion and you might understand what I am talking about.
http://www.suite101.com/article.cfm/new_...mind/61308
http://www.jrcompton.com/words/meta/prayer.shtml
http://books.google.com/books?id=bakRAAA...q=&f=false
This really is a basic concept and it blows my mind that seemingly intelligent individuals such as yourselves have the inability to think outside the box on this one and realize that someone praying to a god is simply them praying to something they believe will produce the desired results. This could be anything, i.e. tree example above, so long as the belief is there. Instead of citing archaic definitions of what prayer is thought of only in the religious sense, do me a favor and read up a little bit on how prayer works psychologically and then get back to me.
