Does Prayer Really Work? Does God Even Care?

[Michael]

Look at who does most work for charity. Prayer stimulates concern for others, and action fir others. Even people like Richard Dawkins have said that atheists need to find a way if galvanising themselves to do charitable work in the way theists do.

So you have a nice turn of phrase. But it's been rather mugged by a gang of ugly facts.

You're conflating the *act* of prayer and it's efficacy with the *actions* of humans and those action's associated efficacy.

The point being, the *act* of prayer is indistinguishable from doing nothing at all, vs. the very real and tangible results from humans actually doing something.

On the contrary. It was me that made the distinction in the first place, suggesting that one could debate the mechanism of prayer while still acknowledging the beneficial effects. You might not have noticed it, but I was giving atheists a way into examining what may be positive about prayer without having to believe in the divine realm. It's not unlike how psychology has sought what is good about mindfulness mediation without embracing Buddhism (though my Buddhist friends do feel it has been hijacked for selfish reasons, and the 'mindfulness movement' has totally failed to grasp the essence of selfless transformation at the centre of Buddhist beliefs).