The only time I remember praying was when my sister and I would stay at my grandparents' house (oddly enough, those was the only times, save one, that I've been the church services) and my grandma would make use recite the creepy one about if you die while you sleep.
I would have participated in the poll but I don't agree with the delineation of choices, nor the fact that I can't choose multiple options, thus my opinion would not be accurately represented, so here's how I would have voted given the actual implied poll question being asked ("Do you think prayer is useful?"):
X Could potentially be beneficial
X Praying is a waste of time
For some people prayer can be beneficial, certainly. It can serve as a mechanism to calm frayed nerves and to focus thoughts, among other things. But in those respects it's not significantly different than meditation, but with the potential added harms of thinking that whatever you're praying to has the ability and the will to respond and intervene on your behalf, coupled with the idea that praying is somehow effective in bringing about external results (something above and beyond clearing your mind and calming you down) which means that you don't actually take any action.
For me, praying is a waste of time. I'm not convinced that there's anything out there to pray to, I don't know why I would be praying to whatever it is in the first place since whatever I'd be praying to hasn't demonstrated it exists, and I've developed reasonable mechanisms to accomplish the things that people so often use prayer for. I've tried meditation but I mostly just find that I get bored so I have roughly the same opinion of meditation that I do prayer. But just because I find no personal value in these activities, that doesn't mean that no one else does.
For that reason, I would rather have seen a poll with a Yes/No delineation rather than forcing people to select one of a very short, very limited list of inferences as to their reasons for praying or not. The thread title, after all, is not "What do you think of prayer?" it's "Do you pray?" and my answer is no.
I would have participated in the poll but I don't agree with the delineation of choices, nor the fact that I can't choose multiple options, thus my opinion would not be accurately represented, so here's how I would have voted given the actual implied poll question being asked ("Do you think prayer is useful?"):
X Could potentially be beneficial
X Praying is a waste of time
For some people prayer can be beneficial, certainly. It can serve as a mechanism to calm frayed nerves and to focus thoughts, among other things. But in those respects it's not significantly different than meditation, but with the potential added harms of thinking that whatever you're praying to has the ability and the will to respond and intervene on your behalf, coupled with the idea that praying is somehow effective in bringing about external results (something above and beyond clearing your mind and calming you down) which means that you don't actually take any action.
For me, praying is a waste of time. I'm not convinced that there's anything out there to pray to, I don't know why I would be praying to whatever it is in the first place since whatever I'd be praying to hasn't demonstrated it exists, and I've developed reasonable mechanisms to accomplish the things that people so often use prayer for. I've tried meditation but I mostly just find that I get bored so I have roughly the same opinion of meditation that I do prayer. But just because I find no personal value in these activities, that doesn't mean that no one else does.
For that reason, I would rather have seen a poll with a Yes/No delineation rather than forcing people to select one of a very short, very limited list of inferences as to their reasons for praying or not. The thread title, after all, is not "What do you think of prayer?" it's "Do you pray?" and my answer is no.
Teenaged X-Files obsession + Bermuda Triangle episode + Self-led school research project = Atheist.
