The problem with prayer

[Eilonnwy]

I think you are the arrogant one in presuming you 'know' about people who pray. It is not arrogant to pray, maybe silly from non believers' points of view,which I understand. As for those who may 'pretend' to pray and be doing something for you I'm sure there are dishonest people who pretend to be believers for material gains. People like FutureandaHope on the other hand, are sincere (even if misguided). I would thank someone if they prayed for me. They spent some of their time on me. A very unselfish thing in my opinion.

I don't deny the fact that people who prayer think they're doing good. It's a subtle arrogance, that is fed by religion. Just one of the many contradictions that religion makes where you're supposed to meek and sinful, but if you pray god will answer them. I totally recognize that people who do it don't see it as arrogance because it's one of the many compartmentalist dogmas of religion, but I'm still going to call it out as such.

I think I can state my opinion on prayer since I used to prayer and it was always for selfish reasons.

Humans are selfish by nature, and I'm not saying we should all be selfless. If we were all selfless we'd all be in serious trouble. There's a time and place for everything.

When I would sit in church and listen to the list of people who got listed in one segment of the service I always thought how ridiculous it was that some people got special mention and then they always finished off with "And everyone else suffering from illness, who has passed away, etc..." It was obvious to me even then that they the prayer served as making the people it concerned feel better. It didn't really do anything.

I know the intention behind prayer is in general meant to be positive, but people in general have convinced themselves that praying is effective and that does more damage in my mind. One of my favorite quotes is "1 pair of hands working does more than 1000 clasped in prayer" If say all the people who prayed for someone who is seriously ill instead gave $5 bucks to their medical bill, that would be a tangible benefit. But at the same time I recognize that we can't do that. I would love to give more than $5 a week to charity (Which I do) but we all have to take care of ourselves first before we can take care of anyone else.

Prayer essentially fools you into thinking you are being charitable when really you're not, and I have no qualms about saying so when the discussion comes up. There may be, I fully admit, a placebo like effect that in some cases may help someone but until I any proof of real tangible evidence that it does good, it receives my disdain. End of story.

Sorry if you think that's arrogant but I think it's better to actually try to do something to help someone if you really mean it as opposed to just saying a prayer.

edit- If you say that people who pray also may give to their church and donate, that's fine. I would never deny the charitable works that religion does, but could they do the same thing without praying? I think they could.