Thoughts and not prayers.

[tackattack]

Getting back to the point. I agree with several posters on here that prayer is a personal thing between you and a personal God and should not be boasted about. It shouldn't go up on twitter, or youtube, as an "aha.. see what we did". It's a conversation with the creator. Let's assume for arguments sake that God doesn't exist and it's just people talking to the air and wishing positive things for people. It still beneficial. There have been studies (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/article...347528.pdf) that emotionally negative responses like fear and anger narrow the vision on possible solutions while positive emotional reactions do the opposite. As to the other comments in the response. I'm not intentionally ignoring anything. I already stated that prayers are not a substitute for actual practical methods of support and encouragement. It's often though that very little physically can be done in a lot of cases, like the one I cited. Also, I fail to see how it's presumptuous.

I'm not arguing that prayer works. I'm not arguing that there is a God. I agree that a metric shit ton of believers pray so they can get the magical C note and publicly boast about their prayer victories. All I'm saying is that whether God is real or not, someone reaching out to you with "thoughts and prayers", or praying with/for you in a time of need (where other support wouldn't be better) I don't see as a bad thing ever, and I'd like to know why people find it offensive (if they do). Mainly because, I woulnd't want what I see as an act of kindness, to upset or offend people.