On the lunacy of prayer

[Nay_Sayer]

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[Ahriman]

Well you're not supposed to pray for "things", you're just supposed to pray because you love praying. Prayer is like a form of meditation. By praying, you're practicing detachment, meaning you're training your psyche to not become overly attached to things.

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

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Well you're not supposed to pray for "things", you're just supposed to pray because you love praying. Prayer is like a form of meditation. By praying, you're practicing detachment, meaning you're training your psyche to not become overly attached to things.

Prayer is not a form of meditation. You’re so silly.

Boru

[Neo-Scholastic]

I get the idea of prayer being bullshit from an atheist perspective but I do not really understand the negative emotional response to other people praying or even prayer requests.

First off, I do not know any religious person who thinks prayer is a substitute for initiative. Religious people pray for guidance before deciding what to do. They request blessing for actions they commit to taking. And they ask for help after they've done all they can, as in "Its in Gods hands now." Even from a secular perspective, these are just meditation, motivation, and hoping for the best. So what's the problem besides offending antitheist sensibilities? Or maybe the mockery makes some people feel superior.

I see nothing wrong with taking less than 2 minutes of hedging your bets when you are already open to the idea that the universe is richer than it often appears to be.

[arewethereyet]

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Well you're not supposed to pray for "things", you're just supposed to pray because you love praying. Prayer is like a form of meditation. By praying, you're practicing detachment, meaning you're training your psyche to not become overly attached to things.

Prayer is not a form of meditation. You’re so silly.

Boru

I do think it's sort of meditative in a way. For instance, praying the rosary is so much repitition it's not all that different from someone repeating a meditation chant. I assume it's calming to some people.

[vulcanlogician]

Prayer is not a form of meditation. You’re so silly.

Boru

I do think it's sort of meditative in a way.  For instance, praying the rosary is so much repitition it's not all that different from someone repeating a meditation chant.  I assume it's calming to some people.

Wow. You beat me to it. I was gonna exactly say the rosary is like mantra meditation. But even other forms of prayer that are silent and contemplative are similar to mindfulness meditation. (Focus on one object... usually the breath, but it doesn't have to be. Could be God, or an idea of God.)

When the Baptists get in a circle and one guy babbles for ten minutes, sometimes throwing a reference to Trump's excellence in there, now THAT is not meditation.

[arewethereyet]

I do think it's sort of meditative in a way.  For instance, praying the rosary is so much repitition it's not all that different from someone repeating a meditation chant.  I assume it's calming to some people.

Wow. You beat me to it. I was gonna exactly say the rosary is like mantra meditation. But even other forms of prayer that are silent and contemplative are similar to mindfulness meditation. (Focus on one object... usually the breath, but it doesn't have to be. Could be God, or an idea of God.)

When the Baptists get in a circle and one guy babbles for ten minutes, sometimes throwing a reference to Trump's excellence in there, now THAT is not meditation.

One of the things that really threw me for a loop when I moved to SC and got out into the working world was what I call 'Free Form Prayer'. I was so used to Catholic prayer which is said in a certain way and has specific uses (for lack of a better word) that when I first heard someone praying off the cuff with all the 'Father Gods' and 'nourish our bodies' and everything else, I was gobsmacked.

[AFTT47]

When paying my over the phone bills, it seems the standard response is "Is there anything else I can help you with?" at the end of the call. I end the call with, "Can you get me a date with Angelina Jolie?".

This pathetic attempt at humor is becoming spammy...think about it before posting it again.

Give me a fucking break.

I'm not Brian37s biggest fan but this is just bullying. If you don't want him on the forum anymore, why don't you just come out and say so?

I think we all know this forum is in decline. Much of that is because of people's misguided attraction to social media. You might want to rethink alienating those who chose to hang around here unless you want to hasten the death of Atheist Forums.

[Fake Messiah]

My impression was that it is friendly bullying (if there is such a thing), they are bullying him "out of love", and that he doesn't mind.

[vulcanlogician]

Confirmation bias.

I think this is the literal biggest one that keeps people believing in prayer. And it's conveniently built into our minds to engage in this sort of thing. It seems evolution favored an acquired belief being held onto rather than being scrutinized for its truth-value. Plenty of reasons for this. Acquired beliefs create bonds with one's tribe being a big one. The second biggest was beliefs (for most of humans' evolutionary history) were not used against people, to control them, to undermine their good senses etc.

Christianity even has a "It's God's will." explanation for when prayer doesn't work. But when it DOES work "You see? God answered your prayer! Hallelujah!" I mean, you could use this very practice as an example to explain confirmation bias fully to a person unfamiliar with the concept. If that doesn't make prayer exemplary of conf bias, I don't know what does.