Anonymous wrote:How can this be a serious question? Don't you think murder and terrorism victims pray as they are killed? Don't you think starving and abused children pray for any kind of help? Do you really think those prayers aren't answered because a violent, senseless, painful end is a better "way" for those victims? This is why I could never be religious. How do you square you belief that god should help you out with the mundane business of your life while others suffer incredibly with no out?

Not really, but I think often believers just aren't thinking about the sorts of things you raise, or are thinking that God works in mysterious ways and might just answer their prayers instead of someone else's. Plus many people are taught to pray as children, by adults that they trust and depend on, so it becomes ingrained and is not treated with the same kind of logic that they use in other situations.

As fewer people are raising their children with religion, there should be fewer of these kinds of questions about prayer in the future.

How can this be a serious question? Don't you think murder and terrorism victims pray as they are killed? Don't you think starving and abused children pray for any kind of help? Do you really think those prayers aren't answered because a violent, senseless, painful end is a better "way" for those victims? This is why I could never be religious. How do you square you belief that god should help you out with the mundane business of your life while others suffer incredibly with no out?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Sky daddy? hinky? None of this is disagreement, it's straightforward abuse.

We're grownups so we're not going to start "subtle micro aggressions of believer phobia" threads. But we can privately think that you guys have issues with anger and respect.

"Our father who art in heaven" = sky daddy -- not flattering, but not abuse. It's an informal way of saying the same thing and it's accurate to say that a lot of people pray to "our Father."

"Hinky" means unreliable and suspicious, which seems to fit the basic premise of this thread -- wondering why sometimes prayer doesn't work, with people offering various opinions that don't seem to come from any firm philosophical or evidentiary base.

What BS. Do you even believe this rubbish?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm not meaning this response to be mean, but maybe because God's world doesn't revolve around you and your 'no' may allow someone else to receive a 'yes'.

Is that the way it works with God? He only has so many yeses to hand out so the rest have to be no's?

People pray for all sorts of material goods and things. If you pray for a specific job, and you get it, that means someone else doesn't get it. If you pray for a specific partner to marry, that means someone else does not marry that partner.

Anonymous wrote:Well, even though god doesn't exist, prayer is a nice tool. It makes you concentrate on what issues are actually important and what you are worried about. It gives you a moment of peace to cast your mind into a different frame. The answering part of prayer, okay, that is kind of hinky and supernatural, but the exercise of prayer itself reminds me of meditation.

Me too

Anonymous wrote:Sky daddy? hinky? None of this is disagreement, it's straightforward abuse.

We're grownups so we're not going to start "subtle micro aggressions of believer phobia" threads. But we can privately think that you guys have issues with anger and respect.

"Our father who art in heaven" = sky daddy -- not flattering, but not abuse. It's an informal way of saying the same thing and it's accurate to say that a lot of people pray to "our Father."

"Hinky" means unreliable and suspicious, which seems to fit the basic premise of this thread -- wondering why sometimes prayer doesn't work, with people offering various opinions that don't seem to come from any firm philosophical or evidentiary base.

Um, I was actually defending the idea of prayer - yo.

Yes, all the religions seems pretty strange to me. Praying to Osiris, praying to the Islamic prophet, praying to a man who was crucified during the iron age, it is all hinky. Does it surprise you that the non believers find your religion every bit as strange as you probably find scientology?

Hinky is the word I use when I am trying to be thoughtful.

Anonymous wrote:Sky daddy? hinky? None of this is disagreement, it's straightforward abuse.

We're grownups so we're not going to start "subtle micro aggressions of believer phobia" threads. But we can privately think that you guys have issues with anger and respect.

+1

Too bad the mod allows it, but he clearly has issues anyway, judging by what he allows and doesn't allow.

Sky daddy? hinky? None of this is disagreement, it's straightforward abuse.

We're grownups so we're not going to start "subtle micro aggressions of believer phobia" threads. But we can privately think that you guys have issues with anger and respect.

Well, even though god doesn't exist, prayer is a nice tool. It makes you concentrate on what issues are actually important and what you are worried about. It gives you a moment of peace to cast your mind into a different frame. The answering part of prayer, okay, that is kind of hinky and supernatural, but the exercise of prayer itself reminds me of meditation.

Agree with the PP. It's because there is no sky daddy who's watching over you. Sorry to burst your bubble but you're talking to yourself. Change the word "God" in the phrase "praying to God" and you'd be labeled (rightfully so) as having some sort of mental illness.

Its all in your head, OP? Why doesn't "God" answer prayers? Because he doesn't exist.

Anonymous wrote:21:04 -- Why do you post in this forum if you don't believe? If you don't, that's fine. But why $hit all over people who do believe? What does it take away from you if they do believe and want to pray?

If you do believe in prayer, what does it matter that others don't. Presenting a different opinion isn't sh*tting on your beliefs - it's having different beliefs, that don't incude your particular set of beliefs. It's pretty evident, just be reading through this thread, that people have their own beliefs about how prayer works, irrespective of what their religion teaches.

Actually "because there is no God" is simplest answer to the question.

Anonymous wrote:21:04 -- Why do you post in this forum if you don't believe? If you don't, that's fine. But why $hit all over people who do believe? What does it take away from you if they do believe and want to pray?

It's rough living in the 21st century with literate people who still believe in fairy tales.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I figure he's too busy answering the prayers of the millions of children around the world asking to be delivered from the squalor, poverty, violence, disease, and hunger that afflict their lives.

Yeah, he definitely is busy doing that. Definitely.

Not very effective at it, though

Anonymous wrote:For those who think prayer truly works, how do you justify praying for such mundane and (relatively) meaningless things like the OP's desire to meet with someone? When I pray, I pray for the suffering of abused children to end, for victims of disease to heal, JD for the hungry to receive nourishment.

Does that make you feel like you're doing something more important than people who do the same thing for selfish reasons? At least the others think they get a prayer answered once in a while, but you can't tell if your impersonal prayers are being answered. It's as though your putting them in a bank and hoping you'll get some interest later on. Or credit for focusing on the world and not just on your personal needs, when in reality, you're talking to yourself in both cases and not taking any real action to help yourself or others

Personally, I think prayer is wishful thinking and often a carry over from childhood where we were taught to pray to ask for things we couldn't get on our own. A type of magic.

Sorry to be so blunt, but I find the idea of some prayers being more high-minded than others a bit silly.