Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of people who aren't religious ask for priests at the end of their lives. The power of prayer is real, whether the person being prayed for believes or not. Maybe your friend realizes this or has read the studies.

link?

Most people have the links already . They experienced others praying for them per their request in the most unreal of circumstances when something had absolutely no chance to happen but it did. This is the power of prayer. You either experienced it or not.
Universe is generous, you just fail to believe. You need to believe many times a day for things to happen.

You need to believe you can get to work, otherwise you would stay at home. You need to believe that you have to eat or otherwise you will die.
This is all in a way based on believe because knowledge is one thing but believing makes you doing things. You don't do anything you don't believe.
You don't go to the store in the middle of the night because you believe it is closed. You do go to new vacation destination you have never been to before because you believe that it is actually there even if you have not been there. You believe that there is a water in the faucet that is why you open it. Sometimes even if you did believe, water was not there especially in the publc restroom, lots of people believed there is a water, a soap or a paper towel but there was not.

PP said "read the studies". Which studies?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of people who aren't religious ask for priests at the end of their lives. The power of prayer is real, whether the person being prayed for believes or not. Maybe your friend realizes this or has read the studies.

link?

Most people have the links already . They experienced others praying for them per their request in the most unreal of circumstances when something had absolutely no chance to happen but it did. This is the power of prayer. You either experienced it or not.
Universe is generous, you just fail to believe. You need to believe many times a day for things to happen.

You need to believe you can get to work, otherwise you would stay at home. You need to believe that you have to eat or otherwise you will die.
This is all in a way based on believe because knowledge is one thing but believing makes you doing things. You don't do anything you don't believe.
You don't go to the store in the middle of the night because you believe it is closed. You do go to new vacation destination you have never been to before because you believe that it is actually there even if you have not been there. You believe that there is a water in the faucet that is why you open it. Sometimes even if you did believe, water was not there especially in the publc restroom, lots of people believed there is a water, a soap or a paper towel but there was not.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an atheist who does not ask for or offer prayers. If someone is in need of help I "keep them in my thoughts"

This. That’s my answer to the general question.

I get the feeling that OP just wants to judge her “friend.”

Bingo.

I have a feeling that OP is not truly spiritually generous person. She/he most likely is very careful to whom and why they give the grace of their prayer, which is not typical of truly spiritual people. Truly spiritual person is happy to pray to help any one in need without asking for their spiritual credentials. This is kind of opposite of all that is pure and good.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the nice, experienced, kind people posting in this thread (1700 and 1729):

Where have you been? We have been needing you here.

Seriously? you need to kill any hope? You sound just like Alighieri. The sign over the gates of hell.. "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"

1. You can't make sound decisions at a critical time blinded by false hope.
2. Some people can handle the truth.
3. Dante was a theist.

ad 1. What is a sound decision anyway when you are so sick and possibly dying? Why do you need to be rational when your existence is ending? Every person is different in the face of death. If there is something that can help and there is a hope, what is wrong with hoping? How do you know when the real hope ends and false hope begin, in death or otherwise? Life and death, sickness and health, all unpredictable. You never truly know when hope is false and when it is not. If it was guaranteed, you would not need a hope. Many hoped against the hope and they were granted. Was it because they hoped, would it happen if they did not hope? Nobody can be sure but lots of people experience miracles daily, with extended hope of their own and help of others in the form of prayer. So, nobody knows. Why stomp on hope if this is not your hope but a dying person. Let them hope.

2. Hope and truth are not mutually exclusive. You can handle the truth and yet you can hope for something that is hopeless. You can think that it all ends with death, and you may accept it but at the same time you may hope. Nothing wrong with it. Why do you think that handling the truth is morally, ethically or intellectually superior. Even if it is, what difference does it make.

3. Or was he? You certainly must know everything about his times and if you do, you should not be so sure.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm an atheist who does not ask for or offer prayers. If someone is in need of help I "keep them in my thoughts"

This. That’s my answer to the general question.

I get the feeling that OP just wants to judge her “friend.”

Bingo.

Anonymous wrote:I'm an atheist who does not ask for or offer prayers. If someone is in need of help I "keep them in my thoughts"

This. That’s my answer to the general question.

I get the feeling that OP just wants to judge her “friend.”

Anonymous wrote:Plenty of people who aren't religious ask for priests at the end of their lives. The power of prayer is real, whether the person being prayed for believes or not. Maybe your friend realizes this or has read the studies.

link?

Plenty of people who aren't religious ask for priests at the end of their lives. The power of prayer is real, whether the person being prayed for believes or not. Maybe your friend realizes this or has read the studies.

Prayer makes the prayee feel better, not necessarily the person who is in "need" of something. She probably said it to help you, or to give you something to "do" - not because she actually believes it will help cure her.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the nice, experienced, kind people posting in this thread (1700 and 1729):

Where have you been? We have been needing you here.

Seriously? you need to kill any hope? You sound just like Alighieri. The sign over the gates of hell.. "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"

What 'hope' are you talking about? Stage 4 pancreatic cancer is terminal.

I hope it makes OP feel good to play "gotcha" with a woman dying of cancer. Take that, fake atheist!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one is an atheist with stage 4 cancer just like
no one is an atheist on an active battlefield.

There's a whole organization of them, headquartered right here in DC

http://militaryatheists.org/atheists-in-foxholes/

+1 Excellent point and link.

Also the former example makes no sense. "Got stage 4 cancer, so let me suddenly start believing and worshiping the guy that gave it to me".

Anonymous wrote:No one is an atheist with stage 4 cancer just like
no one is an atheist on an active battlefield.

There's a whole organization of them, headquartered right here in DC

http://militaryatheists.org/atheists-in-foxholes/

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:To the nice, experienced, kind people posting in this thread (1700 and 1729):

Where have you been? We have been needing you here.

Seriously? you need to kill any hope? You sound just like Alighieri. The sign over the gates of hell.. "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"

1. You can't make sound decisions at a critical time blinded by false hope.
2. Some people can handle the truth.
3. Dante was a theist.

Anonymous wrote:To the nice, experienced, kind people posting in this thread (1700 and 1729):

Where have you been? We have been needing you here.

Seriously? you need to kill any hope? You sound just like Alighieri. The sign over the gates of hell.. "Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here"