Prayer

People pray. A lot. Even atheists pray. It’s not surprising - in America, the numbers are staggering. 92% of Americans in 2010 believed that there is a God, and 83% believe that God answers prayers.

I think that’s amazing, but not particularly surprising.

Our country is known for opportunity, prosperity, and excess - even in the most absolute worst situations one might find themselves in here, it’s typically still feasible that there’s a hospital, or police, or a helping hand one can turn to. If you pray to God to save you and help comes, it’s probably going to feel like a pretty convincing proof that there is a God who answers prayers.

But what about when the prayers go unanswered?

Well, for the faithful (no matter the faith) when ‘God says no’ it’s because it’s “Not part of God’s Plan.”

Hold onto those numbers in your head - remember, over 90% of Americans believe in a God (majority Christian) and over 80% believe he answers prayers. Hold onto that while you read.

Christians are told directly in the Bible this about prayer:

“Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.” - Mark 11: 24

Given that we’re also told in the bible that The Faithful can swallow poison without effect, it doesn’t seem like that big of a stretch to believe that if you ask God for something, and it’s good, and you really, really believe in him, then he’ll answer your prayer. So people pray.

The problem with prayer though, is how it effects the mind of people who pray and believe that they’ve had their prayers answered. Humans are hardwired to look for patterns and to make correlations between events - that trait is a throwback to our ancient ancestors, who had to learn things like “if I leave food out, scavengers may come” or “if I shoot a deer with an arrow in this location, it dies faster and I don’t have to follow it so long.” More simply, it comes down to “I did action A, so event B resulted.” In religious terms, “I prayed, so God did this thing for me.” Superstitions and beliefs about lucky actions or items stem from this same miscorrelation between events.

Even if something is proven to not work, once it’s been trained into the subconscious as being true, it can be extremely hard to let go of - which is where we come back to the dismissive argument of “God’s plan.”

From godisimaginary.com, we have this example:

“Take one moment to think about a typical Christian and her "answered prayers." For example, there is a Christian housewife in Pasadena who firmly believes that God answered her prayer this morning to remove the mustard stain from her favorite blouse. She prayed to God to help remove the stain, and after she washed it the stain was gone. Praise Jesus!”

Kind of a silly example, but still probable - no less probable than someone praying for God to help them get a job, to keep the car from dying before they get to a location, etc, and then believing that God personally reached down and altered events to fit their wants or needs. If God doesn’t answer their prayers, it’s just “not part of God’s Plan.”

Again, not surprising in a country that enjoys so much prosperity. But what about in places where the situation may be a bit more desperate?

Somewhere in the world, right now, a mother is watching as her children die of starvation. Women (and men!) are being raped and/or killed. Diseases that cause death in painful, horrifying and extremely undignified ways still run rampant in many parts of the world where access to clean water isn’t a constant. When people in these areas cry out to their Gods, or even the Christian God, to save them, help never comes. The children die, there is suffering, there is illness, and the world rolls on.

If there is a God who answers prayers, why would prayers to end such dire situations go unanswered, while small things for the already privileged get his attention?

I could talk about the flawed and somewhat cruel idea of “God’s Plan” for pages and pages, but proof #6  at God Is Imaginary does that pretty well. Long story short, belief in an omniscient, omnipotent god effectively simultaneously cancels out any room for the idea of Free Will and means that prayer is both meaningless and futile unless it’s for the purpose of praise.

So, do I think that prayer is bad?

Short answer, no.

I think prayer, especially meditative prayer, can be very good. It fosters unity within a group, creates focus towards a specific goal, and reminds us to keep in mind the needs of others. On a personal level it can help us define what we’re looking for in life - you don’t know what you want out of life unless you can articulate that desire. However, for any wish to come into existence, you must act in accord: you must do everything you physically can to bring your desire into reality. As Gandhi said, “you must be the change you wish to see in the world.”

We answer our own prayers - waiting for someone else to answer them, or trying to fit into the grand master plan of a being who allows for a reality where desperate human suffering is a daily fact of life will never improve anything.