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Exploring Christianity
The value of prayer
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<blockquote data-quote="stevil" data-source="post: 71783246" data-attributes="member: 277368"><p>From the outside (never theist), I find prayer to be a somewhat strange ritual and perhaps something that the believers aren't unified with their understanding of it.</p><p></p><p>Being godless and a materialist/skeptic, I gravitate towards empirical evidence. So if someone tells me that prayer works in a way where you can pray for something tangible (such as "recovery from sickness") then I start to get interested. OK, if god heals people as a result of prayer, then you ought to be able to measure this.</p><p>If prayer to a particular god works then we ought to get significant statistical differences with regards to sickness recovery.</p><p>We could do large studies, find out if there is a difference in occurrences of recoveries based on the subjects being the target of prayer to specific gods.</p><p>If you find prayer to one specific god giving a statistical advantage then you could go further into studying what aspects of prayer work best:</p><p>Amount of prayers given</p><p>Amount of people praying</p><p>Proximity of prayer to the subject</p><p>Whether the prayer prayed from a church, a mosque, a synagog etc,</p><p>Whether the prayer was from a top a high mountain or down low to the sea, or in a city.</p><p>Whether the prayer was spoken out loud or in one's head, or in private or in public as a group prayer.</p><p></p><p>But generally, as all religous claims tend to be, I would expect prayer to be something un-measurable. The consequence of it being unmeasurable, means that there is no advantage to praying for measurable things. So that means praying for a loved one to be cured of a sickness will not result in a cure.</p><p>So then, what could you pray for?</p><p></p><p>I liken it to talking to your stuffed teady bear or perhaps writing in a diary.</p><p>You could say thanks, you could reflect on things that have happened or reflect on your own feelings. The teady, diary and god are all really great listeners.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="stevil, post: 71783246, member: 277368"] From the outside (never theist), I find prayer to be a somewhat strange ritual and perhaps something that the believers aren't unified with their understanding of it. Being godless and a materialist/skeptic, I gravitate towards empirical evidence. So if someone tells me that prayer works in a way where you can pray for something tangible (such as "recovery from sickness") then I start to get interested. OK, if god heals people as a result of prayer, then you ought to be able to measure this. If prayer to a particular god works then we ought to get significant statistical differences with regards to sickness recovery. We could do large studies, find out if there is a difference in occurrences of recoveries based on the subjects being the target of prayer to specific gods. If you find prayer to one specific god giving a statistical advantage then you could go further into studying what aspects of prayer work best: Amount of prayers given Amount of people praying Proximity of prayer to the subject Whether the prayer prayed from a church, a mosque, a synagog etc, Whether the prayer was from a top a high mountain or down low to the sea, or in a city. Whether the prayer was spoken out loud or in one's head, or in private or in public as a group prayer. But generally, as all religous claims tend to be, I would expect prayer to be something un-measurable. The consequence of it being unmeasurable, means that there is no advantage to praying for measurable things. So that means praying for a loved one to be cured of a sickness will not result in a cure. So then, what could you pray for? I liken it to talking to your stuffed teady bear or perhaps writing in a diary. You could say thanks, you could reflect on things that have happened or reflect on your own feelings. The teady, diary and god are all really great listeners. [/QUOTE]
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