Prayer: The Defeatist’s Best Friend
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Let’s touch on prayer, and the effects (or non-effects) it has on a believer’s life. More specifically, let us discuss some of the misappropriations of who or what should actually get the credit for “answered prayers”.
Prayer deals most often with one’s fear of the unknown. Of course the same can be said of religion in its entirety, however let us relegate this discussion to a more singular aspect of religion, thusly: prayer itself.
The bible teaches believers that they are allowed to pray for anything that they so desire. They are allowed to pray for good health, for those winning lottery numbers, for the safety of themselves and their children… the list goes on and on. Humanity is creative and has many needs, and in their delusional minds they are hoping to be the recipients of that one, miraculous intervention of divinity. They admit to themselves and to their god that they are decidedly unworthy of receiving this divine gift, yet they ask anyways.
This baffling concept is a direct contradiction to the omnipotence they claim their god possesses. Does he not already know the needs of each and every one of his subjects? Does he not already know their innermost desires and, even more importantly, their most urgent needs? Yet his loyal servants are forced to subjugate themselves and beg for help, and ALWAYS end up fending for themselves regardless.
“Lord, please help me pay my bills.”
“Lord, please help me feed my children.”
“Lord, please help little Johnny get well.”
“Lord, please let me get that new job.”
All of these common prayers, as I mentioned earlier, are derived from fear of the unknown. Prayer is extremely dangerous and poisonous in these instances because it discourages one to solve these problems for themselves. Prayer is the ultimate in defeatism. In praying, one admits that he or she is powerless to remedy a situation on their own, and has no other choice other than to turn to their god to take care of their problems for them, and in doing so that person has reduced his or her chance of a positive solution to very nearly nil. At the end of the day, either they will still have their problems, or they are forced to finally be resourceful enough to resolve their personal crisis on their own.
The truly perplexing conclusion comes when they finally do pay those bills, or come up with grocery money, or Johnny gets over his flu, etc. What do the religious do? Even though they received no positive results from their prayer, they give away their hard earned credit for a job well done and thank their absentee god for solving their problems for them anyways, even though their prayers were completely “ignored” (for lack of a better term, as we rational thinkers know there must be another party there to hear in order for someone to truly be ignored).
Did their god intervene? Of course not. Their will to survive and to adapt to their surroundings did the intervening. Their own ingenuity, resourcefulness, and cunning intervened, and yet still here they are thanking their god for their own hard-earned deeds, further poisoning their minds into truly believing that their prayers were answered and even furthermore encouraging them to continue to pray in the future.
And so the vicious cycle of prayer continues.
I’ve often stated that I don’t believe in miracles, but I wish to amend that statement just a bit.
I don’t believe in miracles of divine nature.
Let us define a miracle not as a divine intervention making the impossible possible, but rather as a situation that seems impossible shucking the odds, through one’s own fortitude and ingenuity, and becoming possible.
A single parent working two jobs to feed his or her three children, to buy them clothes, and making sure they have a somewhat normal life is what I consider a miracle. A drug addict kicking his habit and living a clean life is a miracle. Mankind not having killed everything on the planet (yet) is a miracle.
Are they the result of a god’s mercy? You know better. They are the spirit of man in some of its most beautiful forms.
Believers will tell you that there is no hope. They say that mankind is doomed to slip further and further into anarchy and evil doings, and they justify this by their book of Revelation. They offer “proof” of these self-fulfilling prophecies by the events that are occurring in the world today, and are absolute in their beliefs that things cannot possibly get any better, but rather are doomed to get even worse. They are so wrapped up in their myths that they actually look forward, eagerly, to the end of the world and the destruction of our species to the point that they wish to bring it about sooner rather than later.
We are not doomed. Things are bad in many ways, but humanity is in control of its own destiny. A final solution to the world’s problems is unclear, but the encouragement of thinking for one’s self while casting aside religious dogma is a huge step in the right direction. This world could be a wonderous place to live and have children. There is beauty everywhere, even if it is often masked by negative perceptions.
There is no fate but what you make for yourself, and you only get one shot, so make it a good one! In short, don’t pray for the miracle. Like Morgan Freeman (portraying the God of Abraham in a movie) said: BE the miracle.
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@ Bill – I wasn’t sure you knew Dr. Goswami who is also known as the Quantum Activist. As a Physicist I’m sure he has the details. When I find them I’ll let you know. Grins. To me Quantum Physics and Spirituality are two sides of the same coin, a fact we humans are just discovering.
@ Bill and Clint: You asked for proof that prayer works. I guess there needs to be a term defined as I consider prayer and meditation to be the same thing.
Dr. Amit Goswami, Ph.D talked about an experiment that happened across the US. A certain number of people would enter a city and meditate for peace. The results were astounding because crime dropped in each city by a significant percent.
Quantum Physics, using the scientific method, proved prayer works. The next question in my mind to ask those religious fanatics is this: Do you worship the God you created or the One who created you?
@Connie, I simply said that that there was no empirical proof and while you indicate that this experiment took place I would need much more information before I would agree that it used the scientific method. The scientific method requires controls of variables and for validity sake a double blind study that accounts for intervening variables.
Connie,
This is not proof that prayer works. This would be proof that crime dropped in said cities. There is no way to test whether prayer is effective because there is no way to test whether prayer is actually the reason crime would drop. Prayer can’t be shown effective, but it can be shown ineffective. Perhaps all the robbers and murders just got bored with what they do and decided to chill for a bit. Not the greatest example, but my point is if crime did drop in these cities, then the reason why is not provable by a test as singularly put as this one. It is poor science, to say the least… so poor, in fact, I seriously doubt whether the scientific community would have even taken the time to peer review this. This is just a guess, though, and if I’m mistaken then please give me some citations that I can check out regarding the matter.
One more thing. This argument is a logical fallacy known as an appeal to authority. Like I said, show me evidence that prayer is effective… evidence that has withstood the rigors of peer review. Anything less is not an acceptable means of swaying anyone who thinks on logically sound terms.
This article should be addressed to a specific fanatical religious group and not all people who practice prayer or meditation. I believe there are as many Deities as there are people. I know this because when I meditate I can hear all of them – Deities I mean. People I ignore.
Because of my unique situation I studied all faiths and distilled all the various human personifications of what is unexplained to find the Universal light which permeates all things. Star Wars calls it the Force. Silly example but it is this Spirit in all things I follow.
Your path Clint is your own. Please do not condemn others for walking theirs.
I don’t wish to be demeaning here, but you do realize that in any other realm or area of study besides religion, hearing voices generally denotes a need for psychiatric help, right?
As far as me condemning others, that is far from my intent with this article. My intention was to not only demonstrate the negative aspects of prayer in regards to one’s psychological and physical well being, but to also point out that regardless of how much you pray, you are the one responsible for your own well being. I wish to encourage people to take action for themselves sooner rather than later, being as how that will eventually be the outcome anyways.
Clint, Not sure how to reply to anything you said to me as you just accused me of being nuts in this reply.
The study I reference in this post did occur, I’ve not found the data yet. When I do I will submit it as promised. The gentleman by which I found out about the study in question understands the scientific process of discovering the unknown.
I follow the Quantum Consciousness. The voices are only the personifications people gave to that energy. They prayed to it for how many thousands of years. Of course I can hear it. So can anyone else who is tuned to those frequencies.
PS – I would have respected you more if you hadn’t started out by saying you didn’t want to be demeaning, and then did it anyway. Who is taking responsibility for their actions now?
As I said, I don’t know of any empirical studies that prove or disprove either side. But, there are a lot of physicians who tout the power of positive thinking. It doesn’t make any difference where you get it as long as it is there. I guess you can look at it from the perspective of a surgeon play by Alec Baldwin when he said, When people on on my operating table I am God and they pray to me.” He probably has a point.
Curiously enough extensive studies have shown that those who are in “dire straits” with regard to their health, and pray and are prayed for, have higher cure rates. I’m not a believer in this nonsense by any means but that’s something to look at.
Praying to “God” is like praying to “Aquaman.” Both are capitalized, but only one can save you from drowning. Guess which one? Seriously good read Clint.
Thank you very much! I appreciate it. 🙂
That sounds like a variant of Pascal’s Wager. Of the thousands upon thousands of known gods that mankind has invented throughout history, how can someone be certain that they have the right one though? People just don’t think things through, especially when they’re desperate. Religion takes advantage of peoples’ misfortunes and preys on people who are at their weakest, which only makes it that much more despicable.
I think it is mostly people trying to hedge their bets. It couldn’t hurt, right? But what if it does hurt your final chances come judgement because you didn’t follow through? Just saying. The whole idea of asking your imaginary friend to help you negotiate your life is a bit out there to me.
Exactly, Rick. When it all boils down to it, you are the answer to your prayers. You have everything you need to be successful and happy. Anyone who isn’t happy, more often than not, are that way because of their own laziness and lack of fortitude. Happiness and success and contentment are always there for the taking, they are just sometimes masked in one’s negative perspective. Sure there are x factors, and some of them are pretty significant when you see the disparity of, for instance, people in Arfica. They are suffering not because of an absentee god, but because we as fellow human beings have not done our part to help them. I’m rambling a little, but my point is as a general rule a good work ethic and a positive attitude will get you most of what you need in life.
I agree totally with you Clint. Watching people pray automatically makes me roll my eyes, and I don’t mean towards the heavens! It’s like watching a little kid write a letter to Santa asking for a ton of expensive toys while knowing that since his parents can’t afford it, Santa will bring them for him. I loved fairy tales as a child, especially Walt Disney. I guess people who didn’t get enough of them growing up are still trying to make up for a lost childhood of make-believe! I don’t see starving children in the third world countries praying towards the sky asking for water and food to get them through another day of the tortures of life. They are totally dependent on some adult. Praying to an invisible, all powerful, imaginary slave driver in the sky just reinforces the fact that those who pray consistently have no drive and desire to get out in the real world and improve their own status in life. We all know how good it feels when you’ve accomplished something through your own hard working efforts. Diligence, patience, critical thinking, education and a bit of luck is what gets us through to the next day!
Make no mistake, my intent here wasn’t to criticize anyone for praying, but rather to point out not only the futile nature of prayer, but also the psychological implications of it in regards to the mindset it requires a person to be in. Also I wanted to stress (and unfortunately didn’t really push this point enough in the article) the illogical nature of praying to a supposedly omniscient and omnipotent deity. Why should this even be necessary if the god you worship already knows everything? To me it seems no different than holding a piece of meat over a dog’s head and saying, “beg”. When I see someone I love needing help, I don’t make them beg for it. I do what I can to help them and I don’t ask anything in return, and any all-knowing and loving deity, if moral, would do the same.
It might not seem like a big deal to you, but it is to me. I abhor dishonesty, and I don’t necessarily mean dishonesty towards me. That’s not so much important. But rather dishonesty to one’s self, which is even much more deplorable and potentially dangerous. Dangerous, you ask? Yes, dangerous when you consider people who, for instance, refuse to take their sick child to the doctor and instead think that prayer is the answer. It happens all the time. And then not only do they still have a sick, or even possibly dead, child, but the psychological trauma to the parents is compounded even further by making them wonder why they are not worthy of divine intervention when they have devoted their life and have sacrificed their free will to serve their particular god.
Finally, no I have no special knowledge on whether any gods exist or whether they answer prayers. But my default position isn’t to automatically assume it to be true (or even possible) until I’m shown some sort of evidence that it is true, and of all the studies that I have looked into, not one of them show that it is.
Thank you for your comments, though. I welcome them, and even more so when they don’t agree with me. Differences in opinion are quite often a very good pathway to knowledge.
You know Clint, everyone is entitled to their own opinion and I am assuming this is yours. Me not being a religious person and not a praying person but I do believe that those believers who truly have faith in prayer have every right to pray and neither should be criticized for your views because their is no empirical proof that either is right or wrong to any specific degree. When I was a very young boy my great grand father, who was a Holiness Preacher told me that one never prays for specific things but only for strength to fulfill my Godly duties on earth and to thank Him for his blessings. I stopped praying a long time ago but I still remember him saying that praying for specific things would not get you favor with God. Is this true, I don’t know and unless you have some special knowledge, I doubt that you do either. But I do believe that everyone has a right to seek solace from their problems anyway they choose without being criticized by others who believe differently. This is especially true if there practices doesn’t effect you.