BlessNot

That is so true. Fundies/theists do come up with some of the most creative answers and responses to this question of answered and unanswerd prayers.

It's absolutely mind boggling. I used to do it myself. I think it's one of the most important ways for Christians to feel some sense of security that there is this invisible sky dweller called god who is up there listening to their problems. And it gives them a sense of false peace and security.

Ojuice5001

What if I believe prayer works, but do not myself perform any petitionary prayers?

See, I have defended the theory of granted prayers many times on this board. This theory boils down to saying that, first, the gods decide the outcome of chance events, and second, they take our wishes and requests into account when making their decision. Which does not mean that human requests are the deciding factor all or most of the time.

But I virtually never make any petitionary prayers myself. (Defined, of course, as a prayer that asks a god to produce a particular result in the world.) Why not, if I believe they work? The reasons are both religious and psychological, and the details are not particularly relevant. My point is that the reason I don't have personal proof is that I have not chosen to try to a significant degree.

John A. Broussard

Here's the sequel to prayer always working. When I ask, "Why bother praying if god has already decided what's good for you?"

The answer always is, "Yes, but if I hadn't prayed, then he couldn't have answered my prayer."

Go figure.

ManM

Analogy time. Yay!
A mother drives her son by an ice cream store on the way home from school. Every day the son asks for ice cream. Some days the mother stops, other days she doesn't. Does the boy's petition for ice cream work?

BDS

I voted "false", although the "proof" bit is iffy.

Sitll, my guess is that prayer does work. For example, if one prays daily: "Forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors", isn't it likely that praying thus every day will make the person doing the praying more willing to forgive his debtors? And if it does, mustn't we admit that it "works"? In fact, I don't see how anyone believe think that prayer doesn't "work", with any degree of certainty.

BlessNot

Now that I think about it, I think I've heard it before myself. Yes they can be very creative when it comes to defending and explaining prayer.

I think if god really did exist, he'd probably blow all believers away by telling them he never answered or heard anyones prayers at all. I'm also willing to bet that if there really is a judgment day, he'll invite all the atheists into heaven for having enough guts to reject him and send all the fundamentalist believers into oblivion.

Opps, I think I just got off my own topic: Prayer, okay, back to the topic, prayer.

:devil1:

MadPhatCat

Well you could tell them you pray to the Great Boogly Oogly, and it always works for you (using their own argument). I reckon they won't find that convincing at all, which just goes to show you that brains can have massive blind spots.

BlessNot

Is the little boys mother God?

You can take your time answering.

Do you personally have any prayers you prayed to the invisible deity that you can prove were answered prayers? I'm not looking for requests to other human beings, those are so much more realistic.

Matt the Medic

Define 'work'.

In the context of meditation and relaxation, it can work very well.

Just don't expect any answers back.

John A. Broussard

Have you followed the recently, highly publicized test of prayer written up in a respectable journal? Google for it if you haven't. It's fascinating.

It was a double-blind study with people praying for one-half of a group of Korean women who wanted to become pregnant, but hadn't succeeded.

The results--fantastic. Significantly larger number of the prayed for achieved their goal.

There was a slight glich, however. Of the three authors of the study, one's in jail on a fraud charge, the other was unreachable for interviews, the third denied he had anything to do with the study.

And so it goes.