Prayer is an absolutely meaningless gesture that accomplishes nothing, so I ask, why do you do it?

Here is an interesting study on praying:

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/no-prayer-prescription/

It seems prayer hurt the subjects more than helped.

Would you really interrupt your gods master plan for your own petty requests?

Poor study design. Prayer should be personal, and it should be geared towards creating agency, not destroying it.

Bring back blasphemy law

I don't pray in the traditional sense , but I have hope and I guess exercise that hope in my head which is very similar to a prayer, a hope a recovery of someone, a hope of xyz.

I don't have any specific deity and am smart enough to know a friend whos terminal will have a timeline not dictated by a deity but by the progression of their ailment that causes failure of their organs.

I don't believe it's meaningless to share hope together, there can be a lot of value there even if it has no material impact on say the condition of the person. This is just an example there's lot of scenarios though.

I really don't view that scenario as much different from prayer and for that matter it's important to believe in a greater good or something beyond yourself.

This post was edited by SBD on Jan 8 2025 12:28pm

Belief has power.
This is why churches have their flock gather in one place to pray

You 'atheists' are spiritually missing out, keep scoffing at me but I'm right on this.

if atheists are in a terrible situation what do they do rather than pray? just sit down and cry while celebrating how powerless they are? pretty beta.

I don't believe in prayer, but I also don't believe in mocking people for their beliefs when they don't concern or affect me in any way. That "study" is $2.4m garbage too, people usually have family and friends pray for them, not a bunch of strangers.



I'd typically do something concrete about my situation or just let it happen.

Proper prayer is a form of meditation geared towards the person who is praying to cope with a situation outside of their scope of influence.
If you can do something about a situation you don't like you should absolutely do something. A prayer would be an excuse in that sense.

Belief or Prayer can also be used to harm or inflict trouble on another person.

You don’t pray for things to be different or easier than they are, you pray for the strength to endure the hard times and maintain the positive influence you have on others instead of turning into a burden out of despair.

I think it has the same positive effect for some people as therapy does for others.

The atheist prayer is to curse a god they claim not to believe in when they’re hit with hard times. I’m willing to accept that this probably has that same positive effect for them.