That's a paraphrase of the Yiddish proverb: "If praying did any good they'd hire men to pray." Even great agnostics like Carl Sagan admitted that praying can make people feel good, like getting things off your chest to a psychiatrist or friend, sorting your thoughts out, but this is all true if you're just talking to yourself.
It seems like most prayers are asking for miraculous intervention, as in "Oh Lord, when two and two are added, let it be not four." That doesn't work. But a sensible comment on prayer that I've heard from a believer was C.S. Lewis famous, "I don't pray because it changes God. I pray because it changes me." If true, that would seem to justify some sort of prayer by atheists and agnostics, even though not directed at a divine personage.
I know people engage in selective observation to convince themselves God did a miracle for them as a result of prayer, but the notion that prayer might change us for the better seems worth considering. Your thoughts?
2007-04-17
04:57:53
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26 answers
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asked by
Anonymous
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Religion & Spirituality