Discussion:
PRAYING
(too old to reply)
Bill M
2010-01-11 11:22:34 UTC
Permalink
Prayers



Jesus says in many different places that he and God will answer your
prayers. And Christians believe Jesus -- according to this recent article,
"54% of American adults believe the Bible is literally true." In some areas
of the country the number goes as high as 75%. Yet the evidence is that the
Bibles are no more than an ancient collection of myths and fables.

There is NO EVIDENCE that any prayers are consistently answered.

The fact is, God never answers any prayers. The entire idea that "God
answers prayers" is an illusion created by human hopes and imagination.

How do we know that "answered prayers" are illusions? We simply perform
scientific experiments. We ask a group of believers to pray for something
and then we watch what happens. What we find, whenever we test the efficacy
of prayer scientifically, is that prayer has zero effect:

a.. It does not matter who prays.
b.. It does not matter if we pray to God, Allah, Vishnu, Zeus, Ra or any
other human god.
c.. It does not matter what we pray about.
If we perform scientific, double-blind tests on prayer, and if the prayers
involve something concrete and measurable (for example, healing people with
cancer), we know that there is zero effect from prayer. Every single
"answered prayer" is nothing more than a coincidence. Both scientific
experiments and your everyday observations of the world show this to be the
case every single time.

For example:

One of the most scientifically rigorous studies yet, published earlier this
month, found that the prayers of a distant congregation did not reduce the
major complications or death rate in patients hospitalized for heart
treatments.

And:

A review of 17 past studies of ''distant healing," published in 2003 by a
British researcher, found no significant effect for prayer or other
religious healing methods.

This article from March, 2006 discusses the fact that the same conclusion
was reached in another study:

In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray
for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact,
patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of
complications.



The objective verifiable evidence is that prayer only satisfies peoples
hopes and imaginations, not actual accomplishment.
--
Bill M
Yap
2010-01-12 03:04:29 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bill M
Prayers
Jesus says in many different places that he and God will answer your
prayers. And Christians believe Jesus -- according to this recent article,
"54% of American adults believe the Bible is literally true." In some areas
of the country the number goes as high as 75%. Yet the evidence is that the
Bibles are no more than an ancient collection of myths and fables.
There is NO EVIDENCE that any prayers are consistently answered.
The fact is, God never answers any prayers. The entire idea that "God
answers prayers" is an illusion created by human hopes and imagination.
How do we know that "answered prayers" are illusions? We simply perform
scientific experiments. We ask a group of believers to pray for something
and then we watch what happens. What we find, whenever we test the efficacy
  a.. It does not matter who prays.
  b.. It does not matter if we pray to God, Allah, Vishnu, Zeus, Ra or any
other human god.
  c.. It does not matter what we pray about.
If we perform scientific, double-blind tests on prayer, and if the prayers
involve something concrete and measurable (for example, healing people with
cancer), we know that there is zero effect from prayer. Every single
"answered prayer" is nothing more than a coincidence. Both scientific
experiments and your everyday observations of the world show this to be the
case every single time.
One of the most scientifically rigorous studies yet, published earlier this
month, found that the prayers of a distant congregation did not reduce the
major complications or death rate in patients hospitalized for heart
treatments.
A review of 17 past studies of ''distant healing," published in 2003 by a
British researcher, found no significant effect for prayer or other
religious healing methods.
This article from March, 2006 discusses the fact that the same conclusion
In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray
for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact,
patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of
complications.
The objective verifiable evidence is that prayer only satisfies peoples
hopes and imaginations, not actual accomplishment.
--
Bill M
Even all the loons in this world know they can't expect any effect on
their praying....they are beginning to realize there is no god.
Lord Calvert
2010-01-12 03:48:16 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bill M
Prayers
The objective verifiable evidence is that prayer only satisfies peoples
hopes and imaginations, not actual accomplishment.
Prayer is for people who want to give the appearance of doing
something useful without any of its substance. It is a sign that a
person truly does not care enough to help others but is only
interested in helping himself and making himself look good in the eyes
of his neighbors. If you truly cared if someone recovered from being
ill (for example), you wouldn't pray for him. You'd go help him. You'd
help clean his house, buy his groceries, mow his lawn, donate to a
research organization, go and see him and give him comfort, ANYTHING
but sit in your comfortable church on your lazy, incompetent, smug,
self-righteous ass saying "I'll pray for you."

Praying does nothing. Caring does. Hands that do are far better than
lips that pray.


Rich Goranson
Amherst, NY, USA
aa#MCMXCIX, a-vet#1
EAC Department of Paranormal Phycology
Father Haskell
2010-01-12 04:18:29 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bill M
Prayers
Jesus says in many different places that he and God will answer your
prayers.
So everyone made it out on 9-11?
Uncle Vic
2010-01-12 04:47:17 UTC
Permalink
Post by Father Haskell
Post by Bill M
Prayers
Jesus says in many different places that he and God will answer your
prayers.
So everyone made it out on 9-11?
"Sometimes God says no." Gotta love it, this is how they cover their
collective ass when prayers are not answered.
--
Uncle Vic
aa Atheist #2011
Christians are like Slinkys. They're boring, but they'll put a smile on
your face when you push them down the stairs.
Andre Lieven
2010-01-12 04:49:23 UTC
Permalink
Post by Bill M
Prayers
...are a waste of time committed by morons, retards, and dullards.

HTH.

Andre

Continue reading on narkive:
Loading...