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aSlavesLife -> RE: Honestly...does prayer REALLY work? (7/30/2007 6:08:05 AM)
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Lets say that you have just bought a radio. The first thing you learn about it is that it only works right some of the time. Often times it sits mute no matter what buttons, knobs, or dials you fiddle with. And even when it is working, it jumps stations on occasion, tuning to stations you dislike and staying there.
Are you going to give a glowing recommendation for this radio? Are you going to encourage your friends to rush out and buy one? Are you going to claim that the radio is working the way the manufacturer intended and get offended when people tell you what a crappy radio you have?
Probably not. It would not be reasonable to offer us such excuses for this radio. But this is exactly the sort of irrational defense we are hearing about prayer. People that are obviously otherwise sane and rational abandon common sense and toss logic out the window without a seconds hesitation in defense of prayer.
We hear things like " My son had pneumonia, and prayer cured him. ". But is this all there is to the story? Did he receive medical care? If so, how can you attribute the recovery to prayer? How can you possibly claim to be rational with your conclusion that prayer, not medicine, cured your son? If your faith is so solid, why bother seeking medical attention in the first place?
Another defense is " Prayer works, but not always the way we want it to. ". How is this different from the malfunctioning radio? If something does not produce consistent results, we do not claim that it is working, or at least don't pretend that it is working correctly. If the outcome is inconsistent, it is no different from random chance, so why pretend to know that it is working when you have no evidence that the same outcome would not have occurred without prayer?
And then we are offered the perennial classics; " You are praying for the wrong things. " and " You aren't praying right. ".
But how many children have prayed for a parent to stop abusing them? Are the children not sincere? Perhaps it is selfish of them to ask that? Do they, despite the naive ability of absolute belief, not have the right way of praying down? Even pushing to one side the moral question of what sort of unholy monster would it take to ignore such a prayer, how is it that they are praying wrong or asking for the wrong things? Is it possible that these children, the very same children that believe unquestioningly in Santa and the Easter bunny, lack enough belief for their prayers to be answered?
Just for fun, lets apply the ' logic ' of this to the real world for a moment, just to see how reasonable and logical it really is.
A police officer is cruising by, and sees you being mugged. He stops the cruiser and gets out, but then leans against the cruiser while drumming his fingers impatiently on his gun belt. You see, he is waiting for you to request his assistance. And not only must you ask for his help before he intervenes, but you must ask it according to a formula that he has not bothered to explain to you. Eventually you manage through busted lips to construct a grovelling request for help. " Oh wise and powerful officer of the law, bringer of justice, enforcer of all things good and lawful,if it be thy holy will, rescue me from mine attacker. ". At that the officer extracts a quarter from his pocket, flips it, consults it, gives you an apologetic shrug, climbs into his car, and abandons you to the mercy of your attacker. Now according to the arguments, this is perfectly reasonable.
And you wonder why we give you puzzled looks when you insist that prayer works? And to make things clear, I am not attacking anyones faith. Rather, I am attacking the claims that prayer works. Believe whatever you want, but if you are going to make claims about those beliefs, expect people that do not share those beliefs to question your line of reasoning.
Owner of slave L
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