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The Value of Prayer to an Atheist
You will be forgiven for thinking that I am trolling you — I am not. Recent posts by @susanquinn and @henryracette touched on this, but neither was the right place for my input. Their posts described heart-rending situations, the usual setting for this sort of thing, along with various takes on why God allows harm and so forth. Susan specifically asked if people (in general, or as a majority) really believe in prayer. Depends what you mean.
I do not believe in God; hence I do not believe that prayer affects the course of worldly events through divine intervention. Yet I believe in a great good through prayer, and you won’t catch me spurning an offer. As when people say “Merry Christmas,” I don’t go swatting the noses of pleasant people who wish good things to me. That’s just plain rude.
Beyond welcoming the well-wishes of others (which should be an easy sell), I also confess to an urge to prayer at times. Perhaps it is a habit acquired through culture and upbringing, perhaps it is part of our genotype to have this urge (and it may be conditioning that makes us express it through prayer), and perhaps it is simply the utter lack of any other suitable response to some situations. Maybe all of the above — I don’t know. I do know that when a friend or even a stranger is in the midst of one of those awful situations; grievous injury or illness, death of a child, and so forth, there’s certainly nothing else I could do practically.
When, as Henry says, “there are no words,” we are powerless to speak, and when it is out of our hands, we are powerless to act. This may have the effect of pressurizing our desire to respond meaningfully, helpfully, in any way possible, and there is always prayer — much more so if you believe, but for the unbeliever who admits his own mortality, fallibilty, and impotence to hold back disease and misadventure, prayer is there as well.
Somewhat separately, there’s also the simple social benefit of actually expressing this state to those who suffer — also well-covered by Henry and Susan. The last thing a grieving or terrified friend wants is to wonder if they smell a rat in your weasel-words about how deeply you wish for their relief.
They say God hears all prayer. That’s good enough for me.
Published in General
Disclaimer: No atheists were harmed in the writing of this post.
Nor believers. It passes the mustard with classical liberals.
Many, years ago when I was a young man having just returned from my military service and moved to a strange city and new job, I had a lawnmower accident while mowing the church yard and it landed me in the hospital for three weeks. (The young surgeon who operated on my legs messed up my calf muscles.) I was concerned about losing my job, was generally depressed by the hospital atmosphere, confined to a wheelchair, and in a lot of pain. The surgery wounds had not healed, and the drainage wicks were still in place.
Finally, in desperation, went into an equipment storage room and prayed. After a bit, the room just lit up and the pain disappeared. I parked the wheelchair and went to a phone in the corridor and called a young couple from the church who had earlier volunteered their home to me while I recovered. The ward nursed caught me on the phone and insisted that I wait until the surgeon could speak to me. I signed myself out “against medical advice” and went home with my friends.
The next morning, the wounds were completely closed, so I cut the stitches and removed the drains. I never had any further pain or problems from the accident.
I remember this experience any time I’m tempted to doubt the power of prayer or of God’s willingness and ability to meet our needs.
Buddhists and Muslims have proscribed the same powers to prayer in similar circumstances.
Smile.
I still want to be nice to that dog.
That photo reminds me so much of the Doberman, Duchess, my constant companion in my early teens. Great dogs, but much misunderstood and maligned.
The term i isn’t real. It’s the opposite of real.
Semantics. The quantity i is real, we just use a different word than real to describe it.
It’s the square root of -1. It isn’t, yet it is.
I was about to share a C.S. Lewis quote when I read your comment. Oh well, I’ll just share it anyway:
The Bible states it, and for various reasons, some of which are old writings and some of which are current, personal and experiential, it seems evident that, God does answer prayer. But YEMV, your experiences may vary
I can’t help thinking about an experience that I posted about some years ago. I still think about this brief encounter on a regular basis.
The link doesn’t seem to work, BXO.
Fixed. That was weird.
It was a very special piece. Which is often true for your writing. Thanks.