It's 2005. What role does prayer play in your life? How and why do you do it?
If you have your answers to these personal questions ready go straight to comment and I am personally extremely interested in the answers. If you want to know more about my interest, read on.
A Dec. 2004 series of articles in US World and News Report examined prayer. An article by Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, "How We Talk To God," teamed up with Belief.net for a poll of 5,600 people:
• 64 percent said they pray more than once a day.
• 65 percent said their prayers relate to health.
• 56 percent say they most often pray for family members.
• 3.3 percent said they pray for strangers.
• 41 percent say that their prayers are answered often.
• 74 percent say that when their prayers are not answered the most important reason is that they did not fit into God's plan.
So I thought I'd bring those questions here.
Yes, these are all personal questions, so if you don't feel comfortable answering them, do not. And since I'm asking, I'll offer a little insight into my lack of religion.
Religion is not dead in America, in Mexico, in Belgium, in Senegal or anywhere else in the world. It produces awe, it produces great understanding; it produces community and a sense of collective and individual worth. A lot of good work is done in the name of religion.
For the purposes of my comments I won't dwell on the negative aspects of what religion has wrought or the merging of politics and religion (See Happy Easter, right?). That will, I'm sure, be taken care of in the comments. And that's great.
I have never knelt at my bed, pressed my palms with my fingers tight together and asked for or about anything. Therefore I have no concept about why there are millions of children and adults who do.
Article comments
— go to most recent comments1 - Temple Stark
Guess no one prays around here ...
2 - Dave Nalle
Damned straight. Prayer is for wimps. If there's going to be praying I want it to be either for me or to me.
Dave
3 - Temple Stark
Now read the post :-)
4 - gonzo marx
oh i pray...
i pray to Bog that the evangelicals don't find me...
i pray that the next election cycle breaks the totalitarian single Party rule that grips our Nation...
i pray that our Supreme Court is NOT taken over by Justices like Antonin Scalia , who said, fomr the Bench, 2 weeks ago during the proceedings about the 10 Commandment cases.. "our Laws come from God"
i pray that Reason wins out over Fundamentalism of all types and stripes
i pray that there is another cookie left in the bag...
not that i Believe it does any good or harm...but it feels better to self articulate Thoughts sometimes...
but what the hell do i know...
Excelsior!
5 - Dave Nalle
>>i pray to Bog that the evangelicals don't find me...<<
That reminds me, Gonzo - are you a practicing member of the Russian Orthodox church?
Dave
6 - gonzo marx
nope..raised Episcopalian until my communion at age 13
chosen taoist...who believes in various Enlightened Ones that have been among us puny humans...Siddhartha...Yeshua ben Miriam...the current Dalai Lama..many more that we will never know...
but Divinity?
i feel Ben Franklin's thoughts on theism and the like suit me best so far...
when i too pass from this mortal coil..then i'll Know...until then..why worry? just do the best i can
Excelsior!
7 - Dave Nalle
Ah, was just wondering because you keep referencing 'Bog', which is Russian for God.
Dave
8 - gonzo marx
bolshoye spasebaw, tovarich
ya will find i am more subreferencial than when Dennis Miller noted "aren't there 2 a's in Klaatu?"
ya will find many of my lil "quirks" have both style AND substance behind them
but yer a quick one fer the most part...i bet ya figgered that out yerself by now..
{8^P~~~~~~~~
Excelsior!
9 - Temple Stark
Yes, sir, this was a serious question and I'd love better answers.
10 - Dave Nalle
Temp, I think the problem is that we're all a bunch of heathens and atheists and we aren't praying for anything. That certainly describes me. I don't believe in asking god for anything. If I want something I believe in earning it, making it, or working for it myself. Why bother god with my trivial issues? Things may change if I ever become unhealthy or have health issues in my family, but I certainly hope I don't become one of these whiny folks who go crying to god to solve all their problems.
What does surprise me is that you haven't gotten more responses to this which take it seriously. Where are our religiously motivated conservatives now? They're on the spot when it comes to talking about right to life issues, but they don't pray? Seems hard to believe. Surely they at least pray for unborn fetuses or Terry Schiavo or for homosexuals to be converted to straightness.
Dave
11 - Bennett Dawson
Temple, Nope, I don't pray. Mainly because I don't think there is anyone listening. Kinda silly to ask for things from a superior being, as if one were on a telephone to god. If prayer works, why does cancer kill? Why are children raped and murdered? Why are there tsunamis that wipe out entire villages of devout prayer-sayin' innocents?
I'm fine with other folks using the tennants of a belief system to keep to the straight and narrow, or to the kind and generous, so long as they leave me alone to deal with the complxities of life in my own fashion.
I manage to discern between what's morally right and wrong without a man-made guide book for reference.
12 - Temple Stark
Thanks Dave, Bennett. I have those questions 1000-fold. Perhaps it was just the timing? Easter time - those who would pray are at church and doing Easter things.
I really wanted to find out what people get out of prayer these days - or 20 years ago
>>I manage to discern between what's morally right and wrong without a man-made guide book for reference.
That's pretty much where I am. I'm big on man-made laws however, though not toward morality. There are some exceptions.
13 - Dave Nalle
Maybe edit the post to put Schiavo in the title and you'll attract the kind of respondents you're looking for.
Bet it would work. People will pick it up off google news too.
Dave
14 - Bennett Dawson
Dave, you could be right. If Temple does that, I expect that you and I would get told that we're going straight to hell...
15 - Temple Stark
Sort of "Is Schiavo worth praying for?" That type of thing?
Can't do that now. I wanted it to be something other than
16 - Dave Nalle
How about "Would Prayer Save Terry Schiavo?"
Dave
17 - a-[e]
How about "Is Terri Schiavo Worth Praying To?"
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=43489
Personally, I think prayer has little value. At best it you're talking to an invisible friend. At worst you may be having some sort of psychotic episode.
18 - Dave Nalle
Wow, Terry IS Catholic. We could make her an instant saint. We should start cataloging her miracles now and you're the man to do it a-[e]
Dave
19 - Steve S
What role does prayer play in your life? How and why do you do it?
If you have your answers to these personal questions ready go straight to comment
The only time I pray is during times of extreme stress and even then it is more of a release, there are no expectations that the prayer will be answered. It usually is not. I also do not believe that if prayers were answered, that only the prayers of the faithful would be answered. I do not believe that a 'parent' would turn from a child, even if that child rejects the 'parent'. Certainly not on a higher spiritual level, and assuming that God does not have the limitations of man. (A human might turn from a child, but then again a human is only human, know what I mean?)
I believe in a higher power, but I also believe we are here to learn something or to accomplish something etc. and so we don't get help. Why wouldn't God have answered prayers during the holocaust or any one of the African genocides? I believe that the answer is because we have to figure it out for ourselves. We have to find the answer, it could very well be what we are here for.
I believe prayer has a psychological benefit for many people and that is it's only real benefit.
20 - a-[e]
Dave: I was thinking about sainthood too. Don't they usually try to keep relics of a saint's physical body?
21 - Jake Meathook
I pray for money.
I pray for nubile 16 year old girls to sexually molest me.
I pray for money.
I pray that the crszy women living across the street spontaneously combusts. Along with her flea infested cat.
Then I pray for money.
I pray that the next person who asks me what i thought about the OC/Survivor/Idol etc. would spontaneously combust.
I pray that the future is not in the hands of every moronic teen working in customer service at my local grocery/restaurant/clothing store.
Then I pray for more $$.
I pray that I can meet more people who think for themselves and arent slaves to hype.
I pray that I win my NCAA bracket.
Then i Pray for more $$
22 - Ritch
I think I am going to give up Lent for Lent the next time around.
Maybe pray for no more prayer.
Ask God to kill himself once and for all.
We could vote on a new belief system every four years.
Vote Atheism, vote for nothing and you will never be disappointed.
23 - Temple Stark
Is that deep sarcasm Ritch or deep cynicism?
:-)
24 - Tristan
i pray to the Holy Peep ~~~
you know; those spongy little yellow chics
around Easter ~~ PEEPS~~!!!
25 - Victor Plenty
Yo! Ya dissin my PEEPS, dawg? Dont diss my PEEPS! Yo!
Oops, somehow I got this mixed up with one of those articles about 51 Percent or whatever his name is. Never mind.