Why prayer and Does it work?

by Undecided 26 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  Undecided

  Hi All,

  Why I began thinking on prayer was the request from my spanish neighbour to my wife. They requested that she come down and pray for his/her child who has been sick. My wife believes in prayer and says she knows it works. I have some serious doubts about this.

  She gave an example of my oldest daughter who was to go to the doctor to have a lump removed from her breast. My wife prayed and when she went, there was no lump there anymore. I have a problem with this because my youngest daughter had the same problem, but it was still there and she had it removed. If prayer was the factor that removed the grouth for my oldest daughter, why didn't it work on my youngest daughter? Prayer seems to work about like normal circumstances would dictate. Some times it works and some times it doesn't.

  Another problem I have with prayer being connected with a loving father in heaven is what Jesus said."8 Do not be like them, for your Father knows what you need before you ask him." Why would a loving father make you grovel to him before he would help if he really loves you?

  And what about the advice to pray according to his will, if it is God's will wouldn't it be done anyway?

  And the final thought,Jesus said in Mat.21:22 "If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer." I find this statement false as so many prayers go unanswered to those who believe in prayer.

  Ken P.
• 

  rhett

  The thing that really gets me with prayer is how people are saying after the terrorists attacks that we need to pray. Don't you think that the people on those planes or in the WTC towers prayed before they died so senselessly? What good did their prayers do them when the terrorists attacked?

  I don't need to fight
  To prove I'm right
  I don't need to be forgiven.
• 

  AlanF

  Prayer is the best example I know of of the placebo effect.

  AlanF
• 

  metatron

  Once I determined that the WTS was a fraud, I decided to examine
  all my spiritual/religious beliefs critically.

  This may sound odd, but I ended up having more faith in prayer
  than in God's existence! While I couldn't directly talk to God,
  I found that prayer often works in remarkable ways. After reading
  various books (including Sheldrake), I concluded that what we call
  "ESP" is universal - and a common property of animals. On that basis,
  pantheism is the least complicated way to descibe what I now
  believe. I am now investigating various mystical ideas to see if
  any of them have any empirical foundation. I need to explain the
  strange and providential things that have happened in my life.
  If I can find reproduceable results, I'll share them with everyone.

  metatron
• 

  mikepence

  Prayer is not as reliable as spreadig fairy dust and dancing in circles.

  XJW User Submitted News & Views at http://xjwnews.com
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  AMNESIAN

  I need to explain the strange and providential things that have happened in my life. If I can find reproduceable results, I'll share them with everyone.

  Hi Metatron,

  Please share now with us what the providential things are that have happened in your life, even before you feel you can explain them via reproduceable results? I promise to hold nothing against you as "wild and unsubstantiated" claims and evidence, just mere statements of observation by you of your own life events at this point, okay...?

  Ken,

  I very much appreciate this post as it is a subject in which I have been greatly interested for years, even as a JW, in exactly those specific aspects you mention.

  -AMNESIAN
• 

  RunningMan

  Prayer can be very useful as a tool for introspection and self-examination.
  It can help you come to terms with your problems. Many times verbalizing
  an issue can lead to a solution, or at least, acceptance.

  Beyond that, no, there is no magic. Apparent answers to prayers are simply
  random occurances.
• 

  DazedAndConfused

  There have been television shows that have dealt with the power of prayer. According to their research it seems to work.

  To put my own thoughts in here.....I feel that prayer works only for those that believe in it. Kind of like faith healing. Now before you poo poo this hear me out.

  The mind and body work together. They are one "machine" working in sync (or not sometimes). I remember as a child my brother had terrible warts on his hands. My dad took a bit of water and dropped it (the water) on the warts and chanted something like "warts go away" over and over. Within a few days the warts had started to disappear and eventually went away. My dad tried the same thing on me and it didn't work. I can only assume it was because I was older and didn't believe it would happen. Another example I remember from a book, written by a Dr., that had a patient who had breast cancer. There seemed to be no hope of her recovering from it. So he decided to try mind control over the cancer. He told her to take 20 minutes a day and meditate and imagine the cancer cells as bread and that there were birds eating away at the bread. He wanted her to visualize it. She did it, I don't remember how long a time frame this was, but one day she tried to imagine it and the birds could find nothing to eat. She called her Dr who told her to come in for X-rays. When the X-rays were taken they found nothing.

  I'm not sure I am 100% convinced of this theory of the mind healing, but I am willing to accept it for what I know about it at the moment.
• 

  mommy

  Hey Ken Good to see ya!
  I think no matter what, a prayer will always seem like it has been answered. Christians say that whatever happens is god's will, so even if the prayer was not the answer they wanted, they will make themselves believe it has the desired outcome. Thus being satisfied with just praying. BTW I never had a prayer answered as I expected, but that didn't make me stop praying. I used to pray alot, at least 20 times a day, I don't pray anymore. I can honestly say that the fantasy world I lived in is no longer present, I think praying helped me to hold on to it for longer than neccesary.

  Okay, I have to get the kids paper ready to write to Santa when they get home I send it to the North Pole right
  wendy

  When I leave, you will know I have been here
• 

  crownboy

  I share many of the sentiments of Undecided. Prayer is a theruputic way of working through problems for some. Many people feel better when they "get things off their chest", so when one believes they are pouring their heart out to an all loving, all powerful deity, that person can reap great phsycological benefits from such an excerise. However, I am doubtful that prayers are ever answered by (if He exist) God. Undecided even pointed out some scriptures that show prayer can be futile. I have heard of prayers being answered (happened to me), but in reality the answer to the prayer probably had more to do with what a person put into a situation as opposed to divine help (my experience). I still pray from time to time, but never for favours because I know they'll not be answered. It's mainly a way for me to get things off my mind, and if God exist then it's a way for me to connect with the (good) supernatural.

  Most humans would never depend on something that only works about 1 in 1000 times. Prayer would definitely fall under that heading, so if I'll depend on that I might as well buy a broken watch since it tells the correct time twice a day.

  Go therefore and baptize the people in the name of the father and of the son... what the hell, we just need to bring up the yearbook numbers!