[C7JjVczP]

If God has a plan (another frequent comment when someone is ill) why are people asking that he change it? Do they know better?

[VIAGRA-]

Praying for others doesn't seem to work. However, a growing body of evidence has found that religious people tend to be healthier than average, and that people who pray when they are ill are likely to fare better than those who do not.

Is any of that body of work at all reputable?

[PetrZimin]

I will answer seriously.

First, religiously I don't completely understand praying for others. I mean, Christ and other people in the Bible did, so it must be a good idea, but I don't necessarily understand it all.

As far as it goes, in Christianity God does change what He will do based upon the response of people. For example, Moses prayed and God spared Israel. Or Jonah preached, the people of Ninevah repented and prayed to be spared, and God spared Ninevah.

We don't ever see God forcing people to be Christians, for example. So I think that some prayers that people pray for others aren't the sort that will be positively answered.

Praying to God does unite the person praying to Him. Praying to God gets you in tune more spiritually, represents seeking Him, and is communication. Obviously, for the religious person, praying is key.

Finally, secularly, what does it mean? It means that the person who is offering to pray for you cares about you, cares about what you are going through, and wants the best for you. It is sort of like "I hope the best for you" or "good luck" to the atheist.

I say both. Most of the time, I don't pray for others. I say good luck/etc instead.

JM

[assonomaf]

JM -

So if one prays for sick Aunt Liz it will go one of two ways:

a) Auntie gets better and our prayers are answered

or

b) Auntie dies and we can say "It's all part of God's plan"


Very convenient.

[joeyCanada]

It's only useful to pray for the dead to speed their passage through Purgatory.

I admit that I wish that praying for the dead did something. It is a bit upsetting that I can do nothing, that my dad's life is finished.

JM
(No, am not saying that I beleive he won't be in heaven. It is just that I don't know.)

[UriDepkeeks]

I was always uncomfortable when, in the hospital, families would ask me to pray with them. I would usually just stand silently by while they prayed.

Same thing when I'm in a church for a wedding or funeral, etc. I feel like I would be insulting the others if I participated in a ritual that I have no belief in whatsoever.

[seperalem]

I was always uncomfortable when, in the hospital, families would ask me to pray with them. I would usually just stand silently by while they prayed.

I think that is the right thing to do. That is what I have done when I have been with other religions during prayer.

It is also why I don't generally ask others to be involved, and usually don't ask to pray for others unless I think it would be welcome.

JM

[tetMitshisk]

"What are your religious beliefs?"
"Something different than yours."
"I will pray for you in other words you will definitely need all the help you can get not to go to hell but really who am I fooling I'm pretty sure you're going to hell no matter how much praying I do so I'm not really going to pray for you I'm just going to sit here talking like a ****ing *****."
"Want to see the boil on my ass?"
"I thought you'd never ask honeycakes."
And that's how babies are made.

[SergeyMaikov]

Prayer makes the people praying feel good. That's the only reason people do it. Whenever someone tells me "I'll pray for you," I know what he *really* means is that he's praying to make himself feel better. Whatever floats people's boats, but it makes no difference to me one way or another. It is akin to me telling someone I'm going to go have a shot of whiskey in his name. Since he isn't getting the whiskey, why the hell should he care?

I do find it amusing that some folks think an omnipotent, omniscient and benevolent deity is going to interfere only if someone begs him hard enough.

[Anaerbguagree]

But said Deity really likes people groveling to him

Which eliminates benevolence.

[Mark_NyB]

Only choosing to grant mercy to someone after someone does a requisite amount of begging is not benevolent in any way.

[Uzezqelj]

He gives us mercy, without pleading. But once more, why get upset if He gives mercy another time to someone who pleads, when He has already given mercy to everyone over and over again?

Without God we would cease to exist. Does He not have the right to say what should be done with His gifts? It isn't like He is making rules about something that isn't His.

JM
(And His rules come down to, basically, love God and love man. These don't seem so hard, but people break them continually.)

[kanchouska]

Opened this thread intending to finally reply. Too much ignorance going on, so screw it. May BK choose to inflict himself upon you all.

[sposteTipsKage]

"You'll be in my thoughts" is just a simple way of saying "Boy, sucks to be you. I don't want to help monetarily or personally so how about I pretend to give a **** by thinking about you for 10 seconds later in the day?"

[Andrius]

ZING!

[Dominick Yo]

Prayer really isn't to me but I've had a few friends that have passed and often I think of them and when I do I usually offer up something that's close to a prayer in their memory.

[fereupfer]

Do you want civil or sane? BK can't do both.

[kvitacencia]

JM (whom you quoted) was referring to BK.

[Master_B]

And conflating Elok with BK is a serious party foul, dude.

[bestgenpower]

I do think JM was more responding to Elok's "Opened this thread intending to finally reply. Too much ignorance going on, so screw it." than the curse he issued upon us all .