I Didn’t Pray; Did It Matter?

It may not matter to the person on the stretcher, but it’ll matter to the person praying. As long as someone isn’t trying to substitute prayer for medical procedures, let them pray.

i think that when a situation is obviously out of one’s control and the worst case scenario is terrifying there is a natural inclination to try to have ANY possible effect on the outcome.

I think that praying in these situations let’s people feel like they did everything they could, and is thus harmless, possibly even helpful for the person doing the praying. I catch myself doing this. I don’t really believe that it makes any difference, but it gives me something to do in the midst of my panic.

as mentioned before, as long as the prayer doesn’t replace actual solutions, I don’t think that knocking out a panicked “oh, god, don’t let him die” totally destroys one’s atheist cred. I think it’s more of a reflexive superstition.

I’ve got a family friend in a coma at the moment. He hit a moose while driving home and is now in the ICU at a local hospital (the moose was uninjured). I was uncomfortable to see family members asking me to pray for him (I’m still in the closet with this side of the family as they’ve already disowned one cousin and I don’t want to be next).

Now that he’s coming out of the coma (thanks to modern medicine!) they’re thanking me for my prayers (needless to say, I never prayed).

I think I’m more bothered by this than is required by the situation. I have to say, I’m really insulted that they’re crediting his recovery (so far) on prayer rather than on brain surgery, blood thinners, respirators etc.

Also, if they’re so grateful to god for starting to heal him, why the hell aren’t they ticked off at god for making him hit the moose in the first place?

This one also makes me sad.

When I was a kid my parents would fight and I would pray that they would not get a divorce and that God would make them stay together.

Now that I am gown up, my parents are still together, but they have an unhappy marriage, so much so that I hate visiting because one can feel the tension like a lead weight. I also hate hating visiting them.

If I hadn’d prayed their problems would still be the same, and the situation would still be the same.

And if God did exist and prayer did work, then clearly it doesn’t work very well… either than or God would be a major douche bag.

The fear of the weak-minded is a powerful tool. 🙁

“I wonder if it would have mattered.” Sounds like the outcome was not a happy one. They wouldn’t be wondering about it at all if the outcome had been a happy one.

This is the less often seen flip side of the double standard for prayer. The more familiar side is when people pray:

When people pray and the outcome is good, they credit the outcome to the praying. But when they pray and the outcome is bad, they don’t think about any connection between the praying and the outcome at all.

The flip side is when people don’t pray:

When people don’t pray and the outcome is bad, they think that the not-praying might have caused the bad outcome. But when people don’t pray and the outcome is good, they don’t think about any connection between the not-praying and the outcome at all.

Will more than just a few individuals ever grow out of this particular kind of fallacious thinking?

“Prayer does work!”

Tell that to Madeline Kara Neumann.

Oh, wait. You can’t.

I don’t pray and was never really one to do so as I was never really religious in any sense of the word. But I have a weird habit of crossing myself when there is a close call in the car, but I don’t think it’s a good idea to take your hands off the wheel at a time like that. Praying sounds safer at least. Now I just need to stop doing the sign of the cross, people may get the wrong idea.

I wonder if this is why Orlando Magic lost their basketball game because they forgot to pray.

it would have been even worse.

If you pray to Shiva, then Zeus would get pissed. If you prayed to Zeus, then Thor would have smacked you with his hammer. It’s just a lose lose situation.

Its best to just thank the doctor when you walk out of the hospital for all of his years of training and hard work. Oh, and don’t forget to thank the nurses, anesthesiologists and the EMT’s that helped.