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“I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours.” – Stephen Roberts

I found this passage on WhyWontGodHealAmputees.com

Dear God, almighty, all-powerful, all-loving creator of the universe, we pray to you to cure every case of cancer on this planet tonight. We pray in faith, knowing you will bless us as you describe in Matthew 7:7, Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:24, John 14:12-14, Matthew 18:19 and James 5:15-16. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen

It has really gotten me thinking, why do people ask the big fella in the sky for so much? And would people even bother praying if the afore mentioned Bible passages didn’t offer the promise that God will deliver everything you ask for?

The Dictionary definition of Prayer: a devout petition to God or an object of worship.

But what is prayer? Is prayer a way of communicating to God or is it man’s “holy” outlet for greed? Or could it be the easiest way to get more followers. “Pray to our God and you will get whatever you want if you believe enough”. Sounds like a damn good pick up line to me. I’d believe in a box of cereal if it said “Believe in me, pray to me nightly and I will grant you your every desire”.

Unfortunately prayer rarely ends up with tangible evidence of completion. You can spend weeks praying for a cure to a loved one’s cancer. Sometimes they get better. It could be through the power of prayer, it could also be through the power of science. You can pray for rain in a drought stricken town. Chances are that one day it will rain but is that because your prayed for it or because weather patterns do vary and it can go for months without rain in certain parts of the world?

I prayed once. I had injured myself as a child and was quite a long way from home. I had fallen off my bike in the bush. I prayed for someone to come and help. In the end I had to drag myself out of the bush and get myself patched up. Is this definitive proof that prayer is a waste of time? Certainly not, scientific process dictates that I should repeat this process multiple times to confirm this finding but it did lead me to the belief that the only thing that gets you what you want is your own hard work.

The end result was that when you take a look at a Prayer about non-ambiguous requests, “Please lift this fallen tree off of my leg”, God never answers with the requested action. When this statement is proposed to religious believers the most common come back is, “God has a plan and is using the tree to teach you a lesson about being resourceful”.

I would like to see some verifiable proof to show that a Prayer is successful. And this can’t be an ambiguous prayer. You can’t pray for God to cure a cancer patient as there is no way to prove that God did it instead of science. Go forth folks, prove me wrong about prayer being a waste of time!

We live on a hunk of rock and metal that circles a humdrum star that is one of 400 billion other stars that make up the Milky Way Galaxy which is one of billions of other galaxies which make up a universe which may be one of a very large number, perhaps an infinite number, of other universes. That is a perspective on human life and our culture that is well worth pondering.
– Carl Sagan