If answered solely by yes or no, either
position taken on the matter is inevitably bound for controversy. Those who
believe in prayer, as a means of communicating and lobbying with the divine,
will have a hard time defending their claim in face of logic-driven skeptics.
Those same skeptics, quick to discard prayer as mere “superstitious mambo-jambo”,
are obnoxiously disregarding some rather powerful stuff.
In this particular case, my personal
standpoint is not as clear cut as you might expect. I think that a verdict on
the goodness of prayer can only be given in a case by case basis. I also have
to be overemphatic on the meaning of the question of this post: it’s about
prayer being “good”, which doesn’t always mean “effective”.
It all depends on
what “good” means.
On the one hand, as a secular skeptic, it
is impossible for me to believe in a supernatural being that listens, ponders
and then acts upon our recommendations and/or demands. I do think I have a
strong case to support my position, which I will be glad to explain.
On the other hand, and unlike many fellow
atheists may think, my opinion is that the power of prayer shouldn’t be
dismissed as something irrelevant. If only as a placebo, praying may be one of
the very few benefits of supernatural delusion.
If by “good” you mean “directly effective”,
prayer is basically empty. If you mean “beneficial”, there may be something to
it.
Position 1: You
are only wasting your time.
“Two hands
working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer” -Anonymous-.
When the goal of prayer is to get something
in return; be it a lucky break, a favor, money or love, for sure, you are
wasting your time. This would hold true even if there is a God. Here’s why:
a.)
It isn’t supposed to work:
God’s plans are perfect
(thus
immutable, I dare to add). If so, why do you think he would ever listen to your
advice? I wouldn’t expect a change of plans unless they were flawed.
God knows everything. Then why would people be required to
tell him about their wishes, demands or complaints if he already knows about
them? That’s inefficient and redundant; two not very “godlike” characteristics.
“And whatever you ask in prayer, you will
receive, if you have faith”. Matthew 21:22.
I obviously lack the faith to test this
claim, but I still wonder how God chooses what to do when he is asked for two mutually exclusive demands? Let’s take two
boxers or two soccer teams for instance, both fervently praying to the same God
for victory. If he grants one’s wish, he’ll automatically deny the other’s.
That’s inconvenient. Unless… that is why sometimes they tie?
As you can see, even if I were a believer,
I’d have to be suspicious about the concept of prayer as an effective tool for
getting things done. Only if I were told, either that God doesn’t have a plan,
or that we live in a supernatural democracy of sorts, would this story start to
make the tiniest bit of sense. The supporting logic would be that depending
on how many people pray for a cause, and/or how hard they pray for it, they may
or may not get what they want.
Well, yes, but…err… no… I don’t know; it
sound iffy at best and lacks the sheer grandeur
you’d expect from God’s wisdom.
b.)
It has never worked:
The probability of obtaining something
through prayer is exactly the same, ceteris
paribus, than by doing nothing about it.
Take for example a throw of dice, getting
a job, winning the lottery or keeping a wingless plane in flight. If by adding
prayer to the recipe you get the same statistical cake, it simply means that
prayer is a non-event: just a fancy word for “useless”.
You can test this as long as you want, and
if you ever succeed at molding the Universe to your advantage and at your will, Mr. James Randi will
gladly hand you a 1-million dollar check for your troubles. His offer has been
outstanding (and unsuccessfully challenged) for more than forty years now.
Unsurprisingly, charlatans will invariably fail to demonstrate their “powers”
when basic scientific measurements are involved in the process of verification.
In essence; if you pray wishing to get
something in return, you are wasting your time. Time is the only thing we can’t
buy and wasting it strikes me as a very bad idea. Prayer, in that sense,
doesn’t do any good.
Position 2: Forget about the obvious
pitfalls, there are indirect benefits in prayer.
Even if you pray into empty space, it
doesn’t necessarily mean it cannot have a beneficial side-product.
Happily enough, not all believers are
spoiled little whiners who constantly ask for celestial favors (although some
frustratingly are). Most have the humbleness to acknowledge the good things in
their lives and use prayer in a thanksgiving fashion. I wouldn’t precisely call
it praying -since the process implies a bilateral arrangement that I think is
easy to dispute- but meditation is a suitable substitute word.
When understood as an equal to meditation,
the potential benefits of prayer are easier to catch:
Awareness is a precondition to gratitude,
which means that people who are grateful must be aware of the improbable odds
of the good things they experience… be it only their very existence. That is
undeniably a good thing.
The peace and quiet provided by meditation
are undoubtedly of great value. When we give ourselves enough time to reflect
on sensitive matters, we improve the probabilities of making the right choice
by following a healthier decision-making process.
There is also the matter of empowerment of
course. If people believe they are getting their strength from above, and
really get a sense of renewed vigor from prayer, I don’t see anything wrong
about that. Believers are convinced it’s the work of God, while I personally
think it’s a very sophisticated placebo effect, but if it works…who cares?!
And lastly, soul searching can even have somniferous
effects! We all know that getting enough quality sleep is very important for a
healthy lifestyle, so there you have it, a life-saving benefit of prayer as
well.
In conclusion
Prayer has two sides.
It can be a massive waste of time (a bad
thing) or an awareness-raising, motivating, empowering, peaceful phenomenon…
Yes, a good thing. And yet, being completely honest, I still
think we could do without the supernatural component of prayer and recommend we
stick to good-old meditation instead. Unlike meditation, prayer can delude
people into believing they either obey to divine orders or they benefit from
special treatment from upstairs. That is just self-centeredness at its worst.
By carefully analyzing what belief in
prayer ultimately implies, the results aren’t pretty:
Pious prayer is nothing less than the
belief that an all-powerful, all-knowing, omnipresent puppeteer will bend the
otherwise immutable laws of the Universe, to accommodate for individual or collective human
caprice. Go figure!
Such a claim is as egotistical as it is ridiculous. It is
vain, it is childish, it is arrogant, it is delusional and it is absurd.
The corollary of it being true would turn
the world into a biased, nepotistic and discriminatory theocracy. Try granting
every wish to every kid in the classroom, favoring those who cry the loudest.
Now try it with a bunch of power-driven, greedy, hormonal, narcissistic adults… North Korea would pale in comparison to such a living hell.
I’m not only convinced that praying for
reward doesn’t work, I could never wish it did.
