Do you think prayer is real? Your opinion?

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I don't really think so. I read that crazy book. Donnie sounds like he thinks our minds have some vague, indirect impact on reality that we can't quantify, whereas that lady says we can make things happen the exact way we imagine just by telling ourselves.

Excellent analogy!

I seem to be able to remove myself emotionally from situations. Not forever, the costs must be borne, but for awhile. It may come from the habit of prayer that developed in me since birth. I grew up in a practicing Christian home. According to what I've been taught, straight out of the Bible, when you pray, it's just God. You leave yourself behind bit by bit and enter the inner sanctum (power up the CB in your private CB closet.) This is where I just wait and the focus is God. That's when he tells me things. It took a lot of regular practice to be able to clear my mind and if I stop praying for a week or more, it takes a minute to find my center again.

There is a physical feeling that comes from deep communion with God; but it can also come on in an instant - a single event or time period that disperses a body-wide energy sensation. It's pretty awesome.

I believe prayer is a manipulation of energy. I think humans can and do set things in motion without even realizing it all the time. Take the guy who bumps his head, goes to work and ruins everyone's day. What we put out makes a difference. We join together in prayer when someone is ill. We effectually gather our positive energies and hurl them to the sick person. I think the prayers, in and of themselves, benefit the recipient. The communal benefits go on and on as we pay it forward.

I also pray while doing those mundane tasks I HATE. Rather than stew in my self-pity while ironing shirts, I pray for the shirt owner. I meditate on how my father has to face his day with doctor's appointments, his children visiting or calling, more like how to get them to visit or call... I pray that his neck muscles don't tighten up on him, that the arthritis in his shoulder is less painful today, etc... Before I know it, the shirt is ironed and I have a better attitude for dealing with my dad. (I'm his caregiver.)

Even if you could deny God, prayer is healthy.

I've seen people healed from cancer, drown and come back to life, hate and turn to love, all kinds of stuff that many would consider miracles. I don't have any problem with my faith. Unlike many who criticize, I've actually studied the Bible - since birth. It's all there.

You are assuming the existence of a transmitter and a transmission.

ruveyn

No differently or more or less than other people assume something along this kind of line ...


... and while we all know nobody can prove the actual source of that either way, my own experience suggests *something* coming in from outside my brain.

If prayer helps you, fine. I've no problem with that.
I do take issue with people who refuse medical treatment and ONLY use prayer. Especially on behalf of someone else.

Your list is interesting. However, it has three problems for me.
(1) The writings of the bible are not particularly compelling evidence. It's the equivalent of being told that the brother of a friend of a friend knows a guy that swears he saw something.
(2) Prayer is of dubious use when, for every miracle, there are thousands of people who prayed and didn't recover. And there are people that "miraculously" recovered and didn't pray.
(3) Sometimes, people do recover. Cancer goes into remission, the dead come back to life almost routinely these days (yay for medical science!) and people do sometimes change their feelings. Is this divine intervention? Perhaps, but I doubt it. There's no rhyme or reason to it. Saints and sinners are treated randomly, and prayer has no impact on the selection.

I also recall the religious nutjob I encountered on the streets one day that claimed he'd seen the power of prayer cure a man of AIDS, and that struck me as such a ludicrous piece of nonsense that faith healing lost all credibility for me at that point. Presumably he had a microscope ready at the time to see the viral cells leaving the body...

Interesting perspective. I would never turn down medical attention. God created those men and women with beautiful brains (even if they're a little arrogant) to help mankind and we should be thankful for their knowledge and dedication.

1) As a person who's studied the Bible all her life, I don't understand at all how you can say such a thing if you've really actually read it. The Bible isn't just a collection of stories, it's an accurate work of History. This is why it's included among the tombs housed in the Smithsonian while other religious books, such as the Book of Mormon, are not.

2 & 3) So you have concluded. My experience has shown me differently. You're trying to rationalize God using human terms from 2012. It's God.

There are many things in this world that no one can explain. How much of all there is to know do you think you know? How much of what you're sure you know is even right? God knows it all. I'll put my trust in Him. If I'm wrong, I'll still be happy and healthier than if I'd chosen to disbelieve and cry in my soup.

Silly humans.

Yes its real, I've done it.

I do have to wonder about the more... zealous religious people, who refuse such things as transfusions and even vaccinations. It would make far more sense to me for God to encourage us to sort ourselves out than to have to intervene every five minutes.



The bible is not historically accurate. It is of great historical interest, however, and some of the historical items it does mention are of interest.
The Book of Mormon is a little too new to be in a museum. You may as well stick the Celestine Prophecy in there while you're at it!



This is a common reaction. "God doesn't have to make sense." Well, yes he does. I'm not expecting God to be human in characteristics or powers or anything like that. If prayer works as anything more than meditation, it should be reasonably consistent. If it isn't, then something else is at play. It might be God, but prayer isn't a factor.



How do you know God knows everything?
I'm a pragmatic fellow. I put my trust in that which works. Whether by choice or not, God isn't reliable enough for me. Instead I'm happy and healthy and don't believe. Sometimes I have soup, with big yummy chunks in it. Mmmm.



This implies you are not. Are you a dog as portrayed by your picture? If so, how do you type so well?

Meh, that's where life gets fun.

Ouch! That was really mean. Are you trying to be funny or just mean? I can never tell. Fallacious ad hominem attacks hurt either way. I'm sorry it was the best you could come up with.

I know God knows everything because he created everything. He is the Master Chemist.

How do you know otherwise? You don't. You've just assumed otherwise.

What makes you say the Bible is not historically accurate? It's been proven over and over again.

Silly humans refers to myself as well, for what you or I think on this issue won't change what is. None of us can put God in a box.

Yes - I am LIKE a transmitter/receiver and God is a LIKE transmitter/receiver and we "transmit" messages through prayer using mental energy. You can't touch it, you can't taste it, but maybe someday when we know enough, we'll be able to measure it.

You do not know god makes sense, you do not know god created everything.

You assume the bible is correct. You are basing your beliefs off of a 2000 year old book from the middle east

...so...?

So he is believing in something unproven. That is an assumption.

If I go write a book that says I created the world out of a broken toilet bowl, it does not make it so. Just because people wrote a book saying god made the world, does not mean it happened.

^That's a restatement of your earlier point, which is understandable.

The issue is: so what if somebody chooses to believe in something that's unproven?

Then they should refrain from telling people that they know something that they do not know.