Why does prayer fail ?

[modeller]

sandy and truthabounds or any other theist. Please answer a simple question .
When Madeline Macain disappeared ten of milliions of people from all denominations all over the world prayed that she would be found, even the Pope got involved calling upon Catholics everywhere to pray for her,and as you know her devout parents mounted a world wide appeal for prayers.
Result ? Nothing ! Now 4 years later there is still not a single clue.
Why , why , why ? If millions of prayers are not answered in any form, what chance does your single prayer stand. ?

sandy // I pray a decade of the Rosary each evening for all on AB, but especially the agnostics. //
I expect sandy you also prayed for Madeline and it failed. Why ?

[RATTER15]

This answer really is answered by common sense, God does not exist any more than the flying spaghetti monster and the Easter bunny does!

Sorry to shatter illusions!!

[nightmare]

As I and several others have pointed out on previous posts, the concept of praying to an omniscient, omnipotent God is self-contradictory.
Whatever is going to happen is predetermined by God, irrespective of whether anyone prays or not. To imagine that your prayers are somehow going to cause God to change his plans contradicts that and is supremely arrogant. Whether you pray or not is also predetermined, so basically, there is no such thing as free will.
Similarly, if God is omnipotent and omniscient, that means he does not have free will either, since he cannot change anything, because he has always known the outcome.

Such basic contradictions seem to be beyond the comprehension of theists, who, by their flawed "reasoning", are actually committing a sin against God by obstinately not using their power of reason or intelligence, which they claim is a gift from God in the first place.

[beso]

God is not omniscient. The Hebrews had to mark their doorways with blood to show where they lived on the night that He killed the first born of the Egyptians.

[RATTER15]

nightmare, and every time they go to hospital they are surely going against the will of God?

[andy-hughes]

nightmare - when I attend mass, which i do every Sunday - every prayer uttered is as a request - "We ask God ..." so it's not at all arrogant in my view to pray.

[beso]

So when prayers conflict does God take a poll on the number of prayers and go with the majority?

[nightmare]

Read my answer
Prayer is utterly pointless, since God has predetermined everything, including whether or not you pray.
Do you seriously believe you can somehow influence things ?
That is arrogance.

[Old_Geezer]

By defintion prayer can not fail. If it consists of a request, then the answer can be a refusal. So your question is not valid.

[beso]

I think God can be influenced so long as you do exactly what He demands. Kill the people He tells you to kill. Cut the foreskin off your sons. Don't eat pork.

[beso]

BTW Did God cut His foreskin off too when He made the deal with the Hebrews?

[beso]

Many Christians eat pork so I guess that would skew the figures. Obviously none of them should expect to have their prayers answered.

[beso]

And of course when the people you are supposed to murder are only enslaved then you should not expect prayers to work.

God also punishes the descendents of bad people to the third and fourth generation. So if any your great great grandparents or any ancestors since didn't toe the line then you should not expect your prayers to be answered.

And women. God will never forgive Eve for her treachery. All women are punished forever by greatly increased pain in childbirth because of what she did. So women should not expect their prayers to be answered.

Yes, God answers prayers but only for the two people on Earth that don't fall into those categories, so long as they continue to fall on their face regularly.

[beso]

Prayer is a form of spiritual masturbation.

[Khandro]

Prayer is not the prerogative of Christians, and beso, with respect, you sound so full of rage it seems to makes you blind. Prayer is used in many ways and for many reasons; even by Buddhists, whose religion doesn't even hinge on the existence of God. I'm not sure why most of you decrying the activity of prayer, even care if someone wishes to pray.

[RATTER15]

Khandro, I don't see Beso as full of rage, he is just pointing out what is expected of you and the things committed by this so called God.

The atrocities committed by this so called God cannot be hidden, they are in every Bible!! Its just some people cannot read and understand what they are looking at.

[Khandro]

"some people cannot read and understand what they are looking at." True, very true.

[birdie1971]

Khandro - “... and beso, with respect, you sound so full of rage it seems to makes you blind...”

You seem to be mistaking robust argument for anger. This is quite typical of religious people who see any criticism of their belief as an attack by people who are 'blind'. Being 'blind' is a strange thing to accuse someone of who doesn't believe in the supernatural and instead believes in cold, hard, rationally derived conclusions based on observed, verifiable evidence.

[beso]

The blind are those who exalt the Bible despite the attrocities of its God. Not rage but simply reporting what is actually written.

[Khandro]

@beso, Look, I'm quite relaxed about all this. I don't think you have read my posts carefully.The question is about prayer, and I say it can take many forms not necessarily anything to do with the old testament of the bible. Five consecutive posts ending in "masturbation" doesn't sound particularly cool to me.

[Philoctetes]

The problem is that sometimes prayer does appear to work. And, when it appears not to, it can often be rationalised that one was not praying for the best option. As has been said above, it might not have been the overall best option for the girl to be found. I am content to say simply that no one knows, but, if anyone believes it will help, try it - and if you don't, it's not harming you so don't *** it off.