Does Prayer Actually Help?

Hemant Mehta ([ Ссылка ], [ Ссылка ] , [ Ссылка ])


One of the strangest transitions for me when I let go of my faith was that I went to bed every night without praying. And I felt weird.

Compared to other aspects of religion, prayer seems relatively harmless. It's just words. But do they actually help?

The obvious answer is no. Just because you want something to happen and you ask God really nicely, nothing's gonna change. (Because no one's listening.)

There's a great saying: "Two hands working can do more than a thousand clasped in prayer."

So if I'm sick and I'm an atheist, and I pray to get better, nothing's gonna happen.

But if I'm sick and I'm religious, and I pray to get better, something might happen... studies have shown that. But it has more to do with your mindset and your willingness to improve than anything to do with God.

The same thing applies if you're sick, and religious, and you know people are praying for you. Again, something might happen, because you know there are people who care about you and that might give you a strength you might not have had otherwise, Again, though, nothing to do with God.

And then there's intercessory prayer. What happens when you're sick and other people are praying for you... and you don't know they're doing it. Does that help? What if a million other people are praying for you and you have no idea.

It's like a scientific experiment waiting to happen. And guess what? They've done them.

They've done controlled experiments -- as much as they can be controlled, anyway -- where strangers pray for one group of people in a hospital but not the other and researchers see if there's a difference in results... and guess what? No difference.

In one study, the people who were prayed for actually did worse. Though you could attribute that to performance anxiety -- they knew people were praying for them so it just added more stress they didn't need.

So look: prayer doesn't help. Unless you're the person doing the praying in which case you might feel better for reasons that have nothing to do with God.

If someone you know is sick, don't pray for them. Cook them some food, or help them run errands. That would be so much more helpful.




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