The Power of Prayer

I'm only a little bothered by atheists or agnostics who say when they were young they used to believe in God, prayed to him for something, didn't get it, and then didn't believe in him any more. What bothers me more are the atheists and agnostics who claim that prayer does nothing--that God does not or probably does not exist--but when the first sign of trouble comes (a terrorist attack, the death of a loved one, a divorce, a lost job, etc.), the first thing they do is pray to the God they were so disrespectful to before. I call the first group childish and selfish. The second I call fair-weather friends.

There's something problematic about a Santa Claus approach to God; I'm not sure what it is.

I've always wondered what it means for God to "answer" prayer. Sure, some people say God actually "talks" to them, but most honest Christians admit there isn't a real conversation going on. Sometimes I can feel an idea. Sometimes it's actually nice to be able to speak out into the void and not have someone talk back. That's the problem with humans. They don't really listen. Silence is just too uncomfortable. You tell humans your problems, and they want to "help," give you advice, "relate."

Some people take a scientifically skeptical approach to prayer. If you can't "prove" it exists, it doesn't. If God doesn't definitely answer "yes," he isn't answering. Others seem nonsensically devoted to the idea of prayer. If God doesn't answer the prayer, he's saying, "No" or "Wait." If he answers, he's saying, "Yes."

There's a problem with both of these approaches, and they actually feed into each other.

The skeptical approach still has that Santa Claus assumption about prayer. What can it do for me? If I ask for something, can I get it? I want a new job. I want a new car. I want this disease to disappear. I want my children safe. If God says, "No," he couldn't possibly want the best for us. Yet, when these same skeptics become parents, they realize the most important thing for them to learn is how and when to say "No" to their own children, the ones they love the most.

The nonsensically devoted idea is equally flawed. If God is saying "No," "Wait," or "Yes," unpredictably, how is that different from rolling dice or praying to a wall?

I don't know where I stand... somewhere in the middle, I guess. I can be skeptical about prayer. Sometimes when I'm praying, I do wonder, "God, are you really out there? It's me, Margaret." Other times, I do feel a connection to God. Maybe, as the haughty skeptics say, it is a psychological retreat I make up in my mind. Maybe, it's all a mental illusion. Still, it feels real, a lot more real than some of the other things I've had to accept (I did finally get real proof that the state of Wyoming exists... when my car broke down in it. Before that, I'd taken its existence on faith alone).

I have seen miracles happen. I've seen them not happen, too.

Maybe it's just Pascal's wager, but I feel prayer is worth investigating, worth doing, worth experimenting with... and if it's only a mental exercise, a psychological trick--me talking to myself--then, it's one of the best tricks I've ever played on myself. God--omnipotent powerful being or the cognitive abyss that the wall next to me is--has been a great friend to talk to.

I'd urge all the skeptics out there to just give it a try, an honest try--not to get anything concrete out of it, but just to see if it could be real. They don't have to tell anyone about this experiment. They can just try it for their own personal curiosity. They need a little honest self-examination: "Do I require scientific proof for everything or just religious stuff? Do I hold double standards for burdens of proof?"

And for the religiously unquestioning, stop pretending you can reason the power of prayer to others any more than you can reason a friendship, marriage, or other relationship to others. Just live it and enjoy it. --A.Y. Siu