Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis

[longknife]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

 

[frigidweirdo]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

Sometimes what religion offers is a chance. A chance to be able to control a situation you cannot control.

The problem is it doesn't.

Someone I know on facebook asked for prayers for her baby who is ill. She asks for the prayers because she thinks this will offer a greater chance of recovery. There is no greater chance of recovery through prayer. But she feels there is, feels she's doing something, feels she has this power.

 

[JoeMoma]

I heard that there were a bunch of atheists praying in Hawaii recently.

 

[Fort Fun Indiana]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

This just highlights the fact that they think prayer is worthless.

 

[IsaacNewton]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

You think any of those 13 kids trapped in that house for three decades with those two religious flakes ever prayed? What about the 58 people in Las Vegas that were murdered, any prayers there you think? Or the 24 people in the Texas CHURCH that were slaughtered recently. Any prayers going on there? Or how about the 9 people murdered by Dylan Roof in a church right after they prayed with him.

 

[Disir]

Here is the actual survey
Tearfund – Prayer Survey « ComRes

It was done online.

 

[Czernobog]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

Ya know, it's interesting that the headline says that unbelievers turn to prayer. However, when you dig into the article, the description changes to "non-religious". Those of us who learn to think critically recognise the distinction. You see, an atheist is an unbeliever; a person who doesn't belong to an organised religion, but still believes in "God, Creator, or higher power", on the other hand, is "non-religious".

 

[Lysistrata]

A lot of adherents of some organized religious sects sling the term "unbeliever" about very, very loosely these days, as a part of their "us versus them" chip on their "holy" shoulders. It is impossible to explain to them that others may have beliefs, but beliefs that are totally different from what these sect members are marketing because they are too stupid and ignorant to get it, and just stick their fingers in their ears, which have nothing between them, and yell "la, la, la, la." They think that they own the concept of "believing," which they don't.

 

[ding]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

Sometimes what religion offers is a chance. A chance to be able to control a situation you cannot control.

The problem is it doesn't.

Someone I know on facebook asked for prayers for her baby who is ill. She asks for the prayers because she thinks this will offer a greater chance of recovery. There is no greater chance of recovery through prayer. But she feels there is, feels she's doing something, feels she has this power.

No. Religion or faith in God offers peace through the storm.

When the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians, they didn't question God's power. They asked themselves what is it that God wanted us to learn.

Everyone is being pruned. Not everyone can see it.

 

[ding]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

You think any of those 13 kids trapped in that house for three decades with those two religious flakes ever prayed? What about the 58 people in Las Vegas that were murdered, any prayers there you think? Or the 24 people in the Texas CHURCH that were slaughtered recently. Any prayers going on there? Or how about the 9 people murdered by Dylan Roof in a church right after they prayed with him.

I don't know.

Do you know?

 

[harmonica]

instinctive does not mean real
humans have been doing stupid crap throughout history
...they thought the earth was flat--the religion people actually castigated and punished people for believing the earth was not flat/not the center of the universe
...
how many believers are there that reject belief in god after disasters?

also we hear of all these people that live through disasters/amazing survival stories/etc '''THANK GOD''
'''GOD got us through it'''
well--what about all the people that prayed for god's help and survival in disasters/plane crashes/planes-boats lost/lost in the cold or desert--and DIED!!! how come god didn't save them....?

 

[ding]

instinctive does not mean real
humans have been doing stupid crap throughout history
...they thought the earth was flat--the religion people actually castigated and punished people for believing the earth was not flat/not the center of the universe
...
how many believers are there that reject belief in god after disasters?

also we hear of all these people that live through disasters/amazing survival stories/etc '''THANK GOD''
'''GOD got us through it'''
well--what about all the people that prayed for god's help and survival in disasters/plane crashes/planes-boats lost/lost in the cold or desert--and DIED!!! how come god didn't save them....?

Maybe you have an unrealistic expectation for how prayer works.

 

[Slyhunter]

Prayer is psychosomatic.

 

[hobelim]

well--what about all the people that prayed for god's help and survival in disasters/plane crashes/planes-boats lost/lost in the cold or desert--and DIED!!! how come god didn't save them....?

Why didn't God save the ones who died? If they died weren't they 'taken up' into heaven into paradise?

I thought that believers say that the ones that are left behind are damned?

Ugh, they can't seem to keep their story straight...

Next thing you know they will be claiming divine law is obsolete and one God was really one third man and the thousands of years previously spent teaching people that he isn't plural or human at all was just, what?

A joke?.......


Sounds terrific! I always wondered what it was like to be saved, completely immune to facts, detached from reality, lost in a fantasy world going through life wearing nothing but diapers and a goofy smile on my face.

Where can I sign up?

 

[harmonica]

well--what about all the people that prayed for god's help and survival in disasters/plane crashes/planes-boats lost/lost in the cold or desert--and DIED!!! how come god didn't save them....?

Why didn't God save the ones who died? If they died weren't they 'taken up' into heaven into paradise?

I thought that believers say that the ones that are left behind are damned?

Ugh, they can't seem to keep their story straight...

Next thing you know they will be claiming divine law is obsolete and one God was really one third man and the thousands of years previously spent teaching people that he isn't plural or human at all was just, what?

A joke?.......


Sounds terrific! I always wondered what it was like to be saved, completely immune to facts, detached from reality, lost in a fantasy world going through life wearing nothing but diapers and a goofy smile on my face.

Where can I sign up?

good points

 

[harmonica]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

Sometimes what religion offers is a chance. A chance to be able to control a situation you cannot control.

The problem is it doesn't.

Someone I know on facebook asked for prayers for her baby who is ill. She asks for the prayers because she thinks this will offer a greater chance of recovery. There is no greater chance of recovery through prayer. But she feels there is, feels she's doing something, feels she has this power.

No. Religion or faith in God offers peace through the storm.

When the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians, they didn't question God's power. They asked themselves what is it that God wanted us to learn.

Everyone is being pruned. Not everyone can see it.

you don't need god/prayers/etc for peace through a storm

 

[Slyhunter]

well--what about all the people that prayed for god's help and survival in disasters/plane crashes/planes-boats lost/lost in the cold or desert--and DIED!!! how come god didn't save them....?

Why didn't God save the ones who died? If they died weren't they 'taken up' into heaven into paradise?

I thought that believers say that the ones that are left behind are damned?

Ugh, they can't seem to keep their story straight...

Next thing you know they will be claiming divine law is obsolete and one God was really one third man and the thousands of years previously spent teaching people that he isn't plural or human at all was just, what?

A joke?.......


Sounds terrific! I always wondered what it was like to be saved, completely immune to facts, detached from reality, lost in a fantasy world going through life wearing nothing but diapers and a goofy smile on my face.

Where can I sign up?

The ones that died that needed saving were saved. Death is not bad or evil, it is merely the translation to the next life. Therefore dying is good. The hard part is getting there.

 

[Slyhunter]

It took a poll to discover this?

For many non-believers, it is an instinctive response to a crisis: “Please, God.” So perhaps it should not be surprising that a new survey has found that one in five adults pray despite saying they are not religious.

Only 1 in 5? I think it's a lot more than that.

Story @ Non-believers turn to prayer in a crisis, poll finds

Sometimes what religion offers is a chance. A chance to be able to control a situation you cannot control.

The problem is it doesn't.

Someone I know on facebook asked for prayers for her baby who is ill. She asks for the prayers because she thinks this will offer a greater chance of recovery. There is no greater chance of recovery through prayer. But she feels there is, feels she's doing something, feels she has this power.

No. Religion or faith in God offers peace through the storm.

When the Jews were defeated by the Babylonians, they didn't question God's power. They asked themselves what is it that God wanted us to learn.

Everyone is being pruned. Not everyone can see it.

you don't need god/prayers/etc for peace through a storm

It's a form of meditation, of focusing and narrowing thought and stilling anxiety.

 

[Care4all]

found an article on it...
Can Prayer Heal?

"We were even doubtful that the phenomena itself was real," he says, "that prayer could do anything."

So Harris wanted to make his experiment impervious to any placebo effects. He did not tell patients they were being prayed for — or even that they were part of any kind of experiment. For an entire year, about 1,000 heart patients admitted to the institute's critical care unit were secretly divided into two groups. Half were prayed for by a group of volunteers and the hospital's chaplain; the other half were not.

All the patients were followed for a year, and then their health was scored according to pre-set rules by a third party who did not know which patients had been prayed for and which had not. The results: The patients who were prayed for had 11 percent fewer heart attacks, strokes and life-threatening complications.

"This study offers an interesting insight into the possibility that maybe God is influencing our lives on Earth," says O'Keefe. "As a scientist, it's very counterintuitive because I don't have a way to explain it."

A Miracle or Simply Chance?

Dr. Elizabeth Targ, a psychiatrist at the Pacific College of Medicine in San Francisco, has also tested out prayer on critically ill AIDS patients.

All 20 patients in the study got pretty much the same medical treatment, but only half of them were prayed for by spiritual healers. Ultimately, 10 of the prayed-for patients lived, while four who had not been prayed for died.

In a larger follow-up study, Targ found that the people who received prayer and remote healing had six times fewer hospitilizations and those hospitalizations were significantly shorter than the people who received no prayer and distant healing.

"I was sort of shocked," says Targ. "In a way it's like witnessing a miracle. There was no way to understand this from my experience and from my basic understanding of science."

 

[harmonica]

found an article on it...
Can Prayer Heal?

"We were even doubtful that the phenomena itself was real," he says, "that prayer could do anything."

So Harris wanted to make his experiment impervious to any placebo effects. He did not tell patients they were being prayed for — or even that they were part of any kind of experiment. For an entire year, about 1,000 heart patients admitted to the institute's critical care unit were secretly divided into two groups. Half were prayed for by a group of volunteers and the hospital's chaplain; the other half were not.

All the patients were followed for a year, and then their health was scored according to pre-set rules by a third party who did not know which patients had been prayed for and which had not. The results: The patients who were prayed for had 11 percent fewer heart attacks, strokes and life-threatening complications.

"This study offers an interesting insight into the possibility that maybe God is influencing our lives on Earth," says O'Keefe. "As a scientist, it's very counterintuitive because I don't have a way to explain it."

A Miracle or Simply Chance?

Dr. Elizabeth Targ, a psychiatrist at the Pacific College of Medicine in San Francisco, has also tested out prayer on critically ill AIDS patients.

All 20 patients in the study got pretty much the same medical treatment, but only half of them were prayed for by spiritual healers. Ultimately, 10 of the prayed-for patients lived, while four who had not been prayed for died.

In a larger follow-up study, Targ found that the people who received prayer and remote healing had six times fewer hospitilizations and those hospitalizations were significantly shorter than the people who received no prayer and distant healing.

"I was sort of shocked," says Targ. "In a way it's like witnessing a miracle. There was no way to understand this from my experience and from my basic understanding of science."

that's a really scientific, proven test ..that's right--no way to understand it
what about all the people that prayed on the many air crashes that die?
or on the Titantic?
etc
so if you put in those numbers, it shows prayer does not work