The Fallacy of Prayer
NON EST ARS QVAE AD EFFECTVM CASV VENIT.
That which achieves its effect by accident is not art.
(Seneca the Younger)
The ritual of prayer is one of the more interesting contradictions in modern beliefs. Prayer itself is not a contradiction, but in the context of modern theology, it is. Surprisingly, science has had a hand in it.
From the beginning of religion until relatively recently, people prayed for a lot of different things. They prayed for rain, mostly, along with good crops, long lives, many children, or no children at all--the classic Please God don't let me get pregnant! They prayed for things they thought were random acts of God to show his favor or (usually) anger.
We can all joke now about the failure of weather men (there are simply too many variables to consider), but for the most part we know when it will rain, and even when it's not going to rain much at all during the year. We understand how conception works and know the odds of it for any given situation. We know quite a bit about biology and medical science, and our knowledge will continue to grow in all these areas.
The point? God has been chased out of all these areas through methodical human advancement, tapping our own unlimited potential. The god of the gaps (when a god is credited for all things we don't fully understand right now) is being confined to smaller and smaller gaps. Sure, we still have some holes in Quantum Physics and other science-for-the-sake-of-science fields, but when it comes to everyday life, we've got things figured out pretty well.
Prayer over the last 100-150 years has been shifting from "rain" or "crops" to "my car keys" or "my promotion." With the big things of a seemingly random nature being explained and relegated to probability, prayer has turned selfish.
In the context of modern theology, this type of prayer, and indeed all types, can only be construed as an insult. If I were a god and some people prayed to me to save a young child's life, I would interpret that as,"We have absolute faith in your will and knowledge, Lord, but your divine plan is wrong...we want you to change it." Even more insulting is the prayer for a departed loved one, which usually includes a plea for the "soul" of the deceased. This is even worse because it usually happens at the funeral a couple of days after the person croaked. "We know you have some strict rules about this stuff and already made the final decision on Tuesday, but do you think you could let Uncle Bob in? No, just him--screw everyone else. Thanks, God."
It is an interesting predicament that Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are in. Everything is masterfully designed, they say, orchestrated for a purpose--a perfect divine purpose. At the same time, you can ask your god to change that plan from time to time for yourself and others. If it's part of the plan, I'd think a god would let you die in a plane crash or save you from it whether you prayed or not. And don't tell me it's a test or some Abraham crap like that--a truly omniscient god would already know the strength of your faith, and your choice could never change the divine plan.
Couple that with the ridiculous basis of prayer and worship, and the whole thing almost becomes comical. Why would an almighty being want, much less demand, prayer and worship from some self-aware apes on a planet off in the corner of an average galaxy? Seems odd to me, I guess.
I've heard it a thousand times: "The Lord works in mysterious ways." Unless we don't like the way he's working, then we can ask him to change it. Who is lord of whom, exactly?
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