Nothing Fails Like Prayer (not)

psy kick said:
Not really. When I asked for a certain amount of money and told no one, a stranger mailed me the exact amount. Ever happened to you? Didn't think so.
Click to expand...


I somehow doubt this happened.
 
CP489 said:
I somehow doubt this happened.
Click to expand...


Statically, this is possible.
If a hundred people pray for twenty dollars, a few will get or find twenty dollars or close to it.
This is a fallacy of prayer and magical thinking. Only recording your hits and do not count the misses.

Looking hard enough, there will always be something to find to count as a hit.
But then again “God gives you what you need, not what you want!” :confused:
 
psy kick said:
Well, it did. I know, you don't Want to believe.
Click to expand...

But, it is very easy to say that it did, whether it happened or not, and so it doesn't come off as very convincing. Especially over something anonymous like the Internet, personal testimony of an unusual event is not very convincing.

Some details might help though... who did it turn out to be? did they say why they sent the money? What form was the money in? cash, check, money order? Was it a personal payment or related to a business? Lots of information would help us decide whether it makes sense.

That's if you care to convince, which it sounds like you do.
 
psy kick said:
Not really. When I asked for a certain amount of money and told no one, a stranger mailed me the exact amount. Ever happened to you? Didn't think so.
Click to expand...

OK.

What was the amount?

What was the money needed for?

Not asking for proof, just some more details of the story.
 
Unanswered Prayers

I had a Born Again Christian friend who once assured me that if I prayed to Jesus for anything I wanted, my prayers would absolutely, positively be answered. I asked him what would happen if I prayed to have sex with a specific sexy movie star. He said that Jesus would change my heart, so I no longer wanted that.

Since the prayers for lowering gas prices were, for all intents and purposes, unanswered, he must conclude that god wants gas prices high and those who prayed have had their hearts changed and now favor gas pump sticker shock.

I do see WoodGuard's point that the graph Randi shows does not make it obvious that prayer fails, since prices did at least stop rising and dipped a little after the prayers were cast. If god had any effect on gas prices, he seemed to be thumbing his nose at those praying. Judging by the graph, his message appears to be a passive-aggressive "Yes, I can control gas prices, but I refuse to lower them for you because I won't be bullied by you praying fools."
 
Abdul Alhazred said:
OK.

What was the amount?

What was the money needed for?

Not asking for proof, just some more details of the story.
Click to expand...

I actually did have the same thing happen to me.

It was at the beginning of the semester and I really needed my dispersement to cover the high cost of science textbooks and lab manuals. So I got down and my knees and prayed in supplication to the God of Financial Aid. When I got home, I checked the mail and there was my dispersement check! Sent to me by a complete stranger from the District!

What happened was, the District who runs the schools tends to screw up regularly. In this case, they screwed up in my favor. I had a library fine that I had just paid the day before that should have been holding my dispersement back. However, the District, being a very incompetant entity, still sent out the check. +1 them for that time, -1 googleplex for everything else.


So see, it does sometimes happen...
 
Mr. Scott said:
since prices did at least stop rising and dipped a little after the prayers were cast. If god had any effect on gas prices, he seemed to be thumbing his nose at those praying. Judging by the graph, his message appears to be a passive-aggressive "Yes, I can control gas prices, but I refuse to lower them for you because I won't be bullied by you praying fools."
Click to expand...

Or was God just saying, keep up your FAITH! :scared:
 
woodguard said:
But wait, GOD CAN’T LIE!!!!! :faint:
Click to expand...

I thought he could do anything. But he doesn't have to because people make up their on miracles. Maybe the world should go together and demand a miracle from God. Maybe he could give a speach during the World Cup in Germany.
 
my avatar is cuter than your avatar

gnome said:
Some details might help though... who did it turn out to be? did they say why they sent the money? What form was the money in? cash, check, money order? Was it a personal payment or related to a business? Lots of information would help us decide whether it makes sense.

That's if you care to convince, which it sounds like you do.
Click to expand...
Okay. A few months ago, I prayed for some cash, as I have been unemployed a while. I go online on a christian board. I posted we were having financial troubles. A nice stranger got my address from me and said God told her to send this exact amount (a round number) which I hadn't mentioned any amount to her.
God doesn't always answer; I know for a fact.
So throwing prayers out-sometimes something will stick.
 
psy kick said:
Okay. A few months ago, I prayed for some cash, as I have been unemployed a while. I go online on a christian board. I posted we were having financial troubles. A nice stranger got my address from me and said God told her to send this exact amount (a round number) which I hadn't mentioned any amount to her.
God doesn't always answer; I know for a fact.
So throwing prayers out-sometimes something will stick.
Click to expand...

psy kick said:
Not really. When I asked for a certain amount of money and told no one, a stranger mailed me the exact amount. Ever happened to you? Didn't think so.
Click to expand...

My story works better, considering it was 100% true when I told it the first time and every time, unlike yours.
 
psy kick said:
I go online on a christian board. I posted we were having financial troubles. A nice stranger got my address from me and said God told her to send this exact amount (a round number) which I hadn't mentioned any amount to her.
Click to expand...
It sounds to me as if you were asking a lot of people for help, and you were asking people that might be inklined to help you because of the fact that you were sharing the same faith.
In fact you were doing more than praying in order to get the money.
 
Prayer for me was only 1% effective

A long time ago after I took Silva Mind Control (which was Christian-oriented then) I prayed for $10 as a test. That day I found 10 cents, doubtless because I was carefully watching the ground. I told the instructor that his course was only 1% effective and therefore I owed him only 1% of the tuition fee (it was money-back guaranteed). He gave me all my money back because he was disappointed in me. This allowed him to save face and put the blame on me for the failure, just like the standard excuse that, if your prayers were not answered, your faith must have been inadequate.

Has anyone pressed the point to the people praying for low gas prices that they just needed to crank up their faith a few notches?
 
psy kick said:
Mine was true. I told no one the amount.
Click to expand...

No, you said the first time around that you had told no one. You said nothing about any amount. Your statement implied that you had told no one that you had, "...asked for a certain amount of money..."

psy kick said:
Not really. When I asked for a certain amount of money and told no one, a stranger mailed me the exact amount. Ever happened to you? Didn't think so.
Click to expand...

Question though, say God really did have this happen. Why has this God not healed cancer-stricken children who have prayed for healing and had others pray for it? What people in general who have asked for things that they desperately need to live and not gotten it, but God could send you this money?

Are you somehow more Christian or more deserving? Why does this God need these people to suffer and die?

I'm just curious about this God's priorities here.
 
psy kick said:
I know from personal experience, sometimes prayer is definitely answered. But sometimes it isn't. Its a bit capricious. So you can't count on it to happen (if one is christian). Sometimes He'll answer, sometimes, its a no.
Click to expand...
Realization of this aspect of prayer was the first step on my path to agnosticism. If it's unpredictable and unreliable, why bother?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom