40% of adults pray, says survey
BBC News
Link (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7089139.stm)

People feel prayer changes their lives, with some 42% of UK residents saying they pray regularly, research suggests.

Christian development agency Tearfund surveyed 1,000 adults of all religions and found one in six prayed daily, and one in four at least once a week.

After praying, 38% reported feeling "peaceful and content", 30% were strengthened and 57% said it changed what happened in their lives.

Even people with no religion reported praying, with 12% praying sometimes.

Praying made 30% of people feel strengthened, 22% said they felt close to God, 21% said they felt reassured and safe and 19% said they felt happy and joyful.

'Prayers answered'

A total of 57% of those who pray said they believed that prayer changed what happened in their life.

One in three adults agreed with the statement "There is a God who watches over me and answers my prayer", according to the survey.

The survey was conducted by TNS for Tearfund to draw attention to its global poverty prayer week. The random sample of over-16s were interviewed face-to-face between February and March 2007. Matthew Frost, Tearfund chief executive, said: "This report means a great deal to us in our work to help to eradicate poverty through local churches by demonstrating the prevalence and potential of prayer."

Top prayer topics in order of popularity were family and friends, thanking God, guidance, healing and worldwide problems such as poverty, wars and disaster.

Young people were less likely than their elders to pray, with just over a quarter - 27% - of 16 to 24-year-olds admitting ever praying.

The proportion of those praying rose steadily as people got older, reaching 51% of those aged 55 to 74 and a peak of 61% of over 75-year-olds.

According to other surveys cited by Tearfund, around 60% of people across Europe say they pray, with the figure for the US even higher.

I wonder if hopes, desires, and yearnings are not also forms of prayers. Sort of a "horse of a different color."

I was visiting a friends church, its like upper class suburbia church.

They had a guest speaker who was a doctor, who hooked people up to a small device that squelched loudly when people were nervous. The preacher pointed out someone who was very shy and that person went in front of the church very nervous and the box squelched loudly and he asked her to pray and it stopped squelching.

I think a lot of it is, people pray to get in their own zone. To find their own piece of mind. They're asking for help and looking for their happy place.

When I pray I always ask to help other people. I do ask for help for myself as well.
But finding your zone isn't suppose to be exactly what its about, according to the bible at least. It's about alone time with God. According to the bible, God wants to hear praise. He wants to hear how happy you are with him.

So, my standard prayer, in the religious sense. Is me telling God thank you and asking for help for myself and others.

I even asked help for freethinker once and afinertouch.

I know that'll get them in this thread.

"Whatever a man prays for,he prays for a miracle. Every prayer reduced itself to this:Great God, grant that twice two be not four."-Ivan Turgenev}------------------------------------------------------------------------------------{ Pray:To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single,petitioner confessedly unworthy."-Ambrose Bierce

The paradox of "Having prayers answered" reminds me of my How Would You Fabricate Heaven thread, where one of the things wondered about was what exactly happens when A wants B to marry him and B wants C to marry her, and C wishes A is secretly gay so they can get married. And they all pray at the same time. :@@:

I think a lot of it is, people pray to get in their own zone. To find their own piece of mind. They're asking for help and looking for their happy place.

Good point.

They seek a "happy place"..........IOW, they're using "prayer" to help create a distance, or a form of disconnect, between them and objective reality.

They are doing the same thing that an alcoholic does when he takes a drink of liquor, or a drug addict when he injects himself with drugs.

Kind of reminds me of your life, Dio. You and your girlfriend and Raph!

.....some 42% of UK residents saying they pray regularly, research suggests.


I'm guessing that they are 'praying' that in the coming election the USA will elect someone who is not a smirking mental retardate.

http://www.tn420.org/cove/datas/users/2-bush_points_of_light.jpg

I pray daily. I pray for myself and I pray for others. At present in addition to my own family and friends I am praying for a poster at Allforums and a relative of a poster at Allforums. When I pray I try to always add a prayer for the world.

I find praying in the morning when I wake up allows me to begin the day with a feeling of calm.

I pray occasionally. Not more than once a week I suppose.

I wonder if hopes, desires, and yearnings are not also forms of prayers. Sort of a "horse of a different color."
Praying has a therapeutic effect. Much like swearing at, say, a spark plug that doesn't want to loosen from an engine. (Swearing at that particular annoyance is fresh in my mind from yesterday.) I don't think anyone sane believes that praying (or swearing at something) actually makes a difference in the course of events, but damned if it doesn't make you feel better.

I don't think anyone sane believes that praying (or swearing at something) actually makes a difference in the course of events, but damned if it doesn't make you feel better.

Then you know nothing of the depth of belief among fundamentalists. I know people who are 100% believers in the efficacy of prayer.

When --as it sometimes happens-- what they pray for comes to pass, why!, it is 100% the doing of "the Lord".

"The great and magnificent Gawd of the universe has granted my pray-uuuur!! Hallelujah! Praise Juuuheeezus!!"

On the occaisions when their prayers do NOT come to pass, it's --"Oh well, the Lord had a good reason for not doing it!"

Their cognitive dissonance works with perfect efficiency.

(then again, you did preface it by saying **anyone sane**...........)

Praying has a therapeutic effect. Much like swearing at, say, a spark plug that doesn't want to loosen from an engine. (Swearing at that particular annoyance is fresh in my mind from yesterday.) I don't think anyone sane believes that praying (or swearing at something) actually makes a difference in the course of events, but damned if it doesn't make you feel better.

I have to agree with you Borg.
Prayer is one thing and if it brings someone peace then great..but wishing and hoping does the same thing. I don't believe that prayer works but I don't fault others for having faith and a belief that there is something better out there and if it helps them kudos.
Personally for me...not so much..you make your own luck and peace.

I don't think anyone sane believes that praying (or swearing at something) actually makes a difference in the course of events, but damned if it doesn't make you feel better.
Praying for victory on the battlefield goes back to the beginning of human warfare.

I don't think anyone sane believes that praying (or swearing at something) actually makes a difference in the course of eventsThen you know nothing of the depth of belief among fundamentalists.He did say anyone sane...

Praying for victory on the battlefield goes back to the beginning of human warfare.We still see it in sport of course.

To which I might add praying in sport should be banned. You can't take a line of cocaine to improve your perfomance, but invoking the assistance of an all-powerful super-being? Sure, go right ahead.

It's enough to make you suspect that unlike drugs everyone secretly knows prayer won't help you.

You can't take a line of cocaine to improve your perfomance
I think the bigger issue these days is 'roids. I've never heard of a sports player using coke to improve his game, merely a sports player using coke because he thinks it's a blast. Then he ends up dead at 35 and everyone moans how soon he died.

I don't think anyone sane believes that praying (or swearing at something) actually makes a difference in the course of events

Borg, I wouldn't pray if I didn't think it had an effect. Thank you for illustrating the insulting arrogance of the non-theist. "I don't believe in the power of prayer, ergo, anyone who does is not sane."

I think the bigger issue these days is 'roids. I've never heard of a sports player using coke to improve his gameVery true; I was enjoying equating divine performance enhancement through prayer to a coke buzz. Come to think of it, "smoking a rock of crack" would have worked better.

Borg, I wouldn't pray if I didn't think it had an effect. Thank you for illustrating the insulting arrogance of the non-theist. "I don't believe in the power of prayer, ergo, anyone who does is not sane."
Frogger, have you ever actually thought about it? Honestly, have you? Why the hell would God care if you voiced your opinions to him or not? He knows them anyway. He knows more about you than you do, if we're assuming the Bible true here. He would take your faith into account, presumably, and your thoughts and wishes and desires into account when deciding whatever it is he's deciding. Why would praying make a difference? And can you show me where in the Bible it says that God will help you only if you actually vocalize your concerns rather than merely having them?

And why are you so arrogant as to think that you are so important, God will do what you ask of him? Personally, praying strikes me as wholly against the whole Christian "humility" thing. But then against, perhaps I don't understand, because I'm not a Christian.

Borg, I wouldn't pray if I didn't think it had an effect. Thank you for illustrating the insulting arrogance of the non-theist. "I don't believe in the power of prayer, ergo, anyone who does is not sane."

ROTFL.

Ah yes, let us never forget about a certain group of people, holding certain beliefs, who exert an incessant *insulting arrogance* over the rest of the people on the planet.

______________________________

""Religious people often accuse atheists of being arrogant and of placing ourselves in the position of God, but really it is the theist who has all the vanity. He can’t stand to think that he will ever cease to exist. As Freud once said, Christianity is the most egotistical of the religions. It is based on the premise: "Jesus saves me".

And why are you so arrogant as to think that you are so important, God will do what you ask of him?

Once again you show your ignorance of what prayer is. Prayer is not only asking God to do things for you. Prayer is a conversation with God. When I pray I thank God for past blessings as well as asking him for future ones.

I also don't expect God to always do what I ask. All prayers are answered but sometimes the answer is no.

As for why I pray...............................God has told me to pray, in fact, to pray without ceasing.

I think the bigger issue these days is 'roids. I've never heard of a sports player using coke to improve his game, merely a sports player using coke because he thinks it's a blast. Then he ends up dead at 35 and everyone moans how soon he died.

Ever heard of Mercury Morris or Keith Hernandez.
Maybe Darell Strawberry.

Once again you show your ignorance of what prayer is. Prayer is not only asking God to do things for you. Prayer is a conversation with God. When I pray I thank God for past blessings as well as asking him for future ones.

I also don't expect God to always do what I ask. All prayers are answered but sometimes the answer is no.

As for why I pray...............................God has told me to pray, in fact, to pray without ceasing.

***********************************
So...God made You do it.
Pray,that is.?

No, God doesn't MAKE me pray. God has said that I SHOULD pray.

No, God doesn't MAKE me pray. God has said that I SHOULD pray.

Could You please give an exact quote.And possibly a Link.
Lest one furgit,no one hears believes Nuthin w/o a link,
Mind ya.

Could You please give an exact quote.And possibly a Link.
Lest one furgit,no one hears believes Nuthin w/o a link,
Mind ya.

How about from the bible?

"6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus."

"6But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you."

" 26In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. 27And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will."

"16Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective."

Those don't say anything about if we have to or if we should just want to.
But here is a site I think someone with your vast years of knowledge behind the RCC should approve of and it says everything there is to know about prayer.

http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12345b.htm

Those of you that pray are taking a grave risk. Please be very careful.

Matthew 6

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.

Fooly,

Jesus the Christ, one part of the trinity of God even told us how to pray, you know, "Our Father who art in heaven............................."

Fooly,

Jesus the Christ, one part of the trinity of God even told us how to pray, you know, "Our Father who art in heaven............................."

You got like a day & month plus year he said that.?
Be specific.It's liberals who like to wing the facts.

The Gospel of Matthew, chapter six, verses nine through twelve.

Those of you that pray are taking a grave risk. Please be very careful.

Matthew 6

5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.

6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

7 But when ye pray, use not vain repetitions, as the heathen do: for they think that they shall be heard for their much speaking.


Good point, thanks Blob.

"Prayers have no place in the public schools, just like facts have no place in organized religion."-school superintendent on "The Simpsons" episode #100 (1994) :thumbs:

"Prayers have no place in the public schools, just like facts have no place in organized religion."-school superintendent on "The Simpsons" episode #100 (1994) :thumbs:
SKINNER!

Once again you show your ignorance of what prayer is. Prayer is not only asking God to do things for you. Prayer is a conversation with God. When I pray I thank God for past blessings as well as asking him for future ones.

I also don't expect God to always do what I ask. All prayers are answered but sometimes the answer is no.

As for why I pray...............................God has told me to pray, in fact, to pray without ceasing.
"I've often thought people treat God rather rudely, don't you? Asking trillions and trillions of prayers every day. Asking and pleading and begging for favors. Do this, gimme that, I need a new car, I want a better job. And most of this praying takes place on Sunday His day off. It's not nice. And it's no way to treat a friend.

But people do pray, and they pray for a lot of different things, you know, your sister needs an operation on her crotch, your brother was arrested for defecating in a mall. But most of all, you'd really like to fuck that hot little redhead down at the convenience store. You know, the one with the eyepatch and the clubfoot? Can you pray for that? I think you'd have to. And I say, fine. Pray for anything you want. Pray for anything, but what about the Divine Plan?

Remember that? The Divine Plan. Long time ago, God made a Divine Plan. Gave it a lot of thought, decided it was a good plan, put it into practice. And for billions and billions of years, the Divine Plan has been doing just fine. Now, you come along, and pray for something. Well suppose the thing you want isn't in God's Divine Plan? What do you want Him to do? Change His plan? Just for you? Doesn't it seem a little arrogant? It's a Divine Plan. What's the use of being God if every run-down shmuck with a two-dollar prayerbook can come along and fuck up Your Plan?

And here's something else, another problem you might have: Suppose your prayers aren't answered. What do you say? "Well, it's God's will." "Thy Will Be Done." Fine, but if it's God's will, and He's going to do what He wants to anyway, why the fuck bother praying in the first place? Seems like a big waste of time to me! Couldn't you just skip the praying part and go right to His Will? It's all very confusing." --George Carlin

I'm reminded of an old saying...

God does not always answer prayers, if he did it would be called "conversation".