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why do some atheists turn to prayer in traumatic situations
Omg....said like a Valley Girl...like when Howard Storm was being beaten up by bad spirits in his NDE ,,,so he decided to pray?
And said, "I pledge allegiance to the flag and..."...cuz being an atheist he didnt know how to pray? Look him up on youtube...lol
...cuz ya just can't beat the Christian outta the subconscious mind from childhood indoctrination.
No mystery, spiros!
You got another answer?
Last edited by Miss Hepburn; 10-25-2018 at 07:56 PM..
Reason: typoo as usual
It says right in one of the articles exactly why non-believers might try a prayer or two:
"Among the non-religious, personal crisis or tragedy is the most common reason for praying, with one in four saying they pray to gain comfort or feel less lonely."
To gain comfort or feel less lonely. Makes perfect sense, and no, it doesn't prove anything more profound than that. I'm not even sure why it matters. Whether one person or a million people or a billion people believe something, without proof it doesn't make it true.
As for this atheist, if the chips were down and I got a hankering to talk to God, I would be more likely to yell at him, thus: "Well, thanks for nothing, God! I see you still suck!"
why do some atheist turn to prayer in traumatic situations
A few answers can be offered for this one.
1) The first is that prayer is essentially a form of meditation. So in times of emotional strife prayer is going to be beneficial for the same reasons meditation or focusing on an internal mantra is going to be beneficial. It stills and focuses and distracts the mind in ways that are going to help. Me - for example - in times of emotional stress or turmoil I have learned off the Mantras of the Bene Gesserit in Frank Herbert's book "Dune". And I have no reason to think that you guys get any more benefit from prayer than I do from those mantras. They are highly comforting and focusing and settling.
2) Another is the same for "Death Bed Conversions". Or why people who are quite sick turn to abject and total nonsense like Homeopathy. There is no rational evidence based reason to think there is a god or that prayer is actually going to materially achieve anything. But in times of emotional turmoil - trauma - or illness we are simply not at our most rational or coherent. People turn to nonsense for the simple reason - they are simply less rational in those moments!
3) Also similar to homeopathy there is a certain "It cant hurt" mentality that is common to our species. When everything else has failed us - we are prone to trying nonsense under the "It cant hurt" paradigm. We try things that we have absolutely no reason to expect will help or work - purely because no harm can come from trying them so "Why not?".
In times of desperation people act desperately. So perhaps you should turn the question back on yourself and ask why you are even surprised that in our moments when we are least rational - we succumb to the things that are themselves the least rational and most nonsense?
Quote:
Originally Posted by spiros7
i was a long time agnostic that became a believer of a world that not only has an order, but a purpose.
A purpose I am going to guess - for no other reason than direct experience of 100s of people like you - that you have merely invented and asserted rather than evidenced in any small way at all.
an atheist is one who refuses to accept any argument they have yet heard that convinces them that there is a god. Most do NOT claim there is not a god. I would call that a closed minded atheist.
I don't know why homeopathy was brought up...but I bought that stuff ya take when you feel something is
coming on, cold, sore throat...and it has worked 2 xs....so, nonsense?
Likewise, prayer for an atheist isn't nonsense, because it focuses their mind...their intentions...some
could call it talking to their higher self, their super consciousness...(if they believe in the subconscious at all, that is,
then, maybe they believe in that.)
an atheist is one who refuses to accept any argument they have yet heard that convinces them that there is a god. Most do NOT claim there is not a god. I would call that a closed minded atheist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Diogenes
Perhaps it is my English, but it is not that I refuse evidence, it is that I have not seen any credible argument for any gods.
I agree - though I guess it is just a pedantic linguistic point. But I had the same thought when I read the first post above. I do not refuse to accept arguments or evidence - I simply have not been presented with any.
If evidence is real or arguments are good - I am helplessly compelled by them. I do not choose belief - it foists itself upon me without my ability to resist it if the evidence is compelling.
I have never "refused to accept" an argument in my life. Arguments have just failed to support the claim they were for - that's all.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Miss Hepburn
I don't know why homeopathy was brought up
Solely as an example to highlight a point. I could have used 1000s of other examples. It was the first one to jump to mind.
The point just being that we as humans often have a "It cant hurt" and "Why not" mentality in times of duress or desperation. We think "Well nothing else has worked - so why not just give this thing a try even if it appears to be totally nonsense".
Homeopathy is a _very_ common example of that. I think atheists turning to prayer - although much rarer I suspect - is too.
But though prayer itself is nonsense - as you rightly point out the effects of it are not. Mantras and internal focus is a good thing. It is what makes meditation great. Prayer is just "Meditation lite" to my mind.
And hell - so weird is our species that Placebo has been shown to work _even when you expressly and clearly tell the patient it is a placebo_!
an atheist is one who refuses to accept any argument they have yet heard that convinces them that there is a god. Most do NOT claim there is not a god. I would call that a closed minded atheist.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Harry Diogenes
Perhaps it is my English, but it is not that I refuse evidence, it is that I have not seen any credible argument for any gods.
That's what hit me. It is not denying all evidence on principle, but not having had any presented that really makes a good case for a god. Otherwise, it was fair enough.
I don't know why homeopathy was brought up...but I bought that stuff ya take when you feel something is
coming on, cold, sore throat...and it has worked 2 xs....so, nonsense?
Unvalidated. The explanatory mechanism for how it works appears to make no sense. But it could be something that works and we don't know why or how. But some tests were done on recovery rates and they seemed better than prayer But inconclusive. Personal experience of being healed by it is rather anecdotal and suffers from the same problem, which is why personal experiences do not make for Data.
Quote:
Likewise, prayer for an atheist isn't nonsense, because it focuses their mind...their intentions...some
could call it talking to their higher self, their super consciousness...(if they believe in the subconscious at all, that is,
then, maybe they believe in that.)
Of course we believe in the subconscious. It's a really odd thing. It seems both useless - even counter -productive, but also essential, foolish and absurd, but also really smart, coming up with ideas and solution our dayshift brain doesn't come up with. I think an atheist would not pray, or even meditate other than as a mental excercise. We would think and reason and train the brain. It's like a sportsman. They can body -train, but that won't help them to win sports. That requires learning to do the sport. And prayer of course does nothing to help them win, even if they sometimes think it does.
Incidentally, how's the NLD kneeling furore going?
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Look him up on youtube...lol
But inconclusive. Personal experience of being healed by it is rather anecdotal and suffers from the same problem, which is why personal experiences do not make for Data. 
