“Tell it to the Lord in prayer.” “Pray that it may be so.” “We are praying for his or her recovery.” “Our prayers have been answered.” “I am praying that they will (or will not) choose me.” “Pray tell, what do you think of this?” “Prayer can move mountains.” “Say your evening prayers.” “On bended knee we pray.” “Our prayers are with you.” “I pray to Jesus it may be so.” “In Jesus name we pray.” “The Lord’s Prayer.” “When you pray to our Father in Heaven, say…” “Pray and the whole world prays with you.” “We will pray for your safe return.” “We pray for wisdom.” “We pray for victory.” We pray for success.” “We pray for love and understanding.” We pray for peace.” “You’d better start praying now.” “I’m praying for a bit of luck.” “That one didn’t have a prayer.”
Prayer: “an address (as a petition) to God or a god in word or thought.”
How comforting it is to think that we can somehow reach the Divine. Even though we may not understand the reply that we get, the Divine is nevertheless there, reachable by us, listening to us, able to give us guidance and sustenance when we ask, and always looking out for us. All we have to do is ask in a fervent and sincere manner, and what we want will be given to us. We understand that it may not come easily. It may take great effort on our part to achieve our goal. But the Lord is there to guide us if we just take the time to ask, open our hearts and minds to Him. Prayer is our channel to somehow connect with the power of the universe, to feel oneness with the Something that is out there greater than us and greater than anything. We always feel better when we have given ourselves to the Lord in prayer.
We suppose that the sentiments expressed above closely approximate the sentiments of the majority of the population in our country today. Prayer is certainly deeply embedded in the social fabric of our lives. We can’t go through a day without hearing the word in conversation or reference in some way. It is so commonly accepted that everyone seems to understand immediately if any one of us “prays that it is so.” We never question what is meant by that phrase, and never question the validity of that request (or prayer). If we “pray” about something, that seems to make us more sincere in our desires, and makes our desires more worthwhile. It is as if we don’t pray about anything insignificant. It has to be something really important, something worth really extending ourselves beyond our little worlds, before we will pray that something is so. We don’t pray unless it is something worth being rewarded. All the rest of us understand that if a desire if offered in prayer, it is heartfelt. We understand that God is listening to that deep desire, and will answer in his or her own way. We don’t question it.
Or maybe we should question it. There sure are a lot of problems believing in the power of prayer. The first and foremost is that if we think there is a personal god out there who is listening to us and going to reply to our requests, we are in a cesspool of trouble. There is absolutely no evidence, by any form of rational inquiry, that there is anywhere in the universe a Divine manipulator who is pulling strings, altering events by his or her whim or fancy, or else playing chess on an infinitesimally complex game board, whether by itself or playing against a Supreme devil. The evidence is, in fact, otherwise. Football teams meeting in a contest each pray to the same personal god for victory in that game. Olympic athletes pray for success against other Olympians who are praying to the same god. Irish Catholics pray to the same god as the Irish Protestants, each praying for dominance. Since their personal god doesn’t seem to be listening, each feels that they should resort to bombs and murder to eliminate their tormentors. Palestinians pray to God that all the Jews will be eliminated, and Jews pray to the same god that the Palestinians will all be exterminated. Americans pray to their god for domination over the Muslim nations, and Muslims pray to their god for vengeance against the Americans, who torture them. Soldiers on both sides of any war pray to their god for survival and for death or elimination of those soldiers on the other side. Since their god is on their side (whatsoever side that may be) bombs, murder and torture are good, because they help the side that has god on its side to win. How stupid and horrible all of this is!
How long will it take us to wake up? There is no personal god to intervene on our behalf. We can, world wide, pray until we are blue in our faces, but there is no divinity who will even so much as lift a finger to acknowledge our presence. This is not a universe of intelligent design. It is a universe of unintelligent design. There is life. It has developed in complexity by natural selection to form humans. We are all here together on this one little planet home, and the only way we will obtain long-term survival is to love and cherish one another, respect each other’s differences, learn to share, and fervently protect our planet home. We will not survive long-term by bombing, murdering, torturing, burning and polluting. Yes, there is a God. This is an all-powerful god who governs every tick, every motion, every action, every reaction, every interaction of inanimate and animate matter in this universe. This God is better known as the Laws of Chaos or the Laws of Chance. This God favors those who learn to adapt and cooperate, and kills those who are self-destructive. All we achieve by praying to our personal god is to kill each other off and destroy the only home we have. How utterly stupid!
Yet there is power in prayer. There is power in self-contemplation, reaching inside ourselves, examining our inner most thoughts, coming to grips with our deepest fears, laying our souls bare to examination, and meditating deeply on our fears and desires without rancor or preconceived prejudice. There is great power in meditation. Leave all the anger, leave all the previous wrongs and injuries, leave all the injustices, reach somewhere down into your personal gut, and say, “Is this what you want to do with your life? Is this how you want someone else to treat you? Is this how you are going to show reverence for the God of Chance and this precious life you have been given? Then the answer comes. It is not often the answer that we want, but it is an honest answer. We do have the power to analyze ourselves. We do have the power to lead more loving and productive lives. If we do these things, the God of Chance will smile upon us with favor. If we, on the other hand, pray to a personal god to intervene on our behalf, our species will writhe in the intense horror and pain of our own suicide.