What is prayer, and how does it work?

[notachance]

I am not aware of any empirical evidence for any supernatural claim. To the best of my knowledge, every single supernatural claim ever made is completely lacking of any empirical evidence.

Please prove me wrong by filling in the blacks in this sentence: "You're wrong. I possess empirical evidence for a supernatural claim. The claim is this: _______ The empirical evidence is this: ___________". If in your reply to this post, you write anything other than the sentence above, then it is understood that you too agree that there is no empirical evidence for any supernatural claim.

Hi everyone, here is my post about prayer. Nice and simple.

Claim 1: From a person who believes in an intervening God: "When I kneel at the foot of my bed, clasp my palms together, and whisper stuff, I am NOT talking to myself. I am communicating with God through the power of faith and prayer. God tells me he love me."

Claim 2: From a person who believes he was abducted by aliens: "When I stand on one foot, put a finger in my ear and yell out unintelligible words, I am NOT talking to myself. I am communicating with aliens through an invisible device they implanted in my brain last year. The aliens tell me they love me".

Question for debate: In what ways are claim 1 and claim 2 qualitatively different?

[Baz]

I would presume that prayer is different for everybody as I don’t think any two people think the same. To start the ball rolling for me it is an attempt to connect with something outside of myself. I believe on occasions that something of this sort happens. If this is the case by any chance, I would not expect it to be a fully conscious event for me or god. I only have feelings that my perceptions of whatever change somewhat. From an atheist point of view you could just call it internally reflecting but I think it is something more.

[McCulloch]

Many have concluded that prayer is not for God's benefit, how could it be? Prayer is for the benefit of the person praying, an attempt to look at things from an objective outsider's (God's) viewpoint and to express one's hopes, fears and needs aloud.

[ChristShepherd]

Examine the following and think.....

Matthew 7:7-8 (New American Standard Bible)
7"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8"For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

Is this statement by Jesus true?
If you ask....will you receive?
If you seek.....will you find?
If you knock....will it be opened?

It is comforting to believe in the words of Jesus.
His words can make you feel good.
But when you have problems in your life, can you rely on Jesus' words to be true?
We all know that Jesus' words are not true.

[Wootah]

I just talk to God when I pray. Imagine God is real and you just talk to him.

[Baz]

But when you have problems in your life, can you rely on Jesus' words to be true?
We all know that Jesus' words are not true.

That’s a bold statement and I don’t believe it will be accepted in many quarters.
(I am referring to you stating what we all know.

I for one see a lot of truth in the if you seek you will find bit, whoever said it first.

[notachance]

I just talk to God when I pray. Imagine God is real and you just talk to him.

Can somebody PLEASE answer my question and tell me what the qualitative difference is between the two claims in my OP?

[ThatGirlAgain]

Claim 1: From a person who believes in an intervening God: "When I kneel at the foot of my bed, clasp my palms together, and whisper stuff, I am NOT talking to myself. I am communicating with God through the power of faith and prayer. God tells me he love me."

Claim 2: From a person who believes he was abducted by aliens: "When I stand on one foot, put a finger in my ear and yell out unintelligible words, I am NOT talking to myself. I am communicating with aliens through an invisible device they implanted in my brain last year. The aliens tell me they love me".

Question for debate: In what ways are claim 1 and claim 2 qualitatively different?

Claim 1 falls within the context of an established set of behaviors that presumably are for the good of the community, e.g., the commandments cited by Jesus according to the Gospels. Praying might be construed as the renewal and reinforcement of a commitment to act in a 'good' way. Claim 2 has none of those connotations.

This is not to say that prayer is necessary to be a 'good' person, of course. But diffr'nt strokes and all that...

[Baz]

I just talk to God when I pray. Imagine God is real and you just talk to him.

Can somebody PLEASE answer my question and tell me what the qualitative difference is between the two claims in my OP?

Do you want to observe thought, belief, and opinion?
How can god be tangible? The Jews had it tapped at the start, making it a sin to produce a physical representation of god.
I think you have a good question, that is to say I don’t think there can be a correct answer.
Why would you want one?

[Cain]

I see prayer as a "lost" magical art. It has become rote recitations or simple wish-making.

Prayer originally was a process of concentrated visualization, combined with emotional and mental energy, properly grounded to the physical through proper vocalization.

The spoken Word became in essence praying, this was first understood by the ancient Egyptians in the way of Affirmations and made manifest in (Heka) vibrational magic. Efforts were made to align sound with the principles of a cosmic order (natural ordering of the universe) which perhaps could be seen as a LOGOS, the dialog with that part of your Self that has the ability to create any condition you need or desire.

The invocation within a prayer unites our meditative state of consciousness with the power of the Word and our innate force of Will.