Why Christians Will Never be Able to Explain Prayer

What is the purpose of prayer supposed to be? If God is all powerful and all-knowing and has a plan for the entire universe, how does it make any logical sense to ask him for anything? Are you going to change his mind and get him to do something he wouldn't have otherwise? Bring a problem to his attention that he wasn't aware of? It's pretty clear that, given the current Christian concept of God, prayer is just flatly logically incoherent.

I've heard Christians tentatively babble their way around this, but I rarely hear sustained attempts at explaining what prayer is supposed to do. Today, I will treat you to a video where a guy named Nate with a channel called "Wise Disciple" gives it his best shot. It's very telling - not only in terms of his personal inability to make the case, but in illustrating why Christians don't (and probably can't) themselves.

------------------------------------

STUFF ABOUT ME AND WHERE TO FIND ME

My mailing address:
PO Box 773024
Eagle River, AK 99577

[gothboschincarnate]

"I prayed and asked God for a bike, but I remembered that's not how God works; so I stole a bike, and asked God for forgiveness."

[thedeebo]

God wants a personal relationship with us, so naturally the way to make that happen is to have one-way "conversations" inside your own head. This is totally how normal relationships with real people work and not how small children interact with their imaginary friends...

[karenlankford]

I freaked out a Christian once by suggesting that maybe God does not want me to believe in him and that my being an atheist might be part of the plan. Hence, trying to make me a believer might be defying God's will.

[hossmcgregor]

"I'll heal your cancer, you just have to ask. Oh, sorry, I decided 6, 000 years ago that you weren't going to be healed. Sorry about your luck" How is this NOT an abusive relationship?

[TitusRedwind]

Prayer works all the time if you ignore all the times that it doesn't.

[GenerationX]

Even as a kid growing up religious I kind of wondered how praying worked any better than not praying. It seemed like I always got the same results whether I prayed or not. Even as a kid I found that suspicious.

[scottgrohs]

The fact that one weekend of meditation at a Buddhist temple in South Korea made me feel closer to the hereafter than decades of in-church and at-home prayer ever did is one of the factors that led to my deconversion.

[michaelstanet]

Prayer: God if it is your will, please do the thing, I am asking you do, that you knew I would ask you to do, before I ever existed, and whatever you do is part of your plan and is good no matter what, so just please continue to be the being you have always been and could never be different, I guess.

[MrKyle]

These were all nagging questions I had when I was still a Christian, and ended up being instrumental in my transition away from religion. Thanks for covering this topic!

[kevinroche]

So, have I got this right?
Ask and it shall be given, or it won't.
Don't ask and won't be given, but it might.
Makes perfect sense to me.

[rationalityrus]

I heard a talk once from a Christian believer who told the story of his daughter that was prematurely born. Very underweight and she had to be in the hospital for something like a year to two years. There was also a variety of operations that had to be done. All the while the parents were praying for the daughter to get better. At about her 5th birthday, and I cannot imagine what kind of stress and medical bills were suffered in those five years, she has become a normal 5 year old. Of course the speaker gave all the credit to god. How do these people not notice that if there is an all powerful, all knowing god, then that means he made her sick in the first place. Her being sick, the parents groveling for her survival, the stress, the near bankruptcy, would then have been part of his 'plan'. Excuse me, am I missing something here, doesn't this make god look like some kind of thug? Better I think to praise the medical staff and technology that allowed their daughter to survive, rather than some immoral myth.

[jabberwocky]

"You have not, because you ask not"... then when nothing happens: "you receive not, because you ask amiss." yep, it's always our fault when things don't go our way.

[bobmudge]

Seems like asking a god with anger-management issues to change his eternal plan because you don’t like it would be pretty risky.

[IAMBDVX]

He wants to be personal so he wrote a book for us thousands of years ago and ignores us otherwise?

[iomis]

I love the mental gymnastics it takes to fit God into reality. Usually the simple answer is the correct one. The one that requires such an out of the way answer is usually wrong.

[dasbus]

But if prayer doesn't work, how else are we supposed to find our car keys? 🤔

[pjosephlthewonder]

At a month before I was tossed from the religious cult, we were in the 'indoc class catechism and the nun teaching handed out a sheet of paper, explained that one of the things we needed to do for our relation with god to work was to write down our deepest prayers, and let the church collect them for god. I sat there for the time allotted for this, wrote nothing down, and turned in a blank sheet. when asked why it was blank I replied 'He as you pointed out knows everything about me, then he knows the wishes as well, and that is the personal relation he and I have.' For some reason this was wrong and got me pulled out of the class and halled to off to the headmasters office, where I sat till it was time to leave the place and go home. My mother was explained what went on and told I had homework to do. I did after being forced by my parents to do so wrote down three 'prayers'. they did not go over all that well. Peace

[probablynotmyname]

Prayer has always struck me as part of the way that you prove you are part of the group. You go to church and you stand in a group and mumble incantations to prove to everyone else that you are part of the in crowd. What has always irked me though is when people say they will pray for “x” when they blatantly dont.

[Quinn]

Thanks for covering this, Zod - this exact issue was the inciting spark that led me down the rabbithole that is deconstruction. In my church we were taught that prayer changes the pray-er (the person praying) because it strengthens your relationship with God, but it doesn't change his mind on things. So I never prayed for specific outcomes, only that God would do more vague things like "give me strength/peace/comfort in this difficult time." It makes for a pretty weak and wishy-washy God, and even as a high schooler, I realized the irreconcilability of our conception of God with our conception of prayer.

[nativeamericancowboy]

My dad is the pastor of a church and my mom is a choir director.
They are constantly reinforcing their beliefs.
If they're not going to a physical church program, then they are watching church on TV.
If they're not watching church on tv, then they're watching it on the internet.
If they're not watching it on the internet, then they're talking on the phone with another Christian about church and Jesus.
They make sure the walls around that bubble remain thick and reinforced.
They're some of the most boldly frightened people you'll ever meet.