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How many times have you prayed for something that has come true?
How many times have you prayed for something that has not come true?
I can guarantee you the second number is far larger, but there's this handy psychological thing called "confirmation bias" where the positives stick in your mind more than the negatives.
Also, how often have you prayed for something that has come true through something that was likely to happen anyway or could be attributed to coincidence or luck?
It's far too easy to interpret good things as divine intervention simply because they're good. If you ask me, a sign from a deity would not be up for debate as it would be pretty damn obvious.
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I have to admit you make a valid and pretty solid point.
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Generally when you pray for something, rather than actually receiving it, you gain the opportunity to do it yourself. You pray for success...your dates are clear, your study books arrive, it's down to you surely?
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Then why pray? I'd rather waste my time on something useful then.
If it's all up to you(like we were saying all along), then really there's no point in praying... God doesn't listen anyway.
Really... When shit goes right, you have to thank yourself and be happy about yourself. not give the credit to a being that may or may not exist.
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I think what STM means is when you prey, although you may or may not get help from god, you still need to do something yourself. In my train ticket example I still had to ask the garbage collector if she had scooped up any tickets.
regardless of wheather god does or doesn't exist, the belief that we have gods help after praying lowers the amount of panic and/or fear we have, allowing us to think a bit more clearly and thus is still helpful even if we are wrong and god is nonexistant