Say a Little Prayer For Me

It was National Prayer Day this week and, of course, I did not participate. As an atheist, I don't pray, and frankly I just don't get it. I certainly see no major harm in it, but I find it to be as superstitious as crossing one's fingers or knocking on wood.

As I see it, there are three different types of prayer. There is the ritualistic prayer that is found in all major religions, that is a part of the faith. The Muslims who pray several times per day toward Mecca, or the nuns that lie prostrate before the cross, working in shifts, making sure someone is there 24 hours a day. This is prayer of contrition, to show their servitude to God, and if that's what they believe, go for it.

There's also the casual, quid pro quo prayer, such as the guy who cheats and then has remorse: "Please God, let me get out of this and I'll never do this again." I don't think anyone, including the supposed God, takes this seriously.

What mystifies me is the prayer asking for something. I see this a lot on Facebook; when someone announces an illness or some other calamity, they will either ask for prayers, or someone will say, "I'm sending my prayers!" I just don't get this. Is this like signing a petition, or sending in a song request to a radio station, hoping it will do some good? I'm unclear of how this works, since these same people will say that something bad is God's will. If it's God's will, doesn't that mean that pleas to the contrary will fall on deaf ears?

I think that prayer, like most religious practices, are self-created by humanity in order to make us feel better. The person praying feels like they are doing something, when in fact there's nothing you can do, and the prayed for feel loved, and maybe thinks that an appeal to God will work. But surely we all know that everyone must die, even the pious, so prayers at some point don't work.

What do people do when they pray? I see what the Muslims and Jews and Catholic clergy do, but what does the non-regular churchgoer do when someone is sick and they say they are going to pray for them? Is it simply a silent thought, a belief that God has the capacity to hear all our thoughts and then decide which to answer? The image most of us have is of the child at bedtime, kneeling at the bedside. But do adults still pray this way?

I have an uncle, only 67, who has stage IV cancer, and probably doesn't have long to live. It's sad, but there's nothing I can do other than let him know that I'm pulling for him. But prayer, in my book, is a waste of time, because even if there is a God, I would find it hard to believe that he (or she) could be swayed by public sentiment. It's a confusing issue.