[Porsche-O-Phile]

I always found the notion of prayer to ask for things (either material things or immaterial things like peace, strength, etc.) to be kind of ridiculous. If one believes in the omnipotent power of a greater power, diety, god, etc. (like most bible-thumpers and other religious types do), and this universe exists solely due to that diety's influence(s) and according to his/her/its plan, wouldn't it be kind of offensive to say "hey, gee. God? Yea. It's me. You know that little thing you did with [whatever your petition is]? Well, you kind of f*cked it up. It really doesn't jive according to MY expectations and MY plan, so why don't you go back to your drafting board and. . . you know. . . kinda' rework that whole thing so it's better suited to me and what I want. Think you can do that? Good deal."

Prayer to ask for things is a way of directly questioning the legitimacy of the plan supposedly divinely created. I suppose prayer to be thankful is equally silly. If there's a divine master plan (I personally hate this concept because it smacks of pseudo-Calvanist determinism), they why SHOULD we be thankful? Our place, our role and our action and the outcome of those actions are all scripted and "according to the plan" then, right? So why should I be thankful? It's like so-and-so actor or actress saying, "gee mister Hollywood producer/script writer guy - I just wanted to let you know how thankful I am that the part I'm playing is so wonderful". If it's ultimately not going to change anything one way or the other (you're going to have the same role to play in "God's plan", then who cares? It just comes off as sort of drippy and sad/pathetic. It's a "sucking up" exercise.

I dunno. I just don't get it. What's the point of prayer? Unless one simply doesn't believe in the universal authority of a diety or cosmic force and that our lives are in accordance with "God's plan", there really isn't much point. If we DO in fact have direction, control and say-so over our own lives and the world/universe around us, then isn't prayer kind of a waste of time? Seems to me the time/effort/energy expended would be better spent on actually trying to influence and create the world around us we want for ourselves, rather than sucking up to a diety that might or might not provide it, according to his/her/its whims.