I think so too. A complete atheist wouldn’t have asked the question in the first place. Why would you ask whether God hears your prayers if you were convinced that no God exists? (And to those of you atheists who have posted here to point out that, from your perspective, prayer is worthless: Well, duh!)
Speaking as a believer, I couldn’t tell you with any degree of certainty whether, when, or how my own prayers “count.” But I don’t let that stop me from praying. I think that as long as your mind and heart are open to the possibility that Someone’s listening, and that what you’re praying for isn’t bad or selfish or contrary to that Someone’s will, go right ahead and pray. And while you’re at it, it wouldn’t hurt to pray for things like wisdom or knowledge of whether God exists and what God is like and whether/how God wants you to pray and what things you ought to pray for and/or work for. If that kind of prayer goes completely unanswered for long enough, then I wouldn’t blame you too much for giving up on the whole prayer thing.
Because a) some of us accept that we could be wrong, b) we like to know what our religious brothers and sister think about things, and c) it’s still a good hypothetical either way? I might as well say a “complete” theist couldn’t concieve of a world where their belief is wrong, or care what atheists think.
It depends. If you beleive there is no God, yet you are praying to a God, even though you don’t know which God is the true God, and just address it to the creator of the universe or something like that, I’d say that somewhere inside you there is some faith, though you may not realize it and it may be very small. So there is some faith on some level, so yes I’d say He hears it.
If you absolutely don’t beleive in a God and you are just praying because a friend asked you to, you are basically giving lip service, and God doesn’t take that from anyone, believer or not.
Now a interesting case would be that you are only praying to comfort only the person who asks, you are visibly praying to a God that you don’t beleive in, you are putting on a show to help that person, and that is the only reason. I’d say that the prayer wouldn’t be heard by God, as it is lip service, but OTOH, you are helping another, or at least beleive you are helping someone, so there might be something for that.
Prayers, as a general rule, are sent by servants of God, to God, for the ends of God’s glory.
Standing on my porch, enjoying a cup of coffee, I realized:
“Pray” means “ask”. Or “beg”.
As in,
“Oh Lord, won’t you give me a Mercedes Benz”
All predictable platitudes aside, I don’t believe god would allow a lot of the shit that happens to innocents.
And I grew up in catholic school, so I’ve pretty much heard them all.
But I do believe that religious faith does keep some people from doing evil things.
From a “logical” standpoint. If there was a Christian god, he would have the following characteristics:
He would be omniscient
He would be omnipotent
He would be perfect
What this means is, god knows everything that is, that was and that will be. He always knew it and always will. When god created the universe, he already knew this and, since he is perfect and omnipotent, made the universe to his specifications (whatever he plans on happening will happen, why futz around?) This means no matter how many people pray, no matter their devtion, god will not change his mind on the matter. If you live or die, it is all god’s will. Prayers mean basically nothing except to yourself and the people who see you pray. In that manner, yes, your prayers will have the same effect as a devoted christian, in that it will have no effect on god’s plans.
Christian here (whoa, Surprise there!) and I have a few Wiccan friends who I will ask to pray for me just as much as I will ask my fellow Christians. God gets His mail even if the address might not be quite correct.
There is a hardcore Christian view that we only can get to God through Jesus, so we must address our prayers through Him. That led to an unfortunate comment from the head of the Southern Baptist Convention, Bailey Smith, around 1979-1980, that was sound-bited into “God does not hear the prayers of a Jew”. But Jesus, to continue my analogy, is not that harsh a postal inspector.
I’m a believer(Christian) and I certainly believe that all prayers, by anyone, are heard. Only problem is that God doesn’t always give us exactly what any of us ask for.
I’d have to say no, because non-believers are, by definition, not praying to anyone. If being a good person and not believing doesn’t get you into heaven, praying and not believing doesn’t get you answered.
(Personally, I agree with those who say that prayer is equally as effective from either; in other words, “bloody Mary, bloody Mary, bloody Mary.”)
If one of my Pagan friends asked me to pray to, oh, Kernunnos and Aradia, I couldn’t do it. I don’t believe they are real deities and for me to do so would be a betrayal of my faith. Nor would it be appropriate if I ask for their prayers for me to demand they pray to Yahweh/Jesus.
No one tells a friend who is asking for prayer for the relief of suffering “No, I won’t pray, I am an atheist, and prayers are a useless waste of time.”
Christians won’t say, “Well, I will, if your friend is a good Christian, but prayers for heathens are a waste of time.”
They might well be of that opinion, but they don’t say it. (Except on the Internet, but people say anything on the Internet.) (Okay, and real assholes, too, they might say it.) What keeps them from saying it is the unspoken understanding that human kindness, if no other force is called for in this social situation. Atheists have it. Christians have it, too. The request for prayer might possibly have a religious intent, but generally it is a evocation of human kindness.
Be kind. Save the theology for seminary, or the Internet.
Would you tell someone you’re praying for them if you weren’t, or would you sidestep it altogether? “Pray for me, Tris!” “Dude…I’ll be thinking of you.”
I mean, you can care about someone without lying about something like that.
Thank you for saying this, Tris. It is what I meant to say; you said it better. Tolerance and kindness are always the appropriate response to a request for support.
Well, I don’t need to lie about it, I am a Christian, I feel that prayer does more for me, than for those for whom I pray, but yep, sure, I will pray that your poodle gets over his psoriasis, if you ask. ( I happen to believe God is very tolerant of this kind of stuff.)
If I were an atheist, I would not promise to pray, but I would offer what emotional support I could give myself, without drawing attention to the matter of belief. If pressed, I would ask if God was going to hear me, what with me being an atheist, and all. But, I wouldn’t bring it up on my own. People who are suffering don’t need pedantic shit to worry about.