Introduction

Prayer is a very important concept to most Christians. To most atheists, it is a very peculiar and unusual concept.

Christians are often curious to know why atheists so easily dismiss the apparent power of prayer. The reason is simply that many atheists find the beliefs of Christianity to be logically contradictory in a number of ways. When two statements contradict each other, at least one of them must be false. Something that is a logical contradiction cannot exist in reality.

Five Basic Assumptions of Christianity

To understand the problems that atheists see in prayer, we must first start with five basic assumptions that all Christians make about their God:

1. God is all-knowing. He knows everything that has happened in the past, is aware of everything going on in the present, and knows what will happen in the future.
2. God is all-powerful. He has the power to do anything we can imagine.
3. God has a plan: He created us, the planet, and the universe with a purpose, and we are all part of that purpose. Everything that happens to us or around us is a part of that plan, even though we don't always see the plan or understand it. Everything happens for a reason. (We often hear about God's plan when something bad happens: "Well, it is all part of God's plan, and we aren't always meant to understand his plan.")
4. God gave us free will, and this is why evil exists in the world. Because some people are sinners and choose evil.
5. God has the ability to answer prayers. God hears all prayers, but sometimes his answer is no.

So far so good. Each of these concepts seems perfectly reasonable in and of themselves. But when we start combining them with other notions, we start to run into trouble, as we will see shortly.

Three Basic Contradictions of Prayer

Now we will ask three yes or no questions. And we will demonstrate that regardless of how you answer the question, you invariably contradict one of the basic assumptions described above.

Q: Can the actions of man change God's plan?

• If Yes, then it isn't much of a plan. If the plan must be changed based on something man does, or something he wishes to do, then it would seem to indicate that god is neither all-powerful nor all-knowing. The whole notion that he has a plan suggests that there was some outcome which he had pre-ordained. If there is some contingency that he failed to plan for, then God is not all-knowing. Likewise, if man can force God to change his plan, God is not all-powerful.
• If No, then man doesn't really have free-will. All of our actions and the consequences of our actions have been pre-determined for us by God. If what we do will make no difference in the long run, then our actions are inconsequential, and what we perceive to be free-will is really just an illusion; an elaborate part of God's plan.

Q: Does God sometimes interfere in the affairs of man? (Does he occasionally affect the outcomes of situations by changing things in our world?)

• If Yes, then it must be that sometimes God intervenes and other times he does not. Therefore he occasionally chooses to interfere with free will, and yet he also allows evil to exist. (For example, he could apparently stop the shooting rampage at the school, or the bus from skidding out of control over the cliff, but he doesn't.) Someone who has the power to stop evil but chooses not to do it is acting immorally.
• If No, then this means God either will not or can not answer prayers; at least those prayers that take the form of asking God to perform an action on someone's behalf. But if God does not interfere in the actions of men, then there is no point to praying for such things. It may also be an indication that god is not all-powerful.

Q: Does praying alter God's plan?

• If Yes, then it isn't much of a plan. It also suggests that god is not all-knowing, is not perfect, and is not unchanging. If your prayers can cause him to change his mind, this means he either was not aware that there was a problem that needed his attention, or that he was previously unwilling to perform a particular action, but now he is not.
• If No, then there is absolutely no point in praying, because he was apparently already going to do or not do the thing for which we asked, regardless of the prayers. (And there is no need to explicitly "tell God" that you are aware of the situation. He is all knowing; he already knows your thoughts.)

Here's the real crux of the problem. I've seen Christians do all sorts of tap dancing around the above three questions. But they always do it one at a time. However, it is absolutely impossible to answer all three without contradicting the answers for one the others. Unless you are willing to admit that one of our initial five assumptions were invalid, which few if any seem willing to do.

Which means the entire belief system is flawed and needs to be replaced with something that is logically consistent.

Atheistic Alternatives to Prayer

Common reasons that people pray for something are when they feel helpless in a situation, or when they feel overwhelmed by a situation, or when they lack information or need an answer to a question.

Atheists, however, view prayer as ultimately pointless. Every scientifically valid study (example 1, example 2) that has ever been done on intercessory prayer has shown that the results of something happening after it is prayed for happen in the exact same percentage as could be expected for that result to happen by chance.

For example, imagine a group of people with a particular type of cancer where the mortality rate is 60%. Given a large enough group of people, 40% of people who are prayed for will recover, and 40% of people who aren't prayed for will also recover. The effect of praying or not praying is exactly the same.

So what are some things you might do instead of praying?

• If you want to get a better grade on that test, instead of praying for God's help, why not just study more? Find other resources. Take some sample tests. Find a study partner.
• If you want to help someone who is sick, go and visit them in the hospital. Send flowers. Contribute money to research for whatever disease it is that they are afflicted with.
• If you want to help people who have just had their homes destroyed in a hurricane, donate money to the Red Cross or some other relief agency. Or consider getting in your car and driving down there to volunteer in some way. God isn't going to rebuild those homes; it will require people to do it.
• If you want to lose weight, get up off the sofa and exercise. You've got two legs; use them. Change your diet; eat healthier foods. Get the proper amount of rest. Stop smoking.
• If you need advice or an answer to question, ask another human! Or read a book. Or search on the Web. Or meditate on it (that's all prayer is anyway).

Atheists view prayer as a substitute for taking real action (pray for the hurricane victims). It is a way to shirk responsibility (pray for a good grade instead of studying). It is a way for a lazy person to avoid inconveniencing themselves (pray to lose weight).

Don't fall into the victim mentality of "I wish someone would do something!" Guess what? You ARE someone. Go do something!

You are rarely as helpless in a situation as you might feel. All of us can make a contribution in some way, no matter how small. This is how we will improve our society, by taking action. Not by praying for an imaginary god to do things for us.