“You’re in our prayers.”

A fairly mostly statement posted on my facebook wall after posting that I was sick and might not be able to go to work tomorrow. I usually wouldn’t give it a second glance; for prayer (according to the movie “Finding Forrester”) “(prayer) …is like believing in luck, it doesn’t hurt anyone and there’s the off-chance it might be beneficial.”

Then I got stuck on the question of why people pray at all. The most obvious answer is that they hope (in the words of Ambrose Bierce’s “Devil’s Dictionary:) “pray, v. To ask the laws of the universe to be annulled on behalf of a single petitioner confessedly unworthy.” but then I thought to myself that this can’t be right. Many intelligent people who, while spiritual, aren’t religious would know that praying is like tweeting— screaming into the ether and hoping someone cares enough to do something.

So then I considered that maybe prayer could be a psychological catch-all for people who feel powerless in a given situation. When there’s really nothing you can do, why not ask a higher power to accomplish what you can not? After coming to this realization, I felt a brief burst of anger that people didn’t take the initiative in their own and others’ lives to make the world better, rather than just asking the void, and hoping for miraculous boons. However, I then realize that most people pray for things that it is ACTUALLY impossible for them to do, such as assisting victims of a natural disaster on the other side of the world (after donating what they can spare, of course.)

Another flash of anger reared its head (I tend to be angry when I’m sick) as I realized that people failed to realize that an omnipotent deity would NOT change its decision to change what it allegedly put into motion at the behest of a gaggle of people…

Then I facepalmed myself (ow, headache) and concluded that there was no point in overthinking.