The Power of Prayer

Let me begin by posing a question. Why is it that so many people around our world use prayer or meditation or some other form of deep personal searching to bring about change in their lives? Despite the intense variance in geographical locations, sociological and cultural differences, and religious belief structures, personal meditation of some kind is used by (practically) everyone. Why?

The answer, of course, is that prayer works! This is a strange proclamation coming from an atheist, but it's true. Prayer is intensely powerful tool that can affect change in our lives as well as the lives of those around us. I guarantee that you could get any lucid and intelligible human being to agree that, maybe not "prayer" in particular, but intense concentration on dreams and goals has an effect on the realization of said dreams and goals.

The conflict among people seems to lie in determining why prayer works. From this question comes much argument for divine inspiration and the "helping hand" of an infinitely mystical creator. Why then is it that when I ask, "Dear God, please let me win the lottery this week, my family is in dire need of money to assist with my education, Scot is in the hospital and has no health insurance and 93 million dollars would be a great help in that department." my prayer goes unanswered? Some would argue that it has something to do with the fact that I refuse to buy a lottery ticket, but I believe that a divine creator could manifest a lottery ticket in my pocket if it was his plan to answer my prayer. Others may argue that praying for material items and monetary gain are immoral and God simply doesn't answer those prayers.

I have another theory. It seems to me that a world as infinitely random and senseless as ours could not have been conceptualized by any being, divine or otherwise. The teachings of the Bible make for a pretty good bedtime story for children, giving greater meaning to a world that seems to be a cruel and unnecessary intermediate step between a definite beginning and end lasting for eternity. Were it the case that God, or any other divine creator for that matter (I only use God in example because it is the most familiar entitiy to me), watched over us and put us on this Earth as a test to see if we are worthy of infinite prosperity, and were it also the case that we had any respect for our future generations, we would go ahead and cut out the middle man and end this pathetic struggle for survival on an unforgiving planet now.

Furthermore, it is my belief that there is more to life on our planet than a litmus test for paradise and that it lies on us to create our own paradise here on Earth. So why does prayer work, in my opinion? All I can really say is, never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups. When people come together and meditate on something, and everyone has the same intent, it is like using a magnifying glass to set a pile of leaves ablaze; we all channel our energy into one specific outcome and from that errupts a fire that no one person has control over but all can say they took part in. Energy my friends, energy.

A question that may arise from my ramblings may be: How, in an infinitely random universe wherein entropy is said to be constantly increasing, could so much order manifest on this 3rd rock from the sun? That can be the topic of my next discussion though, it's time for class now. More on entropy and chaos later!

A fresh beginning

This is just a nice opening post for me to get the feel of everything. I don't think I'll let you comment on it because there shouldn't be much to comment on, I just thought I would write something so my page wouldn't look so barren and desolate. I hope this whole blog thing goes well... *hope hope*