CreateDebate


Debate Info

4
3
Yay Nay
Debate Score:7
Arguments:5
Total Votes:7
More Stats

Argument Ratio

side graph
 
 Yay (3)
 
 Nay (2)

Debate Creator

Liber(1730) pic



The argument for the effectiveness of prayer is post hoc ergo propter hoc.

The argument being something along the lines of, "I prayed for the rain to stop, and the rained stopped; therefore, my prayed worked."

Yay

Side Score: 4
VS.

Nay

Side Score: 3
2 points

I would say that your example isn't how all people define prayer.

In that sense, of course, but I feel that there is a lot better criticism against prayer.

I was once speaking with a strongly Christian person, and when I said "okay, God is infinitely wise and powerful and knows all and causes all, right?"

and he said "yes."

So I said "well, if God is infinitely wise and powerful, why do you pray? I can see it just being for your own assurance, but do you actually feel that your prayer is making a difference in what God does?"

He didn't agree that prayer was for his own assurance, and he feels that prayer does make a difference. However, if he believes that God is infinitely wise and powerful, there would be no point to asking for his divine intervention or such.

You really have to know the basis, but this is what I usually run into.

Side: Yay

There are these prayers on youtube that you have to recite over and over. And i did for many times because i was depressed mentally. And for week to come, i became happy. I began to ignore "other's" words and became happy.

It was probably a coincidence but i may never know. I have stopped saying the prayer because i thought Jesus wasn't God. Jesus is God and now i realized how not demented that "saying" was. I thought it was demented because i thought Jesus wasn't God. It sounds crazy what im saying but when you become religious, any disease is the demon. lol...it could be true. But i believe in science as well.

Side: Yay
hhioh(454) Disputed
2 points

Not trying to burst your prayer bubble (I believe in the Christ as Saviour as well) but it says "When you pray, don't babble on and on as people of other religions do. They think their prayers are answered only by repeating their words again and again. Don't be like them, because your Father knows exactly what you need before you even ask him!" Matthew 6:7-8

Side: nay

Prayer is effective, the answer may not always be what you want. Sometimes the answer is no. Prayer works more along these lines.

A woman prays that all she wants in life is to win the lottery. Night after night she does this. After months of praying, she starts to get discouraged, but continues. Two more months go by and she is get anger, but still prays. One day see is just fed up with praying and begins to whine about God not answering her prayers. She screams out in rage, "Why don't you just do this one thing for me?" A voice says, "Lady, If you want to win, you have to buy a lottery ticket."

Side: nay
1 point

A woman prays that all she wants in life is to win the lottery. Night after night she does this. After months of praying, she starts to get discouraged, but continues. Two more months go by and she is get anger, but still prays. One day see is just fed up with praying and begins to whine about God not answering her prayers. She screams out in rage, "Why don't you just do this one thing for me?" A voice says, "Lady, If you want to win, you have to buy a lottery ticket."

The moral in that story seems to be 'if you want something done, do it yourself.' Doesn't that just contradict your previous statement?

Side: Yay