For some people no and for others yes. President Trunp was recently shown in the Oval office in a photo with 17 people who were praying. We were informed they were Christians and they were praying for him. They were praying for God to keep him healthy; for his protection and for other things but only a few of the praying people were interviewed. These people must have had genuine concerns over the safety of President Trump and they wanted God to protect him from harm and to keep him alive we suppose until at least the end of his term as president which is January, 2029, a bit less than three years from now. The remark that caused this post is that extra prayer never hurt anyone. That’s correct at least for believers but proyer takes time and time is limited so there is a cost for prayer and since prayer apparently has a lack of measureble efficacy to put it charitably that cost may be higher than the benefit. There is no way to measure that because the cost to pray is immeasureable. If prayer helps even in some small way it has benefits. If it doesn’t help than it is at least costly in terms of time. Prayer often provides comfort and comfort has value but it contradicts the world of science that tells us that everything in the universe works according to natural laws. Things don’t just appear and disappear at random. Water doesn’t transform into wine and rocks don’t float up into the air but the idea of a supernatural universe tells us the universe is ruled by miracles. It contradicts everything we know about the universe. Prayer implores God to contradict his own natural laws. Perhaps that works for some people but the inherent contradictions are too much for most people. If God created natural laws why would he break them? And since God is just how can he be asked to break his own laws? That’s far too complicated for most people including me but it appears that President Trump agrees with the praying people. Or, perhaps he disagrees but doesn’t desire a confrontation so he goes along without objection. Maybe that’s OK and it is also what happened. I wonder if President Trump would give equal time to un-believers and to objectors? My supposition is he would not. Now my head hurts.
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