If you want to save your child from polio you can pray or you can inoculate. ... Choose science.

Not only do I not know what I believe but also I cannot know for sure that I believe. How can I define precisely what my attitude is toward something it cannot conceivably grasp Can I be said to be in the relation of belief in any usual sense of that term toward something that I cheerfully and readily acknowledge to be absolutely incomprehensible to me... No man can be sure that he is in faith and we can say of no man with certainty that he has or does not have faith. ...Not only does faith always carry its opposite uncertainty within itself but also this faith is never a static condition that is -had- but a movement toward... And toward what In the nature of the case we cannot state this what. We cannot make a flat assertion about our faith like a simple assertion that we have blue eyes or are six feet tall. More than this the affirmation of our faith can never be made in the simple indicative mood at all. The statement I believe can only be uttered as a prayer.

All those books all those prayers and she had got nothing from them. When everything went well for her she had been able to pray she couldnt now. There was such urgency in her present situation that until the pressure was removed she couldnt think about God. She hadnt the patience to pray. It was a shock to her. Surely God was for these times

To think of our prayers as just causes would suggest that the whole importance of petitionary prayer lay in the achievement of the thing asked for. But really for our spiritual life as a whole the being taken into account or considered matters more than the being granted. Religious people dont talk about the results of prayer they talk of its being answered or heard.... We can bear to be refused but not to be ignored. In other words our faith can survive many refusals if they really are refusals and not mere disregards. The apparent stone will be bread to us if we believe that a Fathers hand put it into ours in mercy or in justice or even in rebuke.

An ancient cornerstone of prayer is that our desire to thank God is itself Gods gift. Be grateful.

Replace worry with prayer. Make the decision to pray whenever you catch yourself worrying.

Lord whatsoever this day may bring Thy name be praised. Be gracious unto me and help me. Grant me strength to bear whatsoever Thou dost send And let not fear overrule me. I trust Thy grace and commit my life wholly into Thy Hands. Whether I live or whether I die I am with Thee and Thou are with me Lord I wait for Thy salvation and for the coming of Thy Kingdom. Amen.

Prayer adds an element of surprise to your life that is more fun than a surprise party or surprise gift or surprise romance. In fact prayer turns life into a party into a gift into a romance.

I dont believe in prayer but I do believe in magic and I want to believe in miracles.

1. Myth Without God life has no meaning. There are 1.2 billion Chinese who have no predominant religion and 1 billion people in India who are predominantly Hindu. And 65 of Japans 127 million people claim to be non-believers. It is laughable to suggest that none of these billions of people are leading meaningful lives.2. Myth Prayer works. Studies have now shown that inter-cessionary prayer has no effect whatsoever of the health or well-being of the subject.3. Myth Atheists are immoral.There are hundreds of millions of non-believers on the planet living normal decent moral lives. They love their children care about others obey laws and try to keep from doing harm to others just like everyone else. In fact in predominantly non-believing countries such as in northern Europe measures of societal health such as life expectancy at birth adult literacy per capita income education homicide suicide gender equality and political coercion are better than they are in believing societies.4. Myth Belief in God is compatible with science. In the past every supernatural or paranormal explanation of phenomena that humans believed turned out to be mistaken science has always found a physical explanation that revealed that the supernatural view was a myth. Modern organisms evolved from lower life forms they werent created 6000 years ago in the finished state. Fever is not caused by demon possession. Bad weather is not the wrath of angry gods. Miracle claims have turned out to be mistakes frauds or deceptions. We have every reason to conclude that science will continue to undermine the superstitious worldview of religion.5. Myth We have immortal souls that survive death.We have mountains of evidence that makes it clear that our consciousness our beliefs our desires our thoughts all depend upon the proper functioning of our brains our nervous systems to exist. So when the brain dies all of these things that we identify with the soul also cease to exist. Despite the fact that billions of people have lived and died on this planet we do not have a single credible case of someones soul or consciousness or personality continuing to exist despite the demise of their bodies.6. Myth If there is no God everything is permitted.Consider the billions of people in China India and Japan above. If this claim was true none of them would be decent moral people. So Ghandi the Buddha and Confucius to name only a few were not moral people on this view.7. Myth Believing in God is not a cause of evil.The examples of cases where it was someones belief in God that was the justification for their evils on humankind are too numerous to mention.8. Myth God explains the origins of the universe.All of the questions that allegedly plague non-God attempts to explain our origins still apply to the faux explanation of God. The suggestion that God created everything does not make it any clearer to us where it all came from how he created it why he created it where it is all going. In fact it raises even more difficult mysteries how did God operating outside the confines of space time and natural law create or build a universe that has physical laws We have no precedent and maybe no hope of answering or understanding such a possibility. What does it mean to say that some disembodied spiritual being who knows everything and has all power loves us or has thoughts or goals or plans9. Myth Theres no harm in believing in God.Religious views inform voting how they raise their children what they think is moral and immoral what laws and legislation they pass who they are friends and enemies with what companies they invest in where they donate to charities who they approve and disapprove of who they are willing to kill or tolerate what crimes they are willing to commit and which wars they are willing to fight.