Praying

I PRAY. Even though I am not religious, embrace no formal, organized religion, and in fact generally have contempt for all religion, I pray. Why? Maybe it works. In fact,it does work,demonstrably. Like religion itself, it gives comfort and inspiration, demonstrably positive, efficacious attributes. Someone noticed that famed scientist Neils Bohr had a horseshoe hanging on the wall of his office, pointing upward, an invitation to capture good luck. Asked why a solid, serious scientist would have this lucky talisman on full display, and whether Dr. Bohr truly believed in this superstition, the famed scientist replied: "Of course not, but that doesn't mean that it doesn't work". This perfectly matches my attitude about prayer. Whether or not it has any tangible benefit, it does for me, inspiration and comfort, so, I pray. The only thing I do when I pray is give thanks..to..whatever, whomever. I give thanks to what I call "God", and what Einstein called "the old eternal genius who built the world", and "the ancient one", and "the infinitely superior spirit which is revealed in what little we, with our weak and transitory understanding, can comprehend of reality". The Spinozan diety of Einstein and me, gluing the universe together, giving comfort and inspiration. As far as I am concerned I have lived and do live a happy, fulfilling life, and I am immensely grateful to the universe which has made it all possible. As you might expect, many intense, serious studies have been done on prayer, by very well ecucated researchrs of all acaademic disciplines,from mathematicians, philosiphers, and poets, to sociologists, psychlogists, physicists, and neural scientists. Any human activity as profoundly fundamental to human existence cannot avoid sustained sctutiny for long. The main result, reached repeatedly, is that the chances of a prayer, any prayer, being answered in the affirmative are identical to the laws or random probability. Prayer is a roll of the dice. God, strictly obeying the laws of nature, of quantum mechanics. To me, that makes perfect sense. I never ask my God for anything, or very rearely do. (A tight Yankees baseball game late in the pennant race can arouse me to make a rare exception.) I reason thus: why ask God for something, for anything, or try to control or influence God's behavior? Does God not already know, long before my weak and meager prayer, exactly what I deserve, what I will and won't receive, what will happen to me, why, and what he himself will do? How can I possibly change any of that? I have never heard a good argument to the contrary. Famed atheist intellectual Christopher Hitchens made an interesting observation. He wrote: "The man who prays thinks God has arranged things incorrectly, but that he can instruct God how to put them right". My thoughts exactly. To me, the "Lord's prayer" is nothing other than an orchestrated way of giving orders to God (give us this day our daily bread,etc.) The ritual prayer begins with a sort of pandering supplication to the Almighty, and ends with orders and demands, from us, to Him. Maybe Jim Morrison said it best, when he screams in a song: "You cannot petition the lord!" Certainly,that doesn't stop us from trying. I'll keep praying, just to say thank you, and leave it at that, without asking for anything, without trying to change God's behavior, or giving any orders to God. For my part, its the best I can do, and the only thing that really works, at least for me.