Why do human beings pray?

[river]

People pray because they know no better or think they are special for some reason.

 

[Dywyddyr]

Since you don't believe in God for you is not essential . As for me a believer in God it is essential to communicate with God to maintain a relationship .

Yeah, doesn't actually address any of my points.

I don't understand your logic .

There's an entire thread on the topic, but basically, if "god" is omniscient then the future is fixed. Therefore we cannot make choices. Thus: no free will.

Lets try again . I is our will to pray to God no one is forcing us to pray to God I have made my choice to pray and you made your choice not to pray . God is not forcing us to pray and be grateful .

So, one more time: what is the purpose of prayer?

Based on my reading your answers to my posting are out of phase

Then learn to read correctly.
Since I QUOTE your posts and post my responses does it matter if they're "out of phase"?

I don't remember saying that

You did. And I pointed that out in an earlier post - one you chose to ignore.
Here it is again with my response,
You: the positive event are within statistical probability.
Me: So, essentially, you're saying that "god" can't be shown, or even claimed, (at least not if expecting to be taken seriously) to be responsible for these "positive events" since they're statistically indistinguishable from random occurrences.

 

[Hapsburg]

The Green Man symbolized Man’s symbiosis with Nature and with the forests which covered the England of the Ancients.

A very popular idea, but it largely derives from Modernist interpretation. Frazer, Graves, and the like. And while I do personally love the symbolism of the Green Man as some sort of vegetation or nature spirit of the land for the British Isles, there's little evidence to bear it out as a historical circumstance. A more likely hypothesis, of which I've read some on, is that the Green Man emerged as an emblem of Saxon resistance to Norman conquest, a kind of "Kilroy Was Here" by Saxon labourers in Norman public works and church buildings.
But, and this is the important takeaway here, that doesn't invalidate the interpretation of the Green Man as nature divinity. Images and ideas have a power of their own. A big idea in modern Paganism is that spirits can form from repeated ideas and interaction with those ideas. As a result, I think that your statement right here:

And so, as my “lar”, I keep a stone icon of the Green Man.

...is fair enough.

If "god" exists then "free will" cannot.

That's not strictly true. The gods may be just as much subject to Fate as man.

 

[Dywyddyr]

That's not strictly true. The gods may be just as much subject to Fate as man.

Um, what's "fate"?
If you're using that word as a synonym for "predestination" then, again, free will doesn't exist.
See also post #82 for expansion, notably my 2nd sentence.

 

[Hapsburg]

Less "predestination" and more "apportionment". The Greek conception of fate and destiny is rather different from Christianised idea of things being "pre-destined" down to their last detail. No god is omniscient.
"Fate" in the Hellenistic mindset is, rather, the idea that everything has its place. And even though we can affect it (within our limited scope of action), causality has its own course that even the gods are subject to..

 

[Waiter_2001]

A true prayer is said not because they are told to do so, but because they need to or feel the need to do so. Does anyone else believe in the power of prayer i.e. prayer alone can CREATE a god?

 

[sideshowbob]

Ok then how do we interpret the majority of cases where prayer fails. Was the deity not listening at those times, or were the sick people who died considered not worthy?

It's a win-win situation for believers: If the recipient of prayer survives, thank God; if he dies, God "took him home" to heaven.

 

[scorpius]

This is a thread for a question to atheists. That's all. ... I find it astounding that you can possibly be an atheist as a human being, and hopefully I'll be enlightend as to how that is possible in this thread. But it's just a question, it should get pretty interesting.

Why do human beings pray?

I figure that's simple enough.
Good luck.

Prayer is doing nothing and still think youre helping

Two hands working acomplish more then millions praying

I hope you can comprehend that