"God could save a patient" the same way Superman could leap tall buildings. Things happen, Good people die, Bad people live, Why save 1 person that says a prayer and not another that prayed 10 times harder. I've pretty much lost all my faith that I had when my grandfather died. He prayed 2-3 times a day, hours at a time. He'd be driving to work at 4am and he'd pull to the side of the road and say a prayer. He'd get down on 1 knee and say a pray before starting his chainsaw every day. It didn't bother him a bit to kneel down in 6 inches of mud. When he said you were in his thoughts and prayers, by God, you were in his prayers. I don't know how many times I walked in his house to see him knelt down in some random location in his house asking for God to help someone I'd never met. He was a pastor at a church for my whole life, He'd be the first one to kneel to pray and the last one to raise his head. I never questioned it until his last few years and I realized all the praying he'd done for others and all the praying others were doing for him hadn't helped him a bit, not physically at least. I still stand by that psychologically, knowing someone prayed for you, or praying for yourself or someone else can be somewhat helpful. I just can't imagine how hard it was for him the last few years. At least my grandma was senile and not quite aware what was going on. He suffered through her death, a botched hernia operation just a week after and was pretty much in bed chugging hydrocodone like candy 23 hours a day for the next year. Prayer might have helped a few people cope and that's cool, I'd rather just say fuck it, shit happens, No use dwelling on it. I'm sure both work equally well.
Prayer to me is like "if all else fails" pray for a miracle. I kinda think this is how prayer got so popular to begin with.. Pray and something happens and it's a miracle and promotes more prayer.. Pray and nothing happens and it was meant to be and the result doesn't exactly discourage future praying. I'm not saying you'll never see me praying because I believe in trying everything in your power just like everyone else, if that means abandoning some of my prior beliefs for one last shot at a miracle then so be it.
