If prayer worked, would we see companies hire people to pray?

If Jesus actually answered prayers wouldn't we see in the help wanted section (it would probably even have it's own section in the help wanted ads): "Wanted. Person to head corporate prayer department of Fortune 500 company. Theology degree required." That doesn't happen, but why? If it did work, then companies would obviously hire people to pray for the success of the company, and it's people.

I'm not trying to be critical, but it does strike me as odd.

If something works, capitalists jump on it in a heartbeat, generally! But they clearly don't "put their money where their mouth is" if they say that "prayer works", or else they'd hire really good theologians, who really know what they are doing, former ministers and the like, to pray for the company.

Could critics of religion argue that, therefore, the "all-powerful" Jesus (who advocated prayer) is basically less effective than the company janitor, since, all told, companies pay nobody to seek Jesus' help, but pay many millions of dollars annually for janitors to do their work? The janitor exists....but does Jesus?

If our best and brightest and most educated at our top companies don't feel it's effective to talk to an invisible friend, then do you think you are smarter than them (by praying)? I'm not really sure.

Your thoughts as to why corporations pay, say, to seek the help from an illegal-alien uneducated illiterate GARDENER named "Jesus", but NOT people to seek the help of who they believe is the greatest and most-powerful person to have ever lived, who even claimed to listen to our prayers and answer them (ie the most famous "Jesus")?

 

God on a leash, eh?

We are free to pursue God and conform our will to his, not the other way round. By in large companies only have one purpose, which is to make money. In fact, the entire world is consumed with making money. Where is the pursuit of God in all this? As the Bible says, the love of money is the root of all evil.

One thing is for sure, we will not change the will of God and his purpose. We either climb aboard or we are left to our own devices.

 

Interesting concept. Makes you think why he hasn't answered prayers.

 

Then why pray in the first place!?

 

Richard Dawkins says it's because the magic invisible man in the sky (who's too shy to actually reveal himself to us) actually is a fairy tale. JESUS says otherwise. Who is wrong, because ONE of them surely is!?

If Jesus really existed, wouldn't he just appear to Richard Dawkins ("super-atheist", who is apparently causing more people to go to "hell", and keeping Jesus from loving them after they die, than any other person alive today??) enough times and in an effective enough manner to "set him straight"? Critics could argue that Jesus so uncaring as to not appear to Dawkins (Jesus could certainly accomplish this if he's all-powerful, guys) to keep people from going to hell? It's almost like Jesus doesn't exist.

 

Because why would anyone hire people to pray for their company when they can do it themselves. Don't kid yourself either, a lot of them do pray.

 

He must be borrowing a page from Satan's playbook, pretending not to exist and all. They're crafty and devious, those spirits..

 

FULL-TIME "pray-professionals" (let's start a new industry!), professionals who really know a lot about Jesus - obviously more than the busy executives do, people with theological degrees.

What if the executives are atheists, they wouldn't know which space rock to face while praying....hence the need for professional help.

They'd hire "proven praying experts", such as people who have won lotteries because they prayed a lot to win! THESE guys KNOW how to pray! If you haven't won a lottery, you're obviously praying WRONG! These guys will whip the company into shape in no time, because Jesus really listens to prayer.

If an entire nation prayed for, say, a sick president of that country it would be more effective than if just one person prayed, right!? Well, get it!? Apple Inc. needs to hire a ton of pray-professionals, as many as they can afford! The more the better, obviously.

Jesus will really appreciate that they've RESPECTED him even more by hiring many many more people to talk to him on the companies' behalf, so that's GOTTA help! "Wait, you DON'T believe in me enough to hire a team to pray to me?", Jesus says. That can't be good! Better hire a BUNCH of pray-pros!

People who can monitor how effective the prayers are doing (vs. praying to a control group, er, control god - gotta keep it scientifically correct) or not doing, and make adjustments in their prayers! People who can spend the time tracking prayer results on spread sheets. This frees up the executive's time for other things.

When a prayer is answered, obviously it's good to hire someone who's job it is to THANK god for his blessings! God does NOT like being un-appreciated!
When a prayer is NOT answered, well, we, uh, can't complain to god, or he, uh, won't continue to answer our prayers....I think. Like they say in door-to-door sales "each 'no' is that much closer to a 'yes'!!!" If they make more prayers (hence the need for an entire division of pray-pros) then more will get answered! Simply math! Since prayer is so darn effective, we can lay off some "marginal" workers, and let the pray-pros do their thing! This will free up money to to pay the pray-pros.

A team of full-time prayers can pray to many DIFFERENT gods to have all the bases covered!

A team that can pray around the clock, just in case god was busy elsewhere from 9 to 5, such as causing babies to be born with birth-defects ("act of god" you know)!

Cardinals, Popes, Imams, etc., THESE guys will make the BIG bucks! If they have GOD on their side then these guys will help the company more than those darn executives will! They can use this excess income to give money to the poor! This is a great idea!
Wow, this is a no-brainer, I can't believe nobody ever thought of this before!!!

 

Jesus doesn't appear to people....Satan doesn't appear to people (except people who for some strange reason seem to support marijuana-legalization laws, go figure)....bigfoot doesn't appear to people.....The Lochness Monster doesn't appear to people....I'm sensing a PATTERN here.

 

who would appear as fire.... God or Satan, is a odd story that one

 

Same answer, no need for "prayer professionals." The people that believe in prayer already pray for their companies and atheists would have no need.

... To many conflicting prayers,imo..

i.e... Someone asks to win the lottery but also asked for spiritual enlightenment,or strength. The money was a distraction to the other. In fact, I'm pretty sure that great wealth would conflict with many inner dreams and desires.

 

But religionists clearly believe that the more people that pray for something the more effective Jesus will be in granting that prayer. Clearly. "Let's all pray for _________", not "don't bother praying for ______ since I'm already on it"! So if a company is not doing well, the willy religious CEO would proclaim "we need to increase our ____ department's funding by 10%, and increase our prayer department's funding by 20%". Right!? IF it worked. But it doesn't, and the people who control the purse strings know it!

That's because if someone DID propose this, it would sound crazy: "Mr. Jobs, I'd like you to take away $20 million from scientific research and give it to my department so that we can hire a bunch of people to talk to themselves."

 

If Mr. Jobs approves this idea in his current state, I'd say that prayer indeed does work. Or at least something similar.

 

Clearly ? About as clear as mud anyway.

Well yes, that does sound crazy,especially the way you put it. Perhaps these same business men have every reason to be weary about the effectiveness of prayer that comes from people that are doing it for the money. Prayer is free and comes from the heart,everyone knows that.

 

?
The "companies" are called Churches and they hire pastors and minister to do just that, don't they?

 

BUSINESSES, as such, do not hire people to pray for the company (highly trained, full-time professionals....you know, like janitors, that companies DO HIRE, because they are apparently more effective than seeking Jeus for hlep), because prayer does not work. Simple. "Money talks, but BS walks", and when it comes to the effectiveness of prayer it's BS - not money.

 

Then why do people ask "everybody they know" to pray for a sick friend, if more isn't better?

Let's face it, prayer doesn't work, or praying-pros would be in high demand. "We need a more effective prayer department, what can we do to boost the productivity of our prayer department?" executives would ask, if prayer actually worked.

The REASON prayer doesn't work is because there's no one to hear it.

 

I don't know why people pray at all. What makes them think God is going to alter his divine plan in any way shape or form just to appease them?

 

Prayer is a conversation with God. Not everyone prays to obtain something, some prayers are in thanks. Some prayers are for others. All prayers are heard and answered though maybe not in the way we like. If God feels it was for our good he would answer our prayers in the way we wanted. Praying to win the lottery for instance is what YOU want though this could be something that would actually be detrimental to your soul. So for our own good God does not grant us this desire. God is not santa claus or a genie that grants wishes. God likes us to seek him out but not in order to see what we can get from Him, but what we can do for Him. Which is in itself rewarding and satisfactory, and will make you happy.
Why are you so agitated against God?.
For someone who does not believe in God, you certainly have a lot of questions for those who do. What is it you hate so much about people of faith that you try and tear their beliefs down?.
In your posts in the religion section you come across as angry, and resentful, and condescending. Not all people of faith are irrational and illogical. There is plenty of rational and logical reasons to believe in the existence of God.

 

Group awareness, maybe ? I'm NOT claiming that it is or isn't better,In fact,this is why I said it was as "clear as mud."

So the fact that major businesses don't generally hire "praying-pros" is your evidence that prayer doesn't work ? Here, prayer works http://fiverr.com/gigs/pray

Did you even think about what I said in the last post about business men being "weary about the effectiveness of prayer that comes from people that are doing it for the money, and that Prayer is free and comes from the heart ?"

A "prayer department" would be a department that is being payed to pray.

 

Big companies such as 'Apple' are already getting paid big money for their work so they don't need to pray for money.

They do however, need Janitors,and they need to pay them. This is why they do pay them.

 

Oh come on! You know full well that if Apple could spend, say, 1 million bucks for a team of full-time top of the line pray-pros, and prayer actually worked (it's a direct line to JESUS!), they'd make say 2 million bucks more income, so say a 1 million net gain. Of course they'd do that! You don't understand how private enterprise works, my friend. But talking to Jesus is not even effective as say, putting that same million into new extra R&D expenditures, so that million goes into hiring people who do *REAL* work, not praying. Religion loses again.

Just because they don't "NEED" to doesn't mean they wouldn't do it! I GUARANTEE you that if most business people felt they could hire a pro-prayer for, say, $50,000 per year, and that person had a great connection god and was put on praying full-time that if they felt he'd increase revenue (after office expenses) by much more than the $50,000, they'd do it.

Come to think of it, since S. Jobs didn't NEED to work, why did he even bother, since he was so rich? For one thing, he wanted to make more money (not his only reason probably). PRAYER DOESN'T WORK. Try to convince an executive to hire you as a pro-prayer, I bet they won't, because it DOESN'T WORK.

 

Great point!
When the supreme being of all time says they are clearly better than the non-believers of that religion (hence the non-believers deserve to get punished when their lives are over), then they get big egos, and think that just because they believe in a particular super-hero they are better than everyone else.

 

This idea is funny for its play on the way people so often have God on a leash, praying to him for all sorts of goofy things, trying to have him direct every aspect of their lives. If an individual can do it, why can't a corporation hire a team to do something similar for them?

Speaking from a theological/(former) Christian standpoint, though, the idea is ludicrous. God would see through such ploys, and would probably condemn the whole lot behind one to hell for sheer cheek.

 

Do you believe in talking donkeys (if you're a Christian) or would you be open to an alternative version of the Bible that doesn't have that nonsense in it? Do you think the earth is 6000 years old, or do you think theres a chance that the bible was invented by ancient tribesmen and isn't really from any god?