Pray!

Because it will...uh, what will it do again?

I heartily encourage everyone who reads this to pray. As often as possible. Pray for world peace. Pray for the health of your new baby. Pray for an end to famine in third world countries. Pray for me, your humble author, to accept Jesus Christ as my personal savior.

But, Doug, you're an atheist! Why are you encouraging people to pray?

I encourage you to pray because by doing so you are tacitly admitting to one of two things:

• God is not infinitely knowledgeable, since He is able to answer your prayer only after you tell Him what it is, or
• God is not infinitely wise, since He can be influenced by your fallible, mortal opinion.

Surely the Creator of the Universe already knows about the auto accident victim, the difficult birth, the diseased child, the misguided atheist, the dying parent, and whomever else you pray for. Surely you don't think He doesn't know, do you? So you must be trying to convince Him to grant your request.

But, if by praying you are attempting to convince God to do something, aren't you really saying that you are wiser than He? If all six billion (current) inhabitants of planet Earth were to agree on a certain prayer, but God decided not to grant it, would you be mad at Him? If not, why do you pray at all?

Pray. It proves my point better than anything else.