What gets me is when they credit God for saving their child or guiding the surgeons hands instead of thanking the surgeon and support personnel in that operating room who actually did save their child. IF God can guide hands and save a child why do they even need the surgeon???

If you believe in prayer, then you must have noticed that your god is so fickle that your prayer might be answered or not - just depends upon his mood.

Simply don't engage.

I've told my Father in law who is a hard core Christian, that thoughts and prayers don't work. It's the doctors that are saving people, thoughts and prayers aren't doing anything. For example, my kid had to have surgery on his eyes a few months back, and the doctor asked if he could pray over us before the surgery. I said yes, because my kid is in hands, and he can do whatever he needs to do as long as my kid came through the surgery. If it helps him perform his craft better, have at it. My kid was in his hands, but ultimately it wasn't God that helped him. It was his awesome doctor. I literally despise the phrase "thoughts and prayers."

It's quite sad actually.

Some folks get comfort from the idea - why not leave them to it ?

Why can’t prayers heal people living with AIDS? I’m assuming it makes them feel better.

I wonder those same things, friend. Likes and prayers do nothing. That's right. Nothing. My religious friend has a transplanted liver. He tells me that even his doctor says "it was god" who saved him. WTF? The doctor didn't go to school or admits he is a bad doctor. I never believe all those religious folks or politicians who are "praying for you." How do we know they are? The religious put all the prayer requests in a big mail bag pile and forget them saying "we are praying over them." How convenient. Then we have all these children with cancer. What is god doing for them? Absolutely nothing. Oh, well. God is "faithful." Maybe it was something the parents did. If so, then this wonderful god works just like the Mafia.

People are superstitious, and really do believe in believing, even though its bull shit

Why don't prayers cure amputees?

It astounds me sometimes that people would believe that god/jesus/holy ghost/whatever....should go above medical staff that are more familiar with human anatomy than some deity...

Honestly, I always feel bad for the doctors. If the person dies "mysterious ways" and doctors fault. If the live "praise god! Our prayers have been answered!"

These people are being idiots and when I say idiot I mean about a particular subject, not as an insult. I'm an idiot you're an idiot the whole world is full of idiots. That's the simple answer. People like answers and I don't know is just not the answer they want to hear. It's not just religious people, Agnostics, and Atheist can be just as idiotic as the theists. Prayer, is a useless tool, but to a believer, it's the connection to a power that has the final say. I don't understand why people can't let go of the God concept, but as long as there are believers there will be prayer.

I think it's simply one of those awkward social situations where someone has presented you with a very bad situation that they're in, and you need to say something.

If you're religious, you can offer to pray for them. As someone who isn't, I'm very often stumped for something suitably compassionate to say in response to the news. "Bummer!" doesn't really cut it.

One purpose of religion is to provide hope, and to fill a human need for a sense of being able to do something positive in even the most hopeless of situations. So you pray to God that the crops won't fail, that the volcano won't erupt, or that you won't be eaten by a brontosaurus (yes, I know that's wrong for at least two reasons.)

Only a complete idiot would put faith healing ahead of modern medicine. But there's no harm in hedging your bets.

My question is if they believe in heaven and god, why do they fight to live? Why do they try all the chemo, medications, and surgery to stay alive when "god is calling them home"?

It is just a conditioned response from years of indoctrination. If they truly believed in what they are saying, they would remove the patient from the hospital and take him/her to a church.

I think if the patient is asking for prayers, it's just a manner of some coping to deal with the stress that is afflicting their lives. It's usually with good intentions that people will ask for prayers to make people feel more at ease. A lot of this is just good intentions, but it is rather displeasing when people forget about the hard working support workers and doctors that actually DO the work.

I always get annoyed at those "I have cancer, gimme 1000 likes" bullshit, that is just a bunch of cheap emotionally manipulative nonsense. I mean, in the end it's really not much different than offering "thoughts and prayers" but it's like 1000 times more insincere.

It's just the sheep mentality with the whole praying bullshit. It doesn't work and it's totally meaningless. I guess as a gesture of support it's sort of ok but doesn't actually help medically at all, ever.