Prayer--learned helplessness and magical thinking. When are people who
promote prayer in public schools going to learn that god does not have the
power to change the laws of physics, chemistry, or chance? Prayer teaches
children that compulsive, ritualized magic and a lifelong habit are going to
get them their hearts desire. Prayer only inhibits action, which includes
accepting that which cannot be changed. Robert G. Ingersoll said over a
hundred years ago that the hands that help are better than the lips that
pray. Prayer is the oldest form of word magic.
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