Will it do any good to pray to a God the Japanese people don't believe in?

I don’t think it matters what other people call their creator. I believe in one God. I pray to that power for all people and animals safety, health, and strength.

Will it do any good to pray to any god at all, or will it just make you feel better?

If God is real, not entirely sure how He works. If you pray for them, whether they believe or not, He might still listen and help them. Maybe not. Maybe He only helps those who call Him Lord. How the hell is anyone supposed to know that? XD

This reminds me of vampire mythology…a cross, holy water and wafers can help you fight off a vampire. But will it work if you’ve no faith? Does one’s faith in God imbue them with power? Or do the items automatically work when they’re blessed, no matter who wields them?

Either way, here’s hoping for Japan, despite all that they’ve been through with this at this point…:/

What could it hurt? I believe in God and I believe in the power of prayer.

Well, it never stops people from praying for me after they hear I’m an atheist so I don’t get why it would stop anyone from praying for the Japanese. I have a theory that praying is for the person doing the prayers and never for anyone else, regardless of what they think. Perhaps that sounds harsh, but I really do think it’s a coping method for those who think it helps. Like, for some people, that’s the first solution to anything…Oh let me pray..and for others, that’s not the first solution. So what does it matter? Prayer will happen regardless.

Who knows if it will “do any good.” Praying doesn’t guarantee that what the person praying wants will happen. It’s a way to communicate with God, who decides what He’s going to do. I think praying for the Japanese is good, but we should be doing more than praying.

Those who do pray believe in the power of prayer. They also believe it will do good for the Japanese. People of all faiths have been praying for the Japanese and it shows that in the wake of a terrible tragedy like what happened in Japan that people of all walks of life tend to put aside their differences and try to help out any way they can. They pray, they donate, they do anything they can to help. As a Christian I do pray for them because they are fellow human beings who are in need.

God is the God of everyone. Even nonbelievers. He is in control. Why wouldn’t you pray for nonbelievers?

@bkcunningham Um, hi, they’re not non-believers, just because they don’t believe in your god.

If there is a God, there are many paths to him/her/it. It would make no sense at all to restrict access via one mythology.

As above ^^
Excellent answer.

@Espiritus_Corvus GA. You expressed how I feel and I didn’t know it until I read what you wrote. I also believe we are all part pf one so ‘prayers’ or thoughts, empathy may help. Money would, if a person could be sure it wouldn’t go to administration costs.

Thanks everyone. My attitude is like that of @Espiritus_Corvus. My heart goes out to them. More bad news tonight. The radiation levels at reactor 4 of the Dai-Ichi Plant have risen so high the workers attempting to keep cooling flowing to it had to be withdrawn. So if there is a god it is in the deity’s hands now. This will likely rise to an event as serious as Chernobyl.

Either we’re all God’s children, or none of us are. I doubt my concept of God is the same as yours, but that does not necessarily negate the power of my prayer or yours.

@ETpro Let’s fucking hope not. But yeah I saw that too on the news. Chernobyl was a long time ago though, hopefully today, they might better deal with stuff like that?

I believe that God goes by many names and manifests himself as peoples find a way to understand him. So I may be praying to God, someone else may call him Fahrquad according to their understanding or culture. Still the same entity. Same prayers. In Japan, there are two big indigenous religeons. Buddahism, and Taoism. Buddahism is essentially monotheistic and there are some interesting parallels with Jesus such as he is of a virgin birth among other things. Taoism is Ancestor Worship, a much older form of religeon, and my knowledge of the intracacies is limited. I am unsure if the relations are intermediaries, or if the relations are the objects of worship.
Be that as it may, I don’t think our prayers are wasted. It doesn’t matter what you call God, just call on him.

@chyna

“What could it hurt?”

In general- not much. Of course, it doesn’t help the people involved either, at all. It just makes the person praying feel better.

Where it can hurt is when people think that by praying, they are doing enough so that they don’t have to do anything of any real substance, that can actually help someone.

God loves all the people of the world, not just those that believe in him.
Pray without considering what God will do.

@majorrich Buddhist seek Nirvana, which is enlightenment and they believe brings an escape from an endless cycle of suffering in life, then rebirth to repeat the cycle of suffering. Buddhas, or enlightened ones, are sometimes viewed as gods, but not in the sense theists think of God. They join the cosmic consciousness and are in nothingness. Shintoism had a large pantheon of gods, but the emperor promoted himself to the one God well before WWII. After the war, he was demoted by the allies to being a human again. So the Japanese people I have met have a muddle of concepts of theism and aren’t very theistic.

Of course, if there is a deity who loves all mankind, then individual belief may not matter. There are certainly a vast number of humanity who insist that it does though, and that only their interpretation is valid. All others are doomed to hell fire. One thing I know for certain is that they can’t all be right about that. As to a God who intervenes in human affairs and interrupts cause and effect, I know of no instance where that has happened. But I am all for people doing whatever they think will help.

That said, I totally agree with @crisw that if people spend a bit of time praying for the stricken people in Japan but do nothing else, they have done nothing to help the Japanese, they have only helped themselves feel better.

Donations will be of greater help than prayer.

@nikkiduq Great answer. How true. And welcome to Fluther.

Maybe I shouldn’t do either if it pisses everyone off so bad. No prayer and no donations for anyone. That way nobody can say I didn’t “do enough”. If this is the attitude some of you have when people when they pray for someone then I wouldn’t want one dime from you people either. I would rather fend for myself. How do you know that these people who prayed didn’t donate to the victims in Japan?

@Mikewlf337

Where did anyone say “don’t donate”?

@crisw Some responses here make it sound as though, those of us that pray only pray, but do nothing else

What @SpatzieLover said

@Mikewlf337 What @SpatzieLover siad idin’t answer @crisw‘s question though.

@ETpro Yes he did. @crisw misinterpreted what I said.

@Mikewlf337 @crisw originally asked “Where did anyone say “don’t donate”?” I do not see an answer to that question. If you feel, in defense of Christianity, that you should do nothing, that’s your prerogative. But I do not follow how the discussion above makes it necessary for you to take that stand, nor did I see anyone answer @crisw.

@ETpro Yes I did. Like I said my answer was misinterpreted. Some of the answers here make it sound like those who prayed only pray and dont do anything else. So I thought of an idea. Since praying for them pisses some of you off so much. Maybe we should just do nothing. That way you can’t complain about us “not doing enough”. Why does it even concern you in the first place. It doesn’t bother you life at all. It doesn’t interfere with your life if someone else prays. It just annoys you. Some of the smug remarks about how we “didn’t do enough” and assume that people who pray do not donate is very insulting.

@Mikewlf337 Who seemed pissed off that someone was praying for the people of Japan? Those of us who don’t believe anyone hears and answers prayers may express our doubt that praying alone helps. But it certainly doesn’t piss me off that someone who believes it will help does it.

@Simone_De_Beauvoir it makes them nonbelievers in my God. That was the original question: “So given that very few people in Japan even believe there is a Abrahamic God of any name, does it do good for American Christians to pray for the people of Japan in their time of need?”

And, umm, hi back at ya. ; )

@bkcunningham Probably. Even if God didn’t help those who don’t believe in Him, the person praying and asking God to help them, I’m guessing, will have his or her well intentions known by God. guess that doesn’t help Japan much, but eh, I’d like to think that said god would help everyone.

To those of you who are criticizing prayers for the Japanese. How many of you actually donated anything that would be of any signicant help to Japan? I’m sure that some of you will lie and say you did donate. I’m sure some of you on this thread did not donate a single dime to them yet you criticize the person praying for them for not donating.

@Mikewlf337

“you criticize the person praying for them for not donating.”

No one in this thread said that all people who pray do not donate.

What we have said is that if people only pray but do not donate, then they are doing nothing helpful to the Japanese.

@crisw To a person who believes in a faith they are doing something helpful. These opinions about prayers not being helpful are based on views of atheist who do not believe in prayer. That is all there is to it. Besides it is not anyones concern if someone prays for them or not. Lots of people who pray also donate. They don’t just pray. Some people do not have anything to spare to the japanese and if they pray then they are at least showing the thought and heart for praying for them. A believer beleives that their prayers will help the japanese. It isn’t just an excuse to not donate and to assume that it is is very arrogant and insulting to people who do believe in prayer. Also it should be noted that many churches do have charity drives to help people who are the victims of disasters like what happened in Japan.

@Mikewlf337

“To a person who believes in a faith they are doing something helpful.”

To themselves. Not to the Japanese.

“Some people do not have anything to spare”

This is very true, and such people should not feel guilty about that.

“A believer beleives that their prayers will help the japanese”

That doesn’t make it so.

“It isn’t just an excuse to not donate and to assume that it is is very arrogant ”

No one is assuming that prayer is only an excuse to not donate. As I have said, what is a problem is if people think that their prayers are of as much value as direct donations, and thus avoid donating, when they could, because they think their prayers are worth as much as direct assistance. By no means do I think that this is true of everyone.

“Also it should be noted that many churches do have charity drives”

Yes- and that is indeed doing something helpful.

@crisw You are going by your viewpoints not the believer’s viewpoint which is understandable because that is the way you view this subject. To a believer. They believe that God or whatever deities they believe in is all powerful therefore they believe firmly in the power of prayer. I was taught that prayer and charity are both encouraged. I now understand what you meant. Some do pray but are not willing to part with a penny to donate to others. I would think that person who does that doesn’t truly mean anything with his/her prayer if he/she is not willing to lend a helping hand.