Prayer to keep someone alive.

[VegimalStyle]

As a Spurs fan and a human being I was shocked by the collapse of Fabrice Muamba during the Bolton game at the weekend. I've been following the news reports about his condition and am glad to see him starting to recover.

However, listening to various footballers and members of the public talking about praying to keep him alive has got me thinking. If those with faith believe that god has a plan for everyone and that everyone has their time allotted by god, why do they pray? Surely god, being omnipotent, has chosen muamba's path already and no amount of prayer could change that?

So I guess the crux of this is, does Christianity allow for a god who changes his mind and if not, then why do people pray?

BTW just to be upfront, I'm an atheist/humanist. I just genuinely want to know what people believe. Thanks.

Prayer helps the person who is praying.

Thanks for the response. I wondered if it was that for some people, but I heard some people talking about the healing power of prayer on the radio.

Not being a church goer I didn't know if it was believed on the whole.

I believe in the healing power of prayer. I believe in having a relationship with God, through worship and prayer. Think of it like a parent bringing up a child, the child and parent have a relationship with each other. So thats why I pray.

And the other thing is, Jesus prayed. He prayed all the time, he prayed for healing for people, he prayed by himself, he prayed with others, he taught the disciples how to pray, he prayed before major events. If its good enough for him... :o

Maybe if enough people pray then god will change her mind about the path she chose?

I do believe God has a plan, but also that prayer changes things. There's a fluidity to life. I don't think everything is set in stone. Prayer is communicating with God, he/she ? loves us to talk to Him.

Thanks for the responses all. I've been a bit worried that people might think I'm trying to stir up trouble with this question. It's been great to get some answers and see how you feel on the subject.

Thanks again!

I don't think it came across like that! I DH and I are Christians and he's a huge footie fan. I commented that the number of people saying/tweeting they were praying would raise awareness and curiosity about it. You asked a genuine question and got some genuine answers :)

Hmm...well, I'm not a Christian and I don't believe in God as a higher power...particularly not a male one! I don't believe in destiny either, but I do believe we're all on a path and that we can make choices that make that path either harder, or easier...and that when the time comes that our spirits need to leave our bodies, then that's what happens.

BUT...if you read The Intention Experiment by Lynne McTaggart, you may well be shocked, as I was, to hear what a strong scientific basis there is for the power of prayer/intention/positive thinking, and Fabrice had rather a lot of people sending him healing thoughts all in one go...

Healing precisely because there isn't a grand plan for each of us, IMO. When the whole world can see that, we will stop being in the mess we're in!

I read on another internet forum last week that if god is supposed to be omnipotent and has a grand plan for everything in life, then if god has willed something prayer can only be one of two things a) futile or b) unnecessary.

That makes a lot of sense to me.

However, I think that people of faith use prayer as a means of demonstrating, both to themselves and others, that they have a relationship with the god they believe in, and is a tangible manifestation of their piety.

The act of prayer can also be a huge comfort to people of faith.

Its also a lot of ifs periwinkle, and possibly with one more if, like "if God is omnipotent and choosed to use his omnipotence". But that, and the other ifs would reduce us to mere puppets, and I don't believe that we are. As Paul says in both Romans and Galatians "So you are no longer a slave, but a son; and since you are a son, God has made you also an heir." (Galatians 4:7, NIV version).

I agree with may, the way I see it, we have free will, so God offers us a choice - we can ask Him to intervene if we chose, but he doesn't control us.