What is the difference between a prayer and a lottery ticket?

The lottery ticket actually has a measurable chance of coming true, based upon the rules of mathematical probability.

BQ... Yep same damn ads here too, Unc.

Brightest Blessings,

Raji the Green Witch

Both are usually appeals for things you ask for selfishly or ought to take care of yourself. The Lottery costs you a around 70 cents for each dollar of return on the long term, and it has only materialistic benefits. Prayer doesn t cost you anything, the results are based on the request s agreement with the perfect divine plan, and it can have eternal benefits. The Lottery will break your bank account, but investing in prayer builds your heavenly account -- if you have accepted the deposit that s waiting to take you out of the red.

A lottery ticket has no inter -mediator to alter the outcome of the investment . The investment price for a prayer is sincerity , the expenditure of sincerity calls for ongoing movement in sincerity . The reward of prayer is Eternal and not always temporal . Prayer then is much better deal than winning the lottery since sincere prayers can conjoin with faithfulness and lead to eternal reward .

They are people who "see" things that the rest of us don't, and tell about it. They can be things in the future, or things at a distance. A true prophet will turn out to be accurate 98.9% of the time. A true prophet will also be quite aggravating to others, because obviously what they are saying is not what other people are seeing and believing. So, they suffer a lot. Prophets are unconscious while in vision, and they don't breathe. Sometimes they have great strength while in vision. Sometimes their strength leaves them completely. (I'm going by the biblical accounts.) This, too, can be quite disconcerting. Prophets really have no control over when and how or even whether they receive their revelations. Their only choice in the process is, whether or not they're going to tell you what they've seen. For the pros and cons of it, google Ellen G. White and see what people say. She never called herself a prophet, but by definition she seems to be a rather recent example of the phenomenon.

Both are wishful thinking, but only one has an actual proven statistical possibly (even if extremely slight) of coming true.

Edit: The two that pop up on my computer are "How To Win The Lottery - Professor Discusses 1 Tip To Match 5 Winning Numbers" and "Pick 5 + 1 System - Never Before Seen System For Pick 5+1".

You can conclusively PROVE the results of winning a lottery ticket. You will either win or you won't.

With prayer, there is no way to conclusively PROVE that the prayer was answered. Just because someone prays for something and subsequently gets that for which they prayed does not PROVE that it was the result of prayer. It could just as easily be pure coincidence.

There is a logical fallacy called "post hoc ergo propter hoc." That fallacy is based on the assumption that just because A happened before B, it means that A caused B.

A lottery ticket is just luck.

There is a chance the lottery ticket will pay off.

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They've added those ads below since the last time i answered a Question here.

"Lottery Winners

"1. If You Won The Lottery, Would You Do What This Couple Did? Chime In."

Actually i found the ad *beside* your Question to be more enticing! -- the lovely lady in the tight white dress with the silly ruffles at the bottom. Never have clicked it to learn the 3 things i need to know about my prostrate.

Since i never waste money on lottery tickets (i'd rather buy a couple used paperback books with my dollar at a resale shop) the only two or 3 i've ever scratched were a gift from a friend in Michigan, who had wasted *his* money on them.

Jack wrote, "A prayer can be answered at a 100% chance."

i can't say that *that's* true. *Lots* of prayers go unanswered. How many prayers to *win* the lottery, for example, have not been answered?!

Secular Humanist wrote, "With prayer, there is no way to conclusively PROVE that the prayer was answered."

That, also, is NOT true. Probably there's no way to prove it to him (or her) but it can definitely be proven to *oneself*, when it happens. i made a very *specific* silent prayer on July 22, 2007 (Mary Magdalene Feast Day) at about 9 a.m. *to* Mary Magdalene specifically (*not* to God, *not* to Christ, *not* to the Holy Spirit) & asked her that if there was a genuine incarnation of her on my *YeshuaMirya* list, to please have that individual contact me by e-mail that day. About 5 hours & 20 minutes later the only e-mail i received that day came from a woman who belonged to that Yahoo list telling me she'd literally *heard* a voice (speaking from behind one of her shoulders) telling her to contact me immediately. She was puzzled & wondered why she had received that message. i told her what i'd prayed (but did *not* tell her Who i prayed to *specifically-accurately*). She responded telling me that she was Mary Magdalene. A week or so later she mentioned *who* the Voice had been that had spoken to her (in effect, her Higher Self) -- without me having informed her. Not only did she answer that very day, as i had asked for -- but she *also* knew *who* had spoken to her, without me having given her that information!

Prayers *are* answered, regardless of how many people *doubt* it. Why lots of needful prayers *aren't* answered (i'm sure women being raped are frequently praying for deliverance -- as are women & children who have been kidnapped, as are people drowning) i don't know.

i think your chances of getting a prayer answered are considerably higher than your chances of winning a lottery... plus a prayer co$ts you nothing beyond the time spent making it.

There is a better chance the prayer request will appear to be honored than the lottery ticket winning.

Of course, if the prayer is for something that is completely unreasonable - like sprouting wings or some such nonsense - go with the lottery ticket.