If "thoughts and prayers" actually did anything, wouldn't all the shootings have stopped by now?

[John_Doesnt]

Thoughts and prayers are worthless, but people keep offering them and saying they do something. Well with all the thoughts and prayers being sent we should see a reduction in shootings, but nothing is changing. So how about instead of useless thoughts and prayers we actually do something?
How about a candle light vigil? That always solves everything. Remember the last candle light vigil solved world hunger. And the candle light vigil before that cured cancer.

Mass shootings will stop any second now

[sage2021]

Studies have been done with people in the hospital. Half were prayed for (and they knew they were being prayed for); the other half weren't prayed for.
The patients that knew they were being prayed for had improved health.
I know what you are saying, how thoughts and prayers isn't doing any good for those suffering trauma's from losing loved one's like in these mass shootings.
I am all for praying for peace that need it. I mention their name in my prayer for them.
Perhaps being prayed for helps them, but offering your help to them helps as well. I would say "Please let me know if you need anything at all". People should check on these people being told thoughts and prayers go out to you.
Pretty much, as time goes by they won't hurt as much. But they will never get over it. That is too much to ask of someone.
Keep praying 🙏

[John_Doesnt]

You completely misunderstood that study: the people who knew they were being prayed for felt better because of a placebo effect. The people who did not know they were being prayed for felt 0 effect because the actual prayer did nothing.

[888theGreat]

sure , they did. Like media told everyone they were going to die from Covid. So they thought they had Covid every time they sneezed. In the in the placebo was Covid since it didn't even kill 1%. Amazing how 99% turned in to less than 1%

[Roxxy99]

So you acknowledge that some people feel better from said prayers and support? Prayer has no magical abilities to fix the world’s problems but a lot of people believe in it and are uplifted by praying and being prayed for. In that simple way, it does have tangible value. To each their own.

[John_Doesnt]

@Roxxy99 do you know what placebo means? They felt a placebo effect. A placebo does nothing.

[Roxxy99]

I do know what it means. Do you? It means they felt better because they thought the prayer was helping them. It’s why doctors give placebo pills to hypochondriacs. It’s why people believe alternative medicine helps them when there’s no scientific basis for it. The mind is a wonderful thing. Again, praying does not make tragedies go away but it does help people deal with it. Even though I may not believe in it myself, I do recognize the benefit.

[John_Doesnt]

@Roxxy99 so I'm guessing you'll buy a magic rock that keeps away saber tooth tigers. There aren't any saber tooth tigers around, but the rock works for you.

[Roxxy99]

I won’t but if someone chooses to and it brings them comfort or benefit of some kind, then I’m all for it. I won’t try to force my own judgement on someone else.

[Anonymous]

It doesn't work and never has. Instead of banning books, access to abortion, and conversations about LGBTQ+ folks, how about we ban something that is 𝙖𝙘𝙩𝙪𝙖𝙡𝙡𝙮 a threat to our children: Assault weapons.

[FunkyMonkee]

If there WAS such a thing as god, they would work!
World hunger? Move to where the food is!
Cancer? ANYONE can cure THAT!! It's the easiest thing in the world to cure!! And it only costs a few bucks!!
As for the gun thing: that's people that are trying to talk you into letting them take all the guns because they're scared shitless you'll all wise the fuck up and find out what the 2nd Amendment is REALLY for!! They create these bullshit scenarios to get you suckers pissed off enough to want to get rid of all the guns and, if that happens, they've got the right of way to severely fuck us over because we no longer have a means to stop them or protect ourselves from them!! Can you say, "Dictatorship"? Sure, I knew you could!

[Anonymous]

You're missing the point. Thoughts and prayers have nothing to do with stopping gun violence. Dickless politicians hide behind thoughts and prayers. It allows them to change the subject. They continue pandering to their donors and their conservative supporters.

[Whatthefluff]

Exactly. In my opinion, the sharing of school/mass shooting occurrences shouldn't happen AT ALL. What these shooters are looking for, mainly, is attention. I strongly believe that if these shootings were never circulated in the media, half of them wouldn't have occurred.

[Sargentcaptain]

And what do you expect regular people to do? Become omnipotent and just start a minority report taskforce with the sole purpose of solving an issue that multiple local government, state government and federal government organizations aren't able to do even with millions of employees and even more money to spend.

[John_Doesnt]

how about doing nothing or staying quiet about the issue?

[Sargentcaptain]

Ah yeah, that'll fix the issue, why didn't anyone think of that before.

[John_Doesnt]

It has the same effect.

[DryGermanGuy]

Just look how well all the "thoughts and prayers" worked against Covid19!

[Anonymous]

So good people shouldn’t offer prayers and condolences because it doesn’t solve complex issues and it pisses you off personally? How about we leave people with good intentions alone? They don’t have fixes any more than you do.

[John_Doesnt]

I would like to offer you a leprechaun chant.

[Opinion Owner]

Don’t mind if I do, even if it offends your delicate sensibilities.

[jshm2]

You are worthless, gimp.

It's why they don't bother to invite you to such shows of solidarity.

You're so small minded and out of touch, it's no wonder family and friend don't invite or call.

[Ms_Facesitter]

A lot of those people probably weren't even around to do anything, or tried to survive as well. Praying is just their way of paying their respect.

[3Andronicus]

Thoughts, prayers and candle-light vigils - nothing changes.
Sensible gun control - the success that is Australia, and other nations that have done the same.

[DermalPunch]

No, humans kill. It's how we turn the negatives into positives that makes us, well us. Also, this goes wayyyyy beyond guns.

[888theGreat]

Since most people are not really Christians , no. Prayer on works with believers , not people like you. A believer believes Jesus is son of God. Anyone can say I am Christian but it is like a Black man saying he is really white, you can clearly see that ain't the case. God is not a part time being. You can't run to him just in a crisis.

[John_Doesnt]

Black Jesus rode an ass to Bethleham, yo momma's ass:

[MrTaboo]

Because we live in a sinful fallen world. That's why it keeps happening

[Anonymous]

you don't like prayers? You're one of those people who tattooed "trust the science" all over your ass, aren't you? 🤣

[John_Doesnt]

[Anonymous]

If gun control laws actually worked wouldn't there be no mass shootings in the UK?

[John_Doesnt]

They have far fewer mass shootings than the US. And places like Japan have 0 mass shootings. So gun control laws clearly do work.

[Opinion Owner]

No, with all due respect you're looking at statistics with a narrow mind.

You can't compare the raw numbers of things with different pool sizes (population number).

For example (hypothetically numbers) if you get 1 mass shooting per 100 people on average, and the UK has 300 people but the US has 12,000 people, you'd get roughly 3 mass shootings in the UK and 12 mass shootings in the US. It's not accurate to say "well the UK has less, so they're better" because in actuality its still a 1-to-100 ratio. I'm not implying the US and the UK are exactly equal, I'm just using this example to point out that raw or numbers showing "fewer" isn't accurate.

Additionally, if gun control actually does make it more difficult in any way to carry-out a mass shooting, mass-shooting statistics don't display people who otherwise would have used a gun to harm people who instead opted to harm people in other ways, like the UK's Manchester Arena Bombing that killed 23 people and injured 800. It also doesn't account for people who otherwise woukd have shot people who instead stabbed people. Or people who instead used their car to run people over. It's not as simple as "well they have less mass shootings."

[Opinion Owner]

As another example, apparently arson/building fires are pretty popular in Japan (might be a trend like school shootings are, here in America).

Osaka Building Fire 2021, 25 killed, 3 injured.

Kyoto Animation Arson Attack 2019, 36 killed, 33 injured.

Osaka Movie Theater Fire 2008, 16 killed.

Myojo 56 Building Fire 2001, 44 killed.

And while all of these have names that don't necessarily implicate a perpetrator, all of these with the exception of Myojo have known perpetrators. But Myojo was suspected to have a perpetrator, the perpetrator simple was unknown and they had no suspects.

And don't even get me started on stabbings like Sagamihara, 19 killed, 26 injured. Like, seriously? There are PLENTY of stabbings incidents that result in even MORE killed and MORE injured than many, possibly even most, mass shootings. Gun control doesn't make people safer. People who want to hurt people simply will.

[John_Doesnt]

Oh wow, 4 mass murder arsons over the course of 20 years. Do you have any idea how many people get murdered by arson in America every day? Those are extremely rare in Japan.

[Opinion Owner]

Uh, no, those were 4 examples among many that I specifically chose. There's way may, lmfao.

[Opinion Owner]

Way more*

[Snakeyes7]

I don't think anyone legitimately thinks it's the solution. It's meant to be a comforting gesture.

[sab_sal]

I think it's more about comforting the victims and their families

[Anonymous]

Why are there dictators that screw up and kill people because they are greedy.

[Anonymous]

Nothing to see here. Just the ramblings of a religious bigot folks.

[John_Doesnt]

[BillyBalls]

If gun laws actually worked, Chicago would never have any murders.

[John_Doesnt]

so your argument is that laws don't work?

[WhiteBoyChill]

You’re not even understanding what prayer is lol. Its just about healing

[John_Doesnt]

Prayer is about talking to imaginary characters

[WhiteBoyChill]

They’re real if you have the patience and time to find them

[John_Doesnt]

Loki is pleased that you have fallen for all his tricks.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Finding God was my own journey. Other people telling me what to believe didn’t make me become a believer

[John_Doesnt]

You didn't find god, you found Loki playing one of his tricks. He is glad you are worshipping him as a God.

[WhiteBoyChill]

Loki was a man made invention in the 2000’s. Knowledge of God in one form or another has existed in several different religions for thousands of years

[John_Doesnt]

God and Jesus and Allah are man-made inventions. And Loki was created over 2,000 years ago.

[WhiteBoyChill]

If they were truly man made inventions than I would’ve discovered them to be fake. People like you just haven’t bothered giving the situation any thought. All because you can’t conceive it possibly being true

[AFretiredTXn]

Agree