"God answers my prayers everywhere except on the golf-course."
Prayers for assistance as unsporting behaviour
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AJ Kreider, Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, 2003, Pp 17-25.
In the opening paragraph the author describes pregame prayer as practised in America and argues that “to the extent that pregame prayers ask for God's assistance in bringing about a desired outcome, such prayers area kind of unsporting behaviour and thus they should be discouraged”. He explains that the type of prayer he is referring to is this: “God, please give me the strength to do this” or “if it be your will let us win the game”. He adds that sometimes there is an offer of a deal with God like “if you answer the prayer I promise to be a good person” or “I'll go to church this week”.
There's nothing new in this as the ancient Greeks believed that the gods could have a role in determining the winners of the ancient games. The author’s argument is that the unfairness resides in the fact that you are asking for assistance from a non-participating party for the advantage of one participant over others. Moreover, he argues, that a participant asking for such assistance is demonstrating a willingness to seek an unfair advantage. Using Feezell’s definition of cheating, that praying athletes are seeking to “alter the conditions of competitive equality”, he concludes that praying to win is cheating.
He gives two examples of a prayer that a cyclist might offer: 1 “God help me to make it up the hill” and 2 “please make my opponent have a puncture”. The author argues that the very request for unfair assistance constitutes cheating- even if no answer is received. It is sufficient that a definite attempt has been made to gain an unfair advantage.
He uses 3 analogies from weightlifting. An athlete taking a steroid without knowing that steroids are banned. An athlete asking her coach to help her lift a particular weight. An athlete asking God to help her lift the weight. All three are judged to be cheating.
The author is equally unhappy with prayers of thanks after a victory, which he takes to imply that the athlete knows that they have cheated and is acknowledging the success of the cheating!
The author is equally unhappy with friends and family praying for help for their friend: “this is unsporting and ought to be discouraged”. The author believes that just as an athlete would be embarrassed to discover that a family member had attempted to fix a race in their favour, they should also be embarrassed that family members were praying. He adds that any suggestion that someone is praying for success for God's glory or as a witness to God's greatness is being disingenuous!
The author dismisses the argument that prayer is not cheating because it is open to all athletes in the competition, arguing that if every athlete is praying then the outcome of the race is determined not by ability or tactics but by whoever finds themselves in God's good graces. He argues too that the prayer wouldn't negate all other factors in the sport so that “the only competition involved is a competition for God's favour”.
The author then widens the application to arguing that prayers to pass an exam, succeed in the job interview or win an election are similarly seeking unfair advantages. Interestingly towards the end of the article the author admits that prayers to do one's best are acceptable because it does not involve invoking the help of a non-participant. Prayers for a fair contest or for the avoidance of injury are considering OK provided the prayer is for all participants not just one!
Just as an aside the author questioned whether prayers may be of psychological benefit - for example by making an athlete feel psyched up or that they have God I on their side.
Finally the writer suggests that organisations like IOC and NCAA ought to openly discourage divine assistant prayers as a matter of policy.
Seems unreasonably negative.