Many people believe that prayer to a god relieves the mind of toxic thought.
They believe that belief in a god and prayer helps the human mind keep its thoughts pure.
Actually from a physiological standpoint this is absolutely false.
Often in prayer people ask for forgiveness from a God and thus admit that they have not lived up to their own ideals.
In doing so they strengthen their guilt complex and give themselves negative biofeedback.
This is a very negative thing.
But it gets even worse, in that when praying to a nonexistent fictitious invisible friend they are denying reality and bringing themselves closer to a borderline schizophrenic.
This indeed is the opposite of relieving the mind of a toxic thoughts and instead presenting a huge problem with the human psyche.
On the other hand meditation without the belief in a god is far superior.
Praying to something that does not exist does not help the human mind and it makes the person doing it more apt to seek retreat from the realities of life instead of facing one's problems head-on.
This can be extremely negative and cause a long-term health of fact and to initiate a process bringing one into a schizophrenic situation and long-term mental health damage.
If you know someone that prays a lot to a false god, you need to help that person see the light and not drift away from reality.
We need to help these people who are hallucinating that they are somehow talking to a god.
Please consider this in 2006.