Why is it that clasped hands tends to be the norm for praying? 🙏
Why is it that clasped hands tends to be the norm for praying? 🙏
I know not all praying religions have their adherents join their hands, but I think it's the case for most. Many cultures even use clasped hands in day-to-day life as a sign of deference or pleading (which I guess makes them "social prayers").
My only 'armchair anthropologist' theory is that hands that are gripped together are unable to present a threat to you, so it is a signal of voluntary vulnerability. But that doesn't make sense in a religious context (although it does in the social context), because how would you ever be a threat to any god in the first place? 🤔 If anything, you're displaying arrogance by saying to god "yeah I COULD fuck you up, but just for this conversation, I'm gonna decommission my arms, arms which I have to register as deadly weapons by the way".
A secondary question on this topic is what is the function of praying hands in the praying process? If you say a prayer without joining your hands, does it not reach god? Or does he hear it but he's like "uhhh, excuse me?? Forgetting something? No childhood leukaemia cure for you, I guess!" like an overly-pedantic lawyer?
Third question: Do any holy books actually describe or prescribe 'praying hands'? If so, what do they have to say about it?
Cheers! 🙏
If you say a prayer without joining your hands, does it not reach god?
Lol, yes the hands act as a transmitter antenna to send the message. Without it you'll get bad reception.
Hands apart is for capacitive prayer transmissions, but most religions nowadays use inductive transmission where hands together help form the inductive loop through the hands. It is also important to not pray while laying down, as this changes the polarity.
Fun fact: the electronic symbol for capacitor represents two hands held slightly apart. This is because capacitive prayers were the most common back when the capacitor was invented.
Cup hands behind ears to best hear Word of God.
...hands that are gripped together are unable to present a threat...
Counterpoint:
Under Christianity, I think children were instructed to hold their hands together in order to discourage fidgeting. I'm not aware of any Biblical reason to clasp hands. In fact, I think in the Old Testament hands were often raised in prayer.
I vaguely remember, as a kid, older people would sometimes pray with open, upwards palms extended forward from the elbow. Catholic school said something like it was acceptable, but school and peer pressure made me feel like anything other than flat, clasped hands were illegal. No woven finger fistballs, either. But this is anecdotal from 30 years ago in one particular region.
I don't have any expertise with which to answer your question definitively, but I wanted to chime in to say that my first thought was exactly this: "hands that are gripped together are unable to present a threat to you, so it is a signal of voluntary vulnerability."
And rather than vulnerability, it might be more accurate to say that it represents submission, which would tie in with your second question, so it's not so much that one is signaling that one is not a threat to the god(s), but that one submits.
And in that context, it's likely noteworthy that the most common example of clasped hands outside of prayer is when one is earnestly begging something of someone else, and especially a favor or a certain inconvenience.
Or a prisoner
Alternatives:
Shaking a raised fist
Double middle fingers
Fingers pointing up, thumb touching nose
Right fist thrusting under left hand
Jazz hands
because religion does not like masturbation.
Well......not the lame religions anyways.
I am a member of the church of jerk-offs. Walk in on sunday, and you're surrounded by jerkoffs
Do any holy books actually describe or prescribe 'praying hands'? If so, what do they have to say about it?
Hinduism originated in the Indus River valley as a collection of oral traditions for a couple millennia. Then, 3000-3500 years ago, the Sanskrit word "namaste", meaning "bowing to you", and it's hands-together pose was documented in what's today the Hindu Vedas.
In the Vedas it symbolized the connection of the human and divine. Today "namaste" is commonly used as a respectful greeting. Instead of "namaste", in America we might say, "Thank you for inviting me to your home."
And then when they ask you to leave their home, one can also reply "namaste".
The only thing I clasp is my ankles when screaming "oh god oh god"
Dude......we don't want to hear about your adventures o the toilet.
Also......see a doctor!
Toilet?!
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Oh, right, sure. Toilet. Yeah, definitely. Totally.
The Christian cult has big influence in the USA
My opinion is that if there is more to 'this world' than we see, then there is likely a way to interact with those things in some way.
Like an antenna, your body is a transmitter and potential receiver of some electromagnetic waves (light, radiation, heat, etc), the shape and position in time and space may effect that.
It's likely that mudras or hand signs used while mediating and this post share a common source
😂😂😂😂😂...
I wondered this the first time going to a temple or shrine in Japan. It's also quite common here. I wondered if maybe it came over with Buddhism and it made it's way into the now-mostly-unified Shinto practice (pre-meiji-restoration, beliefs and practices were a lot more local). It could also have come in at the time of christian missionaries, but that seems a lot less like especially since it persists after the christians were forced to leave, convert, or die (though hidden christians remained, often meeting in caves in the hills and such).
I think one would have to search through what written accounts of people remain, particularly those of outside observers in a new place.
I thought maybe it came from some older homo sapiens practice, but even things such as nodding for yes aren't consistent, so maybe not.
I’m sure there was some bullshit reason back in the day that is lost to us now. When I was in Catholic school they told us it was to make sure the prayers went straight to heaven🙄
Here's the thing I never understood. Your parents die. You're at the funeral and everybody says "I bet they're looking down from heaven at you, right now."
So you're telling me your parents die, they get up to heaven, somehow get notice about when their own funeral is despite not even being on the same planet, have the ability to watch from across the galaxy at any given time.......and they choose to watch a bunch of depressed people in black suits cry over a box that contains their own corpse? And what about your grandparents? Were they watching over your parents before they died? What are they doing now? Is heaven so boring that it's inhabitants just spend eternity watching various generations of families? And what happens if you never have kids? What do they do when you die? Do they watch someone else? Do they watch while you're pooping? Do your dead ancestors watch you have sex, and know your kinks?
Yeah, religion starts falling apart real quick when you begin questioning things.
Idk but Pickle from Baki does it to so it must be significant.