Eleonore Stump writes an article regarding her position on the prayer of petition. Stump begins his argument by defining prayer of petition as simply asking God for something through the act of prayer. Stump points out that since this is the definition of prayer of petition, prayers of praise and worship cannot be considered prayers since they do not make requests but rather display a sense of loyalty. Stump responds to an argument by Kant that the prayer of petition was unnecessary because God will do what is right regardless of your request. Kant also states that the prayer of petition is, at worst, an insult to God because it implies that the human knows better than God what is right or because the human asks God to perform an act other than what is considered justice. Stump intends to defend the petitioner's prayer against accusations of futility or insult. Throughout his article, Stump argues against previous problems associated with petitionary prayer. The problem with the prayer of petition is as follows:1. If God is all good, he would want this world to be the best of all possible worlds.2. If God is omniscient, He would know how to make this world the best possible world.3. If God is all-powerful, he can make the world the best it can be.4. So this is [supposedly] already the best of all possible worlds.5. The petitionary prayer asks that the world be in another form than it is.6. But that would make the world less than perfect, which God would never do.7. Therefore, either the prayer of petition is useless since it asks what God is going to accomplish anyway, or it is useless because it asks God to accomplish something that He would never do.8. Therefore, the prayer of petition is rendered useless. While Stump d...... middle of paper ....... Stump states that we should always ask for good things through petition prayer so that good things will happen in our world. If Stump's assertion is correct, then two scenarios could come into play. If God has the power to put the world in a better state than it already is, but we humans don't send it to him of requests through petition prayers, God can either choose to put the world in a better state than it already is. is or he can choose not to change the state of the world at all. The consequence of God making the world a better place is the violation of human free will. On the other hand, if God chooses not to make the world a better place due to lack of petitionary prayer, human free will remains intact but the world is not made a better place. Works Cited Stump, Eleonore. “Petition Prayer”. American Philosophical Quarterly. 16.2 (1979): 81-91. Internet. April 14. 2014.