So whenever I feel worried or anxious about anything, I try to remember to pray about it because I know that the prayers I say in faith do get answered in wonderful ways. And I am certain that if more people in this world were able to pray with faith in the name of Jesus Christ, this whole world would be a better place.
17 comments
^^^ What checkmate said.
And I found a dropped contact lens at the edge of a bubbling geyser in Yellowstone, without any prayer involved. Yes, keep praying to the God of Lost Contact Lenses for us, but it's going to take more than that to convince us.
As I once said to someone, similar to what Checkmate said, if you really think praying helps, why don't you pray for peace, and ending hunger and racism and all that? But no, you people exclusively use that divine, unmatched, reality-shaping power to make your own lives slightly more comfortable. With the most mundane things that could easily have happened without praying.
Praying! Aka acting like you've done something when in reality you've done nothing at all.
Seriously, you people disgust me.
The only thing I hate even more than this about praying is when fundies tell me (or other atheists & non-christians) "I'm praying for you". Being wilfully unaware of how incredibly insulting that is.
"(after we were told he was dying with just a few minutes left to live"
Of course, many of the same people reject evolution or global warning no matter how many experts give their opinion, because experts are merely human, and can be wrong...
Well fancy that... The things you spend time *thinking about* turn out much better. It's almost like *spending dedicated time concentrating on an outcome* makes those outcomes better.
Imagine that! But *I would be willing to bet that things would turn out just as well if you don't invoke your magical imaginary friend in the process*.
I am certain that you, Alan, are a numbskull of immeasurable proportions. I am also certain that if people gave up their ridiculous superstitions, the world truly would be a better place. Imagine what we could accomplish if humanity gave up its juvenile need for a metaphorical security blanket, & put all that effort & money into scientific research & treating each other decently.
@ Timjer- I always thought the whole "I'm praying for you" schtick was beyond condescending, & at the same time just another little trick that they play to make themselves feel superior. Shame it doesn't work, since we can always see right through them & their supposed piety. But, if the christian majini wish to waste their time on earth talking to themselves, at least they're not out bombing Planned Parenthood, shooting doctors or vandalizing black churches, mosques or Jewish cemeteries.
@The Crimson Ghost
Imagine what we could accomplish if humanity gave up its juvenile need for a metaphorical security blanket, & put all that effort & money into scientific research & treating each other decently.
Exactly. One of my biggest problems with religion is the whole "deity will solve all the problems we should solve for us", aka "it's someone else's problem" taken to its logical extreme. That's not how you fix things. At all.
And as for the whole "I'm praying for you" shtick, the best possible way I can choose to interpret that is "fuck off". I think it's that condescending. So you don't want to know how I usually interpret it.
@ Timjer- I can probably figure out the trajectory of your interpretation.
We both know that they only vomit up that nonsense because it's all they have. They have no real solutions, to anything at all because they won't acknowledge that the problem even exists. They certainly won't acknowledge that they are a main cause of it in the first place. I think they fall back on that tired old schtick because they genuinely believe that they have the power to do so; that's how arrogant they are. It also never seems to cross what passes for their minds that, according to their own ideology, their gawd gave us free will. Interfering in that goes against their gawd's plan. It's all just more proof that the christian majini don't read their own book (I think a great many of them actually can't)& simply bleat whatever bullshit their fraud of a pastor tells them. They just don't have the intellectual capacity to process anything beyond a chirpy sounding aphorism or bumper sticker slogan. They are simple minded sheep, who beg to be fleeced & butchered & anything that threatens their right to is to be dismissed & the person who threatened them shunned, & in an effort to appear "charitable", they fall back on their stupid line of "I'll pray for you". Were it more socially acceptable, I would literally tell them to fuck themselves. They need to be told exactly how they sound when they say garbage like that. If it shatters their "faith", all the better.
@The Crimson Ghost
...simply bleat whatever bullshit their fraud of a pastor tells them. They just don't have the intellectual capacity to process anything beyond a chirpy sounding aphorism or bumper sticker slogan. They are simple minded sheep, who beg to be fleeced & butchered & anything that threatens their right to is to be dismissed
Indeed. It's as they say, "Religion is the opiate of the masses" after all. It's easier to go through life if you don't have to think for yourself, nor if you have to take responsibility for your own actions. And philosophies like that just digust me to the core.
And then fundies have the audacity to call us "sheeple".
As I said before, the whole "Praying is acting like you've done something when in reality you've done nothing at all." is a perfect example of that IMO.
You found your contact lens!
Well, bollocks to the problem of evil, I'm in!
It can't be that you focus on them and feel someone helping you (whether there is anyone there to help or not), right? That's how placebo works...
You have the medical evidence that it was truly an aneurysm and not something that looks like it, of course?
I've found my husband's bicycle saddle cover, on my way home from work one day. I didn't even know he had lost it, but it looked familiar there by the side of the bike-path, so I took it home in case it was his. Was I guided then, or was it just luck and recognition?
So, you take a moment to think about it, collecting your thoughts as they were, and you feel better? What a miracle...
image
Oh, and here's what God says about making the world a better place:
image
So my aunt who prayed every day for her cancer to be cured wasn't what...? She died with that same prayer on her lips.
The whole aneurysm story...yeah...LIAR!!@!@ Mainly backed up by something so simple as "finding my contact lens in a grassy feild". That is too stereotypical of a "miracle". Ranks right up there with finding your car keys.
image
So the National Health Service - via 70 operations on Simon Weston's face - is proven to be superior to your 'God'. Thank you for admitting that.
I'm suuuuure he's all cut up about your 'Worries' & 'Anxieties'. Let him know after you've been burned in an anti-ship missile impact, Mr. Burns .
@Timjer @The Crimson Ghost
Personally, I find it acceptable if there is literally nothing else to do.
However, the Bible did state that one should pray, AND act. Just praying for something does not always work, and deciding to just pray when you have an ability to act is, as you so helpfully pointed out, incredibly pointless, and insulting. My own church has a problem with many people being complacent. They give their tithe, and they pray, but when people need help with a charity drive, or an attempt to feed the hungry, or something like that, most of the church is suspiciously absent. It's infuriating, and part of the reason I'm losing faith in my own church.
@ Timjer- I've long thought that Marx's observation needs an update-Religion is the METH of the masses. It makes one irrational, violent & frequently ugly, or a combination of all 3. The more of a believer a person is, the more unreasonable they tend to be. It's been proven over time.
@ Some Christian Anon- Didn't Jeebus also command his fanboys/followers to pray in private, in a closet & be not like the hypocrites, rather than splattering their piety all over Facebook or Twitter?
There is always something to do. Rather than offering meaningless nonsense like praying, take action. Volunteer. Help. Donate. March. Petition. Vote. If those are not viable options, tell someone that you're there for them. Be a sympathetic ear, because that is far more valuable. But don't tell someone that you'll pray for them, & then tell yourself that you did something tangible, because all you did was ease your conscience about your own complacency.
I'm sorry to read that your church sucks & seems to be full of self serving assholes. If possible, I'd encourage you to dump them at once. Either reconsider your position or seek out another church, one that doesn't extort you.
Final thing- Prayer never works. It never has, & it never will, because there is no deity to answer them.
Good luck.
@Some Christian Anon
one should pray, AND act.
I agree with that. If praying helps give you hope or gets your spirits up, who am I to say you shouldn't do that? However, as I said, if praying is the only thing one does, and then acts like they've changed the world by themselves, then I do dislike it.
Because even by Christian standards that doesn't even have an excuse. It's like saying "Oh, God, could you take some time off your very difficult and important work to solve all my problems for me because I'm waaaaay too lazy?".
I mean, the former could still be seen as "Oh, God, could you maybe give me a bit of luck and moral support while I do this myself?", which again, I see not much wrong with.
Plus, as Crimson said, outright announcing to everyone that you're praying (and doing nothing else) kinda comes across as being smug.
Confused?
So were we! You can find all of this, and more, on Fundies Say the Darndest Things!
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