Posts Tagged prayer
Sick
Last night, we were getting our little girl ready for bed when hubby turned to me and said, “If I was still in the church, she would be learning to pray right about now.” WTF? She’s not even two yet!
The idea of teaching P to get down on her knees and recite some silly poem to the heavens, all in an effort to ingratiate herself to a brutal and inconsistent father in heaven (when she has a wonderful father right here on earth) is infuriating to me.
I have heard the argument made that teaching your kids to be atheist is no different than teaching them to have faith. You are indoctrinating them, either way. This is something I have struggled with because while I want P to think critically and rationally, I don’t want to force her to be a non-believer. I can say though, that I have never sat her down and told her anything about religion. Do you know why? Because she’s a baby! The idea that you would intentionally set out to introduce a supernatural being into a child’s reality before they have the skills or development to question it is sick and twisted. It’s taking advantage of a primed and vulnerable mind and it’s no wonder it is so difficult and painful for adults to leave the church when their faith is so deeply rooted in their infant brain.
I remember reading my hubby’s baby book not too long ago and feeling physically ill when I read this message from my MIL: “Brian received a gift of one dollar today and when I asked him what he was going to spend it on he told me he was going to save it for his mission, – Age 2″
Holy fuck.
2 comments October 15, 2009
Prayer ID Required
I have written before about prayer and how egotistical and irrational it really is. While I understand the emotional need to feel like you are “doing something” in a time of crisis, I think prayer is a perfect example of what can happen when you don’t actually stop and think about what you are doing.
Yesterday, a family friend was in a car accident and my MIL immediately started calling for prayers on Facebook. I have seen this a lot. I have been invited to prayer groups and been called to “pray for so-and-so because he/she needs your faith”. My response is to politely ignore the invitation, privately fume and move on. The thing I noticed yesterday however, was how many of these groups use the first name and last name of the people needing prayers. In the cases I’ve seen this is intended for those who don’t know the person personally but wish to add them to their prayers.
So, I can assume that God needs surnames? Should people perhaps include birth dates or addresses when praying on their behalf? Is there a risk of identity theft in heaven? What if there were two Steve Smith’s battling cancer and God was having bad day? Would one man live and the other die? If I just prayed for “Bob” would some guy in Utah sit up from his hospital bed while my friend remained in a coma?
Ridiculous right?
Right.
Add comment September 15, 2009
national day of prayer
Today is the national day of prayer in the US and President Obama has decided to mark it quietly and privately. god bless him! (lol) It’s about time someone ends the tyranny of faith that has ruled Washington for far too long. The evangelical movement in the United States is an insidious force that has set the country back by decades, if not by centuries. The number of people in the country who do not believe in evolution or climate change is shocking. There are thousands of people who think that dinosaurs walked the earth with humans. Crazy ideas based on junk science have not only been allowed to bloom but have been encouraged by crazy laws that encourage “religious freedom”. The freedom to be ignorant. The freedom to be wrong.
Obama said in his inauguration speech that he would lift science back to its rightful place and, like it or not, part of that is keeping religion in its rightful place. In homes and churches, and out of the White House.
1 comment May 6, 2009
prayer
Prayer has always struck me as not only silly but the height of egotism. Assuming you believe in prayer and in God then you also believe that God has a plan. If God has a plan then who on earth are you to try and convince him otherwise. If you pray for little Jimmy’s safety on the road and he gets in a car crash you need to assume on of three things:
1. God heard you and ignored you because he has a plan;
2. God has no control over whether Jimmy is safe on the road which makes your prayers futile to begin with;
3. God was busy and didn’t hear you or doesn’t care (or hey, DOESN”T EXIST!)
So, once little Jimmy is in a car crash, what do most people do? They pray for him to get better. So now, if number one is the case and God has a plan, you are asking him (the ruler of the universe) to change his mind because clearly, his plan is somehow flawed (the arrogance!). If number 2 is the case and God doesn’t control these types of things then you would be better using your energy to talk to Jimmy’s doctors about the medical options available to him. And if the third option is true and God didn’t pay attention to your please to keep Jimmy safe then what makes you think he will listen now?
Also, praying to win the football game? Really – it’s embarassing.
1 comment February 26, 2009
