My (rambling) thoughts on prayer.

[none123]

I have a lot of different thoughts about prayer that I wanted to post. I apologize in advance for it perhaps not being very coherent or grammatically correct. I never have much time on this site cause my wife would kill me if she found me here.

Whenever someone prays for something they want, if it comes true, they say it was because of the prayer. If it doesn't come true, it wasn't god's will.  If you are going to pray and god just does what he wants anyways, then why pray at all, because if you don't pray then god would do his will, and if you pray, then god does his will anyways. So what's the point.

Why do people pray sometimes at a restaurant? It's one thing to pray at a dinner table, but at a public restaurant, that's just dumb.  First of all if I was the cook, I might be offended that they are so afraid of my cooking that they have to pray to protect themselves from the food I cook for them. And do these people seriously pray when they just eat a snack. Grab a donut or coffee in the office, etc. Or after they get drive through, and your driving home and you have to close your eyes while driving to pray to bless the food.

And if you are praying before every meal and you get sick from the food, it is just god's will, so you wasted your time and looked like a moron for nothing. If it was working then shouldn't the life expectancy for atheists be so much lower than for religious zealots? But it's not.  

And prayers on food I often hear "bless the food that it may nourish and strengthen our bodies" and this right before eating some greasy pizza and pop or mcdonald's or kfc or wherever. WTF? god is just going to suddenly make that food better for you to eat.

And i thinks it is ludicrous that sports players pray openly for a game. I mean do you seriously think a god would give a damn who wins the game (unless he has money on one of the teams). And if both teams are praying, who does he pick. Probably doesn't, just lets them play and see the outcome themselves, same as if they didn't pray. and when they thank god for helping them score a touchdown or whatever, they sure aren't making themselves look good to their coaches or future teams since it wasn't their talent that got the score, they cheated and got help.

And why the hell do people try to get as many people as possible to pray for someone sick. What is making it so god chooses not to answer if just one person is praying, but if a lot of people do, then god gives in and says, "ok since a lot of you asked then I will. But if there were less, no way am I healing them for less than 10 prayers. You owe me."  It's like god uses our prayers for energy or something like in clash of the titans. And again if it worked, shouldn't christians have like twice the life expectancy as atheists? And according to a study I read about in "The God Delusion", you are better off not being prayed for then for someone to openly tell you they are praying for you.  

It's funny that when up until 200 years ago or so, when people didn't really have much in the way of medicine so only could rely on praying, the life expectancy is about half as it is now that we have science instead of superstition.

I've just been thinking a lot about how ridiculous it is because of how hard my parents push it. I was at their house the other day and my brother misplaced his wallet, and first thing they suggest is to pray about it to find it. How about maybe try looking for it first.

What are your thoughts?

[Reginus]

Why do people pray sometimes at a restaurant? It's one thing to pray at a dinner table, but at a public restaurant, that's just dumb.  First of all if I was the cook, I might be offended that they are so afraid of my cooking that they have to pray to protect themselves from the food I cook for them. And do these people seriously pray when they just eat a snack. Grab a donut or coffee in the office, etc. Or after they get drive through, and your driving home and you have to close your eyes while driving to pray to bless the food.

And if you are praying before every meal and you get sick from the food, it is just god's will, so you wasted your time and looked like a moron for nothing. If it was working then shouldn't the life expectancy for atheists be so much lower than for religious zealots? But it's not.

Lol, I have never heard a prayer where someone says something like "Lord, make sure this food doesn't have any E. Coli" (of course no one is gonna be that blunt, but you get the point.)  Usually they just thank God that they have the food, and pray about a few other non-food related things.

[i_am_i]

To this day I have no idea what all this praying is about, none at all. I'm pretty sure it's just a leftover ritual from the bad old days when people were instructed how to live by the priest class.

I mean, think about it. Some guy says, "Here's how you pray for good things to happen" and then he sees people actually doing it! He's going to think to himself, "Man, I own these suckers."

[none123]

Why do people pray sometimes at a restaurant? It's one thing to pray at a dinner table, but at a public restaurant, that's just dumb.  First of all if I was the cook, I might be offended that they are so afraid of my cooking that they have to pray to protect themselves from the food I cook for them. And do these people seriously pray when they just eat a snack. Grab a donut or coffee in the office, etc. Or after they get drive through, and your driving home and you have to close your eyes while driving to pray to bless the food.

And if you are praying before every meal and you get sick from the food, it is just god's will, so you wasted your time and looked like a moron for nothing. If it was working then shouldn't the life expectancy for atheists be so much lower than for religious zealots? But it's not.

Lol, I have never heard a prayer where someone says something like "Lord, make sure this food doesn't have any E. Coli" (of course no one is gonna be that blunt, but you get the point.)  Usually they just thank God that they have the food, and pray about a few other non-food related things.

I usually hear thanks but then something along the lines of "bless this food". But maybe it is just the people I am usually around.  But if the whole point of prayer before eating is just to give thanks for something you paid for and are about to consume then why not pray before other instances of using something, or consuming something you paid for or where given by someone. Example:
Why not right before filling their car with gas do they not pray "thanks for the gas which I'm about to put into my car". Or everytime sits down to use the bathroom, "Thank you for this roll of toilet paper you have given us".  No weirder than "thank you for this food" (that I bought with my hard earned money and prepared with my own hands).  There's a hilarious prayer bart gives on an episode of simpsons: "“Dear God, we paid for all this stuff ourselves.  So thanks for nothing.”

[PoopShoot]

I never have much time on this site cause my wife would kill me if she found me here.

And this is where I stopped reading.  Go trade in your skirt for a pair of pants.

[Lapsed Lurker]

I never have much time on this site cause my wife would kill me if she found me here.

 

[Thumpalumpacus]

It's hard to go wrong with Carlin, too.  Sonofabitch was spot-on about this, as with so many other things.

[none123]

I never have much time on this site cause my wife would kill me if she found me here.

And this is where I stopped reading.  Go trade in your skirt for a pair of pants.

My whole family and my wife's whole family and my family are very strictly religious to the point that if I came out as an atheist she would probably divorce me. And I happen to love my wife despite her beliefs, so it isn't a matter of having the balls tell them I'm an atheist, it's a matter of if I want to be disowned by my family, and be divorced by my wife and not be able to raise my son, and lose all my friends.  I thought this was the one place I could be myself. So fuck off.

[PoopShoot]

My whole family and my wife's whole family and my family are very strictly religious to the point that if I came out as an atheist she would probably divorce me. And I happen to love my wife despite her beliefs, so it isn't a matter of having the balls tell them I'm an atheist, it's a matter of if I want to be disowned by my family, and be divorced by my wife and not be able to raise my son, and lose all my friends.  I thought this was the one place I could be myself. So fuck off.

I'm from a pentecostal family married to a Jehovah Witness living in central Kentucky.  You're preaching to the choir.  Grow some balls, I did.

[notself]

I never have much time on this site cause my wife would kill me if she found me here.

And this is where I stopped reading.  Go trade in your skirt for a pair of pants.

My whole family and my wife's whole family and my family are very strictly religious to the point that if I came out as an atheist she would probably divorce me. And I happen to love my wife despite her beliefs, so it isn't a matter of having the balls tell them I'm an atheist, it's a matter of if I want to be disowned by my family, and be divorced by my wife and not be able to raise my son, and lose all my friends.  I thought this was the one place I could be myself. So fuck off.

Tell your wife that according to the Bible, wives must submit to their husbands in all things.  Peter 3:1

Wives, in the same way be submissive to your husbands so that, if any of them do not believe the word, they may be won over without words by the behavior of their wives,

and also these sections - Colossians 3:1-8,   Ephesians 5:22,  Esther 1:20, Esther 1:22, Titus 2:5, Genesis 3:1-6, Timothy 2:11.  I don't think divorce will be an issue if she is truly devout.  You can even start bossing her around because her religion demands a submissive wife to such a degree that I had no trouble finding eight direct quotes from both the old and the new testament.