When was the last time you prayed?

Prayer 2 Minutes

About a year ago a midwestern friend asked people to pray for rain. I thought, if god exists he should make it rain there. It did! In fact, I think they’re having problems with floods now. Apparently, sometimes folks need to tell him when to stop. I also tend to pray when I’m upset. I’ve invoked deities with things like god damn it (or dad gum it), Jesus Christ (or the family version of Jesus, Mary, and Joseph), Oh, God!, good god (or good grief), god help you, god only knows, bless her (or his) heart, and so on.

My last in earnest prayer was reciting part of Mark 9:24, I believe, help my unbelief, which is an alleged quote said by a father during a scene in which Jesus performed an exorcism on the man’s son. That prayer was eight or nine years ago as I was dealing with doubts about religion and god.

Roughly five years later I openly embraced my own atheism. My only prayers since might be called sarcastic blasphemy by some. I do not seriously pray. I would not pray if I ever came to believe in some god. I do not say amen after someone else prays, but I do (for now) sit or stand quietly while they pray or say some form of grace or meal blessing. I’m not sure how much longer I will cooperate with the holding of hands since I see that as me participating in the act of prayer.

What about people who believe in gods, especially the Abrahamic one, and never pray? Are they theists, deists, or practical atheists, as the Catholic church claims?

I have always thought that what people do matters most. I have never bought into the once saved, always saved; or what people believe matters more than what they do. In my mind, it fits well into what we do matters more than what we say.

I can’t recall ever being told that it is a sin to not ever pray. Is it wrong to never physically and verbally acknowledge a god, even if you do believe in one or more?

I no longer pray because I am mostly convinced (97.7%, if you need a degree) that no gods exist, and if they did, prayer would still be nonsense. When I prayed it was because it was a big part of the religion I practiced, not because I thought it was working. I prayed for dead people to be in heaven and I prayed for sick and dying people to recover. The sick got well, the dying died anyway.

Of the 80 or 90 percent of people who claim to believe in some sort of deity or woo-woo, how many never pray, never go to church, never practice a religion, and never dance naked around the fire during a full, or new moon?

Bill

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8 thoughts on “When was the last time you prayed?”

  1. Ehhh…I ask angels to protect me every single morning I have to make that leap from one ramp to another in 1/16th of a mile, cause I’m just that woo woo. I prayed in March, when my son was going into surgery, and a few weeks ago when Mentor had eye surgery. I think we pray to make us feel better when we’re helpless. I do more meditation than prayer and most of my words to the universe are in gratitude. Counting blessings. Being aware of the good stuff as it happens. Like thanking the angels when I make it to the ramp 😉

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  3. when at a table and people insist on praying, I just sit, lookiing around as if I’m on a safari. Prayer is such crap. The bible says prayers are quickly answered, you get given whatever you ask for and you don’t get given something else. of course Christians don’t like being reminded of what their bible actually says.

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    1. As the Stone’s song says, “you can’t always get what you want/But if you try sometime you find/You get what you need.” I like to see who else may be peeking during prayers. It might be someone in the closet. 🙂

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  4. Being a non believer, I’ve never prayed and three things really bug me about it.

    First when a plane or bus is involved in an accident and some die and some live. While waiting to hear who has died or lived, everyone is praying to save their own or maybe in some cases, to save everyone. Then when the families of those that survived, find out…suddenly god is great once more and has looked after their loved ones. Meanwhile the ones who have died…well I guess the prayers weren’t fervent enough or maybe they weren’t good enough Christians…or the correct religion.

    Second, the people who profess god has a plan for everyone and works in his mysterious ways are forever praying and begging for him to change his mind or his plan about this or that, as if they doubt his original decision. They alsolike to barter for his will.

    Then the ones who think god helped them find their car keys because they prayed about it and in the meantime, thousands of children die from starvation and disease every single day. Many hundreds die in car crashes daily and are killed in some form of accident every single day…..but those keys!

    It’s the arrogance that is astonishing to me.

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