4 ms·
The big problem being that prayer doesn't work.
by dsign 5y ago
The big problem being that prayer doesn't work.
- wizzwizz4 5y agoIf prayer stops people forgetting about the problems of the world, I'd say it does.
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoReligión is considered by the common people to be true, by the wise to be false, and by the rulers to be useful. --Seneca
- Jeff_Brown 5y ago(In fact that's too cynical on Seneca's part. Religión is useful for, one imagines, the majority of it's member's, who gain among other things social connection and a safety net from it.)
- silicon2401 5y agoThis is a generalization. Go on /r/exmuslim, /r/exjw, and /r/exmormon on reddit to find countless stories of people from whom religion provides quite the opposite of a safety net. If often as not creates a source of fear, emotional and physical danger, ostracization, and shunning. Not to mention extreme cases like honor killings. You may as well say North Korea gives you a safety net and community (as long as you ignore the ways that it doesn't).
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoI don't dispute that those things happen and are horrible, but I believe "as often as not" is incorrect. What's your sample? If your sample is a forum where people tell conversion-to-atheism stories, it's not representative. Almost of the religious people I've met feel that way about their church. Admittedly, my sample is surely not representative either. In particular people stuck in a church community against their will probably don't bring it up a lot with people they don't know very well. FWIW I'm an atheist. I recently wished I was able to invoke some kind of God concept while talking to a colleague who this year lost her mother, her boyfriend, and two other family members to Covid. I intend to look for something entitled Prayer for Atheists, if it exists.
- dorkwood 5y agoI've seen this quote before, but I haven't been able to find it myself. Which text is it from? Here's one from a letter to Lucilius. Seneca is easy to misquote. "Indeed, no man can be good without the help of God. Can one rise superior to fortune unless God helps him to rise? He it is that gives noble and upright counsel." - Seneca
- Jeff_Brown 5y agoInteresting! A lot of people on wikiquote[1] appear to believe it's a misattribution. I've only ever heard it secondhand. [1] https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Seneca_the_Younger#.22True.2C_False.2C_Useful.22_Quote https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Talk:Seneca_the_Younger#.22Tru...
- mrtweetyhack 5y agoso does a bullet
- afroboy 5y agoWell if prayer make you go through hard times and give you peace and hope instead of going into depressing than yes it does work.
- dsign 5y agoPrayer doesn't prevent malfunctioning kidneys, yours or those of random strangers, as far as I know. So, it doesn't work.