Comment by Joshua Rusch on August 5, 2010 at 12:29pm

This is brilliant! Did you make it?

Comment by Mario Rodgers on August 5, 2010 at 3:41pm

Put in other words.

Prayer is the faithful's way of saying either God screwed up or he didn't trust the chain of events God set out enough and wants them changed.

Comment by Morgan Matthew on August 7, 2010 at 12:23am

I always use the lets pray to a jug of milk and see if your prayer comes true or not. When the prayer does come true, "See! You just had to trust that the jug of milk. The jug of milk knows best."

When put in that context people (theists) might not understand that right away but that potentially might be the small push to start taking another look on the other side of the fence.

Comment by Jennifer on August 7, 2010 at 3:51am

Joshua - I wish I had! I can't remember where I got it from, somewhere on the net, so unfortunately can't give credit to anyone at the moment.

With regards to prayer it is incredible how religious people apologise on behalf of their god. My mum, step father and step brother are christians, describe themselves as 'ragamuffins' making reference to the fact that they are far from perfect (eg. my brother having spent years doing some pretty heavy stuff that I can't even talk about knocked his girlfriend up within 5 weeks of meeting her at bible college, they both got thrown out and are now married...)

Anyway, when something happens that they previously prayed for they give thanks, or if it turns out slightly different they give more thanks because god knew what was best. However, when their god does not listen and they don't get the result they ask for, they make their excuses of 'god's will... we don't know what god's will is..'

Now this is all well and good when it's rather minuscule events in life, but when my gran was on her death bed last year, in a substantial amount of pain, losing her dignity,my mum was traumatised at seeing her suffer like this, and my gran was praying for god to 'take her home'; it was horrific. In circumstances like these, where with deaths, many seek comfort from the thought of a god presiding over the situation, I was disgusted. My mum was in pieces, my gran whose god had given her a sense of comfort her whole life, had never felt more abandoned from her god in her last few days of life.

I'm all for those who use prayer to sort out their thoughts - I personally think that quiet meditation over things you should be thankful for really helps to balance your head out after a rubbish day. However, in many circumstances prayer only worsens the heartache, encouraging feelings of abandonment and making you rely on a god who is not actually there to listen.

I should probably have put this is another blog post........... I'll take note!!

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