So many friends and acquaintances are suffering these days. People are sick. People are injured. People are drinking too much or stuck somewhere up north way over their 'off time'. They ask me to pray. They are so baffled when I tell them I don't pray. Some are shocked. But all of them are reluctant to ask me why. So I'm putting it out there.
Prayer- the act of asking the Invisible Cosmic Housekeeper to set aside all the natural established laws of the universe on behalf of one individual, confessedly unworthy, whilst Unworthy assures ICH to go ahead and do what ICH wants anyway.
When ICH does what ICH wants and not what Unworthy wants, there is gratitude for the ICH Great Plan which only ICH is privy to and will not share with anyone. Ever.
When ICH does what Unworthy wants, i.e. there is a 'cure' or the 'job is attained' or 'the mate returns' or the 'ring found' there is great rejoicing over the boundless goodness of ICH.
If the prayed for events get much worse, the faith of the Unworthy in ICH is being tested by ICH.
If prayed for events result in death, then ICH has called Unworthy to the ICH Mansion as Unworthy has suffered enough.
Can anyone explain why anyone would pray then?
No! Please! Don't pray for me!
Don't forget about those who are blessed, meaning for some reason (usually membership in certain brands of churches), they get preferential treatment from "the man upstairs". I do, however, think there's a goodness inside of most of us, a goodness that can help others. And I'm pretty sure you are full of it (goodness, that is). Maybe your goodness is your prayer.
ReplyDeleteI was brought up as a Catholic, but as soon as I actually thought about the words 'Thy will be done', prayers vanished in a puff of logic... soon followed by all the rest of it.
ReplyDeleteI say little prayers and thank yous constantly for my own peace of mind. I think they work. That's my way of believing in magic and heavenly interference of a personal higher being. I don't want to stop believing in it and I think everything happens for a purpose. I guess that's my childlike way of explaining things to myself.
ReplyDeleteTo paraphrase Disney, "A prayer is a wish your heart makes..." and oh, how I wish I had the power to make many things better. So, I say a little prayer now and then, just in case a wish can come true.
ReplyDeleteI feel much the same as you do, WWW. I usually say something along the lines of "I don't pray, but I'm sending lots of positive thoughts your way".
ReplyDeleteI have wondered, though, whether a concerted effort of thousands, or millions of people with minds sending positive thoughts about a single issue - or "praying for the same thing"
might have some effect - via electro magnetic something or other.
If I were to pray, it would be for acceptance and not healing.
ReplyDeleteI pray for your forgiveness, my child. Such sacrilegious and blasphemous thoughts must be banished from your mind or a plague of snails will rain on your head.
ReplyDeleteI believe in a lot of things, but prayer in a religious sense is not one of them. Now karma, maybe, just maybe...
ReplyDeleteI don't do 'real' prayer (I think the last time I did was when I was 10 and our cat was dying, and I had to tell God how to look after her properly) - I think really the "If God doesn't want to help the starving children in Africa, why would he help anyone else?" struck home when I was twelve or thirteen and was one of the questions which put me on the road to being an atheist.
ReplyDelete