when I pray for you? I am only trying to save you from Hell. I will pray for you all
God Bless
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2007-05-04 20:41:48 · 20 answers · asked by nihilist 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
What I'd like to do is paint for you a picture of what it means to an atheist when they are told that they are being prayed for:
Picture if you will a stranger approaching you, pointing to a little bug on the sidewalk and saying to you, "Do you see that bug there? Did you know that that little bug loves you and you should love it"?
You of course say "Okay, whatever" while you tightly grasp your pocket book and spy him with a weary eye.
Then he says with a choppy egg-slicer grin, "Well you wanna know what? It's true! And you wanna know somethin' else?" As he bends down lifting the bug from the ground, "I am going to take this bug home, put it into a jar with holes poked in the lid and next to that jar I am propping a small sign that says: 'YOU LOVE ignatious93 AND HE LOVES YOU TOO!"
You say, "Yeah, okay whatever. Good-bye stranger." And then that stranger runs down the block, laughing with the bug and a mission. This man goes home and actually builds this inexpensive but bizarre little shrine on his window sill, and every so often he reads the sign aloud to the bug that's inside that jar.
The feelings you'd have for that smiling stranger are precisely the same feelings an atheist would have when you say that you're going to pray for him or her.
I'd be so pleased if you understood what I wrote here today, but I don't think that you will.
2007-05-04 21:23:09 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
It's disrespectful. By praying for someone without their consent, you've completely disregarded that person's feelings about the issue. It's also condescending. You consider it a high act of compassion, but really all it does is look down on us. You are shoving your religion on us, or worse, dragging us into it. And really, if I'm an atheist, I go to hell, right? What good do any of those prayers do? If we do have free will, God couldn't force us into belief, no matter how much you pray.
Frankly, I can't stop you from praying for me, and trying to would be futile. But the people who are truly compassionate are the ones who would pray for someone and move on. The one's who then decide to flaunt it in front of the person who doesn't want it saying, "I'll pray for you," or, "I've said a prayer for you," are either the ones who are being antagonistic or are in constant need of external validation for actions no one would know about otherwise.
2007-05-05 05:58:23 · answer #2 · answered by Phil 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
My guess is they feel you're trying to invade their personal space. You know how people can get. Touchy, silly, when they think someone is getting a bit too close. It's all about the illusion of privacy.
I know you could equally well pray for them and not tell them, but it must be kind of fun to see them squirm when you tell them you're praying for them.
Just don't overdo it. If you start to enjoy it too much it could become an obsession, and that's just not good for your health.
In the meantime, have fun.
:)
2007-05-04 21:59:56 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
What in case you had disciples of Zeus influencing how rules have been framed in this us of a, knocking on your door and telling you which you will in no way go the River Styx without own dating with Zeus, examining "In Zeus We have confidence" on the money, gazing people dying and killing others interior the call of Zeus, on your total existence, and you in no way believed in Zeus, somewhat, you concept Zeus became into in basic terms a delusion, so all this angst and dying and drama have been all thoroughly pointless. does no longer you get in basic terms a sprint irritable? EDIT: it somewhat is no longer a terrible analogy, with the aid of fact the type you sense approximately Zeus, is the way we sense approximately in spite of God you take place to worship. Sorry, i do no longer comprehend if it somewhat is Vishnu or Allah or the God of Abraham, or Jesus the actual Manifestation of the wasteland God Yahweh. i'm uncertain which god you adhere to, yet please attempt to comprehend that the genuine way you sense approximately Zeus, i.e., that he's pretend, is the genuine way we additionally sense approximately your god. you're a Zeus atheist. we are Zeus + your god atheists.
2016-12-17 04:41:24 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
because we don't want you to pray for us and we don't believe in hell
how would you like it if a muslim or a jew or a jw, etc etc. prayed for you because they believed you were going to hell. chances are you would get mad too.
2007-05-04 21:14:59 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Glory to God!!! for he does answer prayers! I used to be an atheist . And now i thank every Brother and Sister in Christ who took their time to Pray for me because now i am Saved through the sacrifice of our Lord Jesus Christ :) GLORY TO GOD!!!
2007-05-04 21:56:16 · answer #6 · answered by Crystal 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
If your retarded brother drools all over you while trying to tell you that school will turn your ears green because he read it in some childs book, would you start to get mad after, say 2 hours?
2007-05-04 21:16:10 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
why do you get mad when I hope for you? I am only trying to save you from a lifetime of idiocy. I will hope for you.
2007-05-04 20:51:32 · answer #8 · answered by eldad9 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
there is no hell , god , evil , or anything else related to bible and scriptures fluff, you choose to pray for yourself, and leave the innocent alone, live life, stay free, ...
2007-05-04 20:56:36 · answer #9 · answered by a soul 3 · 2⤊ 0⤋
pray all you want just dont take my time.
2007-05-04 21:03:18 · answer #10 · answered by lnfrared Loaf 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋