STOP "How have you experienced the power of prayer in your life?

Question

Does anyone else wish the above question would just go away already? I mean, does "official" think anybody actually reads all the answers?

Hey Bland and Boreing, thanks for the laugh, that was good.

Geeeezzzzzz, Starbright, Nice essay, but you could have just ignored my question a lot easier than I have been ignoring "official's" for the past way too long. chilax ... I'll pray for you.

Starbright, I think your writing is excellent. I don’t think you’re rambling. I’m actually very impressed with your humble, sincere, and semi-open-minded demeanor. The reason I side with the atheists is because they are the minority or underdogs if you will. Religious people have the advantage of being in the majority. They get away with their assault on atheists in all the time. Atheists, by and large, don’t have the luxury of even engaging in an intelligent discussion with most religious people for fear of being assaulted by a group of closed-minded buffoons who can’t entertain any other explanation for existence than that given in the Bible or Koran; who additionally, cannot fathom for a moment, that Atheists could possibly be well-adjusted, ethical, moral, and compassionate people. Atheists are not the terrorists. They are not intolerant toward any particular group, except for certain religious people who attack and trivialize their beliefs. Thanks, you’re cool. =) Peace.

Answer 1

Sometimes I do wish folks would stop asking me things like that. When I was growing up, I wished my parents would stop asking me how school was going, or how homework was going, or how life was going, even if things were going great, mostly because I was an uppity kid who thought my parents were nosy and wanted to tell me how to live my life, wanted to know how I was doing so they could tell me how I'm doing it wrong and how I could do it better, right, essentially "their way." The obvious implication in this analogy here is that the folks asking about the "power of prayer" are being nosy and are going to tell you how you're screwing up and how you can make things right, do it better, live "their way," which, actually, wasn't what I was trying to get at; but it certainly does seem to fit, at least from the outside looking in on the religious (or, as I would guess you're interpreting them, the righteous).

But what I find ironic is the same buttinsky behavior from non-religious folks who feel the need to let the religious know how screwed up they are, how they're ruining their lives and the lives of everyone around them, how they're contributing to the decay of human society and the stagnation of intellectual progress - and it is done about as indiscriminately as blind evangelism. I have not set out to convert anyone to my brand of faith; yet I am not allowed to open my mouth and say anything to the effect of, "Praise God," when I hear some good news, or, "I will pray for you," when I learn that someone is going through troubled times, because the moment anything remotely religious in nature or affiliation comes out, I am barraged with a deluge of, "There is no God! Separation of Church and State! Keep your religious backwater God-talk away from me!" and other similar manner of hateful, venomous reproach. I'm not the evangelical type. It's just not in my nature. But I do think I should have the right to express my personal beliefs, just as any atheist, agnostic, Pagan, etc., has the right to express his or hers.

Have you experienced the power of prayer in your life?

Have you experienced the power of simply ignoring the question and walking away?

I find it very difficult to believe that the vast majority of those confronted with that question who didn't want to be are in a position where they can't simply walk away from it. We don't live in the Spanish Inquisition. We live in a society where I can tell you that Jesus saves and can change your life, and you can tell me to go f*** myself, and that's about the end of it; or you can tell me that there is no God, and I can tell you, "I will pray for you," and again, that's pretty much it. Isn't it great?

Now, I could've chosen not to respond to this question posted here ("does anyone else wish [it] would just go away already?"), but I made the conscious, willful choice to respond; and by doing so, I open myself up to responses (be they supportive, opposing, neutral, defamatory, etc.), and I shouldn't whine if anyone responding to me decides to call me names, or flame me for the thoughts I've expressed. So while I state that the asker could simply ignore the original question altogether and get over his or her issue with the religious asking it in the first place, I will also state that he or she has every right (God-given or otherwise) to express being frustrated with the constant religious exposure in our society.

Not all religious people want to shove religion down your throat.
Not all non-religious people want to tell you to go to hell. (Or wherever else.)

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In response to Asker's comment: That was pretty much my point (other readers refer to comment at top). :) I chose to respond to your post because I get about as tired of hearing how ____ (fill in the blank) the religious are as you get of hearing all the religious rhetoric and propaganda. But it was a choice, and I could've ignored, as I usually do. But as I said before, the great thing about the discussion is that we CAN open our mouths if we so choose.

As to the essay...well, I just have a tendency to write a lot. It's been a life-long affliction. I can't seem to make it stop. I've prayed that God deliver me from my inability to write short, simple, to-the-point responses, but so far He hasn't delivered... See, it's still going...hold on, it's getting away from me...somebody help me!! *drowning*

Answer 2

If you answered prayers, people would believe in you.