In the wake of the horrific, inexplicable and all too common tragedy at the Washington D.C. Naval Shipyard, predictably the religious have rolled out their call for prayers for the deceased victims.
While I have nothing but sympathy for those victims, and their families, I’ve never understood this "praying for the victims" nonsense. Praying for them to do what, precisely? To come back to life? To not go to hell? To go to heaven? To spend less time in purgatory?
Hasn't their post life outcome already been predetermined either by their simple belief / faith in Jebus as god (or their lack of belief); and/ or their good works; or their good works alone, depending on which contradictory verses and absurd doctrine the given Xtian embraces?
Why would the god thing need or want its inferior creations to appeal to influence god thing’s decision on what to do with the dead victims in the afterlife? Heck… he's god thing - he wrote the rules, no? The deceased either met the god thing's criteria for this or that or they didn't.
Praying for the victims is simply another nonsensical meaningless platitude, like saying "god bless you" or the ever popular and grating "our thoughts and prayers are with you." Useless gestures by the pious meant to make them feel good and reduce their own feelings of impotence in the face of a violent world. Sort of like busy work for the religiously stupid.
I suppose to them praying seems less insipid than just "baaaaaaing" in unison. While the effect would be the same, the latter would be much more amusing.
5 comments:
I agree, praying for the victims is a useless endeavor. Many claim instead that they are praying for the victims families. This seems also futile in that if there is a god with a divine plan, why would he change his plan for you.
Praying for the dead whose eternal fate has already been determined makes no sense at all as you stated. Praying for the families of the dead after their passing is equally useless since everyones fate is dependent on them as individuals to accept or reject the myth of Christianity.
I despise their praying. Last night so-called pastor Rick Warren told Piers Morgan that the first thing he did when he heard about the Navy Yard shooting, was to drop to his knees and pray for the families. This from a man who together with 'The Family', was responsible for much of the anti gay anti condom controversies in Uganda, though he has repeatedly tried to back pedal and deny his involvement. He thought prayer would help cure his son, but it didn't help one little bit.
And let's not forget about the brainiacs who think that intercessory prayer can work to defeat an enemy; in fact believe it can be used to cause death and destruction.
What a vitriolic poison this religion stuff is.
Drenn10,
Good point. If no one prays than god's original plan stays in place, with only a perfect outcome...since he's god. But if people pray to change the plan, then god's original perfect plan becomes defunct ands was by definition imperfect.
The again, maybe he expected the prayers, so the prayed for outcome was his original plan...LOL. My head hurts from the nonsense of it all.
Den!s,
You can speak for (aka rant for) me anytime ;).
Chat,
I have been told that protestants don't pray for the dead...only Catholics do. But based on what I've seen around the internet, lots of protestants seem to think they are doing something for the dead. exactly what that is has never been fully answered.
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