The Church of England has published a prayer to help comfort Britons who lose their jobs in the financial crisis.
“Hear me as I cry out in confusion, help me to think clearly, and calm my soul,” says the “Prayer On Being Made Redundant.”
The church, part of the global Anglican church, also offered a prayer for those who keep their jobs but suffer stress and feelings of guilt when colleagues are fired.
“Who will be next? How will I cope with the increased pressure of work?” asks the “Prayer For Those Remaining In The Workplace.”
As many as 600,000 Britons could lose their jobs this year, a report from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development forecast last month.
I remarked the other day about too much tea softening your brain. Too much religion flushes intelligence from your brain altogether.
Its really disgusting how such prayers diminish the status of man as a thinking being: “Hear me as I cry out in confusion.”
Sheep, not thinking people, are confused and need a church to guide them. Very little confusion about incompetent governments shovelling tax expenditures to the rich while not taking jobs away from the working class by raising minimum wage or providing health benefits.
No, very little confusion at all.
Doombagastalawa Broken Orange Pekoe tea, that’s all I’m saying.
Pastors are there to guide the flock. Sheeple are there to follow the pastor. Sounds like a match made in heaven. 😉
“There are no atheists in foxholes goes the saying.”
I’d say a prayer for any of you that wished, as a start.
Is that why the courts had declared atheism to be a relgion?
“The power of prayer.”
Even religious people know that is BS, yet allusions to it continue, even for some in a foxhole.
The absurdity of facing death in a foxhole is one situation. Thinking rather than praying is for the other 99.999 % of life.
#6 Bobbo
What the hell have you got against that religion!? No wait, you told me that. Granted a prayer such as this one has all the spirituality of a kid’s letter to Santa Claus. For me true prayer is a time for sincere reflection on the world as one sees it and/or would like to see it. To think about the days decisions and ask oneself if the values need a tweek. It’s good to make a habit of doing these things. Now you’re gonna accuse me of trying to convert you, right? Nah! I just think that discualifying other peoples ideas or beliefs is unwaranted, mabe even a little rude. I don’t pretend to understand your motives but it certainly seems obsessive in your case.
http://tinyurl.com/56xjmf
Rather than trashing the idea, why not see it from another point of view. It just may help people so stressed out that they feel they are going over the edge… or postal.
Power of {prayer, positive thinking, meditation, moonstones, crystals, insert your preferred object or activity here} does have an affect on how you see things… so it helps you manage stress etc and in turn may actually lead to a better outcome as your mindset is better able to deal with the situation.
But I forget, this is a religiously anti-religious blogosphere….
#7–amadangadingdong===well, we agree we should do and would profit from doing the exact same thing. What you describe as prayer, I would call thoughtful reflection and introspection. Did you leave at least one little thing out? Yes, I think you did.
Some aspects of some religions at some times may have a benefit for some people for some time. But the net value of any religion, over time, for everyone is negative.
Then we could discuss the benefit of believing in something that doesn’t exist. That can’t be “good” can it?
#7 – Amo
>>Bobbo What the hell have you got against
>>that religion!?
Just as John C Dvorak has a hardon for global warming and Barack “Hitler” Obama, Bobbo has one for anything to do with religion. He is like the Jerry Falwell/ Ted Haggard/ Rick Warren of Atheism. A real extremist.
Amen Brother Mustard–pass the hotdog.
Is it egotism that makes me think your continuous portrayal of me as “extreme” is just your sense of humor, or are you that stupid/religious/blindered/egocentric yourself?
Come to think of it, given you think I must be sad for me to actually exercise my free will, yea, I do think you are that blindered.
Wouldn’t the rapture be good for both of us??????
Hah, hah. Yea, extreme.
#12 – Bobo
It’s egotism. Don’t ever doubt it.
Well Mustard, are you sure?
If its my ego, then you are saying you are just that egocentric and blindered.
You just took it up a notch being overweeningly proud of it.
Hah, hah.
Who was it that said “Nothing fails like prayer”
Thing about prayer is it’s not an empiricle thing. It can’t be scrutenized under a microscope. God is not a wishing well.
But prayer pre-supposes belief…soooo I guess its a ‘you got it or you don’t’ situation.
Which may be why it takes foxholes for some people.
It is a shame when people hate things simply because they don’t understand them and don’t want to.
#16 – Thinker
There are most definitely atheists in foxholes.
http://www.atheistfoxholes.org/
As for prayer, Jesus say :-
I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. [John 14:13]
Jesus did not say
I will do whatever you ask in my name except if you are testing me.
So where do you get this notion that prayer should not be empirical, certainly not from the bible.
#16–Thinker==prayer certainly IS an empirical thing. 6 Billion people all praying for directly contradictory things all to the effect of changing God’s plan for us.
It just has to be true.
#18 – Raymond
>>There are most definitely atheists in
>>foxholes.
Who says any of the members of that organization have ever been in a foxhole? Or have ever even been in combat at all, for that matter?
The saying doesn’t go “There are no atheist clerk/ typists or computer programmers at the Naval Base in San Diego”.
#18 Raymond,
I was thinking about ‘studies’ that try to prove or disprove the effectiveness of prayer.
Trying to use empirical means to asses something like prayer really gets you nowhere. The results are singularly useless.
Just because one prays for something doesn’t mean it will happen.
#20 Mustard
I can’t speak for the atheists in fox holes organization as there member list is private.
However the Military Association of Atheists and Freethinkers has a number of people listed there combat experience and a short blurb.
The point being that it is false to assert that all these atheists are sitting miles away for combat zones.
http://www.maaf.info/expaif.html
Yes eideard. All of the believers throughout the centuries were complete morans.
Tell that to Newton, Pascal, Copernicus, CS Lewis, Tolkien, …..
Your pettiness is showing.
#23–rectagon==all those famous people became so by using science, not religion, to make their reputations/accomplishments, but they could not shake their childhood indoctrination.
What does this actually teach us about religion?
#22 – Raymond
Oh, I never said that NO denizen of the foxholes was an atheist. I’m sure that there are a hardy few, whose Atheist beliefs are so strong and unshakeable, that even when faced with likely death, the refuse to give them up. We see the same single-minded devotion in other religions as well.
And you’re correct, your link DOES list a number of actual atheist military folks, at least one of whom was most likely in combat, as he received the Purple Heart (many of the others’ decorations were for Good Conduct, Marksmanship, Driver’s Badge, Global War on Terrorism, etc., they were physicians, radio operators, “engineer/ space operators”, musicians, weather forecasters, or legal advisors…. one was an actual clerk/typist)
The Purple Heart fellow is the exception that proves the rule: When faced with overwhelming adversity, many (or most) people turn to a higher power.
#24 – Bobbo
>>all those famous people became so by using
>>science, not religion, to make their
>>reputations/accomplishments
You’re paying too much attention to those who DO use religion to make their “reputations”. By and large, those are the Ted Haggards and the Rick Warrens and the Jimmy Swaggarts and the Tammy Faye Bakkers. The charlatans, those grasping desperately for 15 minutes of fame, in the absence of any discernable productive skills.
It’s the ones who do NOT use religion as their only springboard to public notice, like Newton, Pascal, Copernicus, CS Lewis, Tolkien, Martin Luther King Jr., etc. that perhaps should occupy more of your study of religion. Why are those people held in such high regard, and given so much credit for their intelligence and courage, yet remain so devoted to their God?
#25–Mustard==you got the timimg slightly off. When their life was on the line, ALL OF THESE PEOPLE REJECTED FAITH, and found a foxhole. It was only in the foxhole, regressing in emotional shock, that some will turn to god, mom, spaghetti monster to find some solace. No one blames them or thinks poorly of them. The rest of us are not in foxholes==different standards.
#26–Mustard==so close but no banana. Those people are famous/remarkable ONLY for their scientific contributions. The fact of their religion already very clearly is a statement about the power of early childhood indoctrination. How come all these good people found the Western God rather than Jew, Muslim, Buddha, Mormon, etc?
BECAUSE ITS ALL SOCIOLOGICAL/PSYCHOLOGICAL.
Silly Hoomans. Proof before swine, still prefer the mud.
#27 – Bobbo
You’re right. You ARE full of shit.
>>When their life was on the line, ALL OF THESE
>>PEOPLE REJECTED FAITH, and found a foxhole.
WTF are you talking about? Many of these people’s lives were never “on the line”. And of those that were, none rejected their faith because of it. Have you seen footage of MLK marching in Birmingham saying “Damn, Madalyn Murray O’Hair was right, there IS no God!”??
Pascal even provided a mathematical argument for why a rational person SHOULD believe in God:
http://tinyurl.com/8qttyj
>>Those people are famous/remarkable ONLY for
>>their scientific contributions.
Uh….that’s what I said. Yet they remained devout. Anyone who seeks fame ONLY for “their religion” is most likely a charlatan, like Ted Haggard, Jimmy, and Tammy Faye.
>>How come all these good people found the
>>Western God rather than Jew, Muslim, Buddha,
>>Mormon, etc?
Well, I might argue that Jews and Mormons also worship a “Western God”. But not to fret about that. Perhaps they did so because there is an inner core, an essence, a truth to all religions that is independent of praying the Rosary or wearing magical undies or bowing in the right direction when you pray.
You really need to get out more, Bobbo. The shit they portray on TV and tech blogs as “religion” isn’t what it’s all about.
How anybody who is truly honest with himself and at least mildly able to reason cannot see revealed religions for the absurdities they are is beyond me.
#30 – SL
You’re just pissed because YOU haven’t had a revelation.
Maybe you should go to Madison WI to see if you have one, like Christopher Hitchins. Or was that an epiphany he had?