Problems with prayer

I used to pray "without ceasing" hoping and a-wishing for god to show up in my situation. Most of those prayers ended up unanswered. After my deconversion, I started to think about what drives people to pray. A classic christian definition for prayer states: Prayer is communion and communication with god. People speak, then god speaks. When ministers teach about prayer, they often tell the congregants that prayers are not valid unless you say "in Jesus name" before you end.

A 2006 study in the American Heart Journal determined that there was no difference in outcomes for people who were prayed for and those who weren't. My goal today focuses on what folks really hope to accomplish with prayer.

Let's start with a simple prayer and dissect it. "Lord, thank you for the food I am about to receive. Bless the hands that prepared it and let it be nourishment for my body in Jesus name, amen."

The first part of the prayer: Lord, thank you for the food I am about to receive, translates to
"Without you God, I would not be able to eat this food." This first line totally discounts the role of the grocery store, restaurant, or the one who prepared the food. Unless the food dropped out of the sky like manna from heaven, then why not at least thank god for the restaurant, supermarket, or the person who prepared the food.

The next part get really interesting: Bless the hands that prepared it, translates to, "God please make sure that the person handling my food before I got it did not have a communicable disease. If they did, please take it away. Also God please keep me safe, since I am paranoid that the devil will infect the food supply."

Here's the final part: "And let it be nourishment and strength for my body in Jesus name, amen." This translates into, "God, I can fill my body with fast food, carbonated high calorie drinks, and a dessert. I know that you will mystically bless that mess that I just put in my body. You will protect me from the consequences of my poor eating habits because I said the magic words...in jesus name, amen."

Here's my takeaway regarding prayer. People pray because they want god to violate the laws of nature for their own benefit. Folks want god to stack the deck in their favor in order for them to supposedly gain an advantage in a situation that they would not have. Even when individuals pray for someone else, the prayor still wants their prayers for the other person answered. 

In my opinion, this make prayer the most selfish thing a person can do. Life is tough and everything a person does involves a level of risk. People must determine what level of risk is acceptable based on the situation. Also, instead of praying for someone, I find a real tangible way to help them.

Nothing is wrong with gratitude. Instead of thanking an invisible, imaginary god for stuff, I thank real, breathing human beings for their assistance.

Source for 2006 intercessory prayer study: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0002870305006496

Biblical fantasy

I was always a lover of fantasy, sci-fi, and horror. I knew that ancient mythology was full of stories about heroes slaying monsters, fantastic creatures, forbidden love, and the like. Little did I realize that these types of stories were also rooted in the bible. If you asked a rational christian of any stripe, if the Lord of the Rings was a true story, they would probably say, "It's a good piece of fiction, but it's not real." Riddle me this,why do people believe that the stories in the bible are real? In case you missed it, the bible also is a collection of books set in a fantasy world. Here is a list of fantasy elements in the scriptures.(this is by no means a comprehensive list)
1. a fully grown human male made out of dust without a mother
2. a fully grown human female made from the rib of the aforementioned male
3. all sorts of animals made from nothing
4. a talking serpent, who unlike modern snakes has legs
5. a story to explain the current social order that people dwell in, i.e. why women have pain in childbirth, or why men have to plant crops
6. a man who lives for 1,000 years
7. a man who walk with god and vanishes never to be seen again
8. male demi gods mating with human females and creating a race of giants( I guess no female demi gods were available to mate with and I figure the female demi gods didn't want to mate with human males anyway)
9. a giant ark with a male and female of every animal in the world, predator and prey, great and small...from aardvark to zebra and everything else including koalas, pandas, south american pythons, tree sloths, tigers, polar bears, and penguins
10. six people repopulate the entire planet, including the most remote places where humans dwell
11. a magical battle between the forces of good and the forces of evil
12. magical talismans to protect people from the death god
13. magical weapons that can transform to animals and back
14. magical power to control the outcome of a battle based on arm position
15. a magical object that causes the waters of a sea to split apart
16. people having the ability to make a golden calf statue in the middle of the desert, taking the time to dig a pit to refine, heat the gold, melt the gold, cast it into a form, cool it off and have time to worship it, all in a matter of moments
17. If the lord kept striking the israelites with plagues, how did any of them make it out of the desert alive?
18. A talking donkey
19. Giant people and giant fruit
20. a super powered trumpet that can destroy fortified walls
21. the sun standing still because a man told it to do so
22.a superpowered strong man whose strength lies in his hair.
23. This same strong man also killed a lion with his bare hands
24. a king seeking a medium to talk to a dead wise man
25. This dead wise man come back as a ghost and talks to the king
26. Virgin birth
27. Virgin sacrifices(virgin animals and virgin humans) to appease god
28. gods wagering over the life a human
29. reanimated zombie corpses coming back from the dead with magical words
30. demons battling demi-gods over human souls
30. a final battle pitting the forces of good against the forces of evil

I know I left out many more bizarre, macabre, unbelievable elements from the good book, but this is just a start to get you thinking...enjoy !