Oh, for gods’ sake.

A post about disability included a paragraph about a Christian and former drug addict who approached a blind person on the train and asked for permission to pray that his sight may be restored. The Christian claimed that praying to his god was directly responsible for his own ”healing”

This prompted my response.

I’ll give you the link if you really want to read the entire article.

 

To my mind there is a profound arrogance from Christians who claim to have been ‘healed’ by the power of prayer, especially when one notes that the problems (illnesses, disease etc) such people have/once had invariably involve an emotional/psychological component as well as the physical.
While addiction to drugs and alcohol, for example, most definitely does have debilitating physical aspects a definite part of recovery from these addictions is ”in the mind”.
And what about those former addicts who cleaned up without supposed Divine Intervention?

My tobacco addiction for example.

Intercessory prayer has been demonstrated to be a fruitless endeavour and has never produced a positive result that could be directly attributed.
In fact, the Templeton Foundation sponsored the largest intercessory prayer program to date involving Christians and hospital patients. Not only was the program an abject failure in terms of its objective but the health of a number of patients who were aware they were being prayed for actually deteriorated. Couldn’t live up to expectations I imagine!

When you consider how many millions of children under five that die that each year from preventable diseases and how many of their parents are religious and prayed to the point of likely becoming ill themselves, certainly traumatized, it makes you wonder why on earth anyone would be so credulous to believe that such action would make a blind bit of difference?

I also wonder how many British soldiers returning from Afghanistan with missing limbs have witnessed a leg or two suddenly grow back after a former drug-addled Christian tapped them on the shoulder and asked if they could pray for them ?

To extend the point of just how ridiculous prayer is, no doubt Spurs’ striker, Lucas Moura will be praying to the Christian god that, as in the semi-finals, he scores another hat trick when they face Liverpool on Saturday in the Champions League final.
Which might annoy Liverpool striker, Mo Salah a bit as his god will no doubt be in Spain watching the final as well.

Pointless, as we all know that Yahweh/Jesus is a Manchester City supporter, and this is why they did the English Treble this year. Furthermore, we all know that Mo’s god is not real, right?
Of course it’s true. Ask Man City’s manager, Pep Guardiola !

But probably the most insidious aspect is the fact religious leaders and those in charge of congregations actively encourage this practice, knowing full well that, all over the planet millions are dying or becoming physically crippled because it seems their god was either unable or unwilling to intervene to help/save them.
Truth be told, such religious leaders are in all likelihood fully aware just how meaningless the gesture of prayer really is.

Ark