Reading Time: 5 minutes An attempt to get rid of the ritualistic prayer that opens up House of Commons sessions in Canada’s Parliament was voted down yesterday despite strong arguments against the tradition. The history of the House of Commons prayer The 30-second prayer that opens up those sessions has been around since 1877. It was only minimally modified […]
prayer
Posted inLaw
How the NYT botched its coverage of the Supreme Court’s football prayer case
Reading Time: 8 minutes The New York Times‘ hit podcast The Daily published what should have been a straightforward episode on Wednesday morning about a controversial church/state separation case in front of the Supreme Court. Instead, they screwed up basic facts and leaned heavily on the Christian side of the debate. The case in question is Kennedy v. Bremerton […]
Posted inReligion
Two similar tragedies produce opposite approaches to prayer
Reading Time: 5 minutes Do prayers do anything? Yes and no; says one Christian apologist. The difference reveals the hypocrisy.
Posted inReligion
You know the door-close button in the elevator? Prayer is like that.
Reading Time: 3 minutes Most elevator door-close buttons don’t do anything. Similarly, prayers don’t deliver anything either beside a possible meditative effect. If door-close buttons are placebos, why aren’t prayers?
Posted inReligion
Gambling on prayer: Getting addicted to blind hope
Reading Time: 7 minutes I’ve made it clear that prayer does not change God’s mind. It can’t. God is immutable, and his predictions or knowledge about the universe (and his own actions) are set in stone from causally before the creation of the universe. It’s all down to his infallible foreknowledge. So prayer isn’t about changing God’s mind. But […]
Posted inReligion
The prima facie problems with prayer
Reading Time: 3 minutes There are obvious—prima facie—problems with prayer. Prime problems that hit you in the face like a divinely unstopped tsunami. But what is really evocative of the bind that religious believers find themselves in is the idea that they are praying in the first place. Okay, let’s back it up a little. No, a little bit […]
Posted inReligion
3 examples of reality confounding Christianity
Reading Time: 4 minutes Here are 3 examples where Christians were torn between dogma and reality. First, should the church claim that prayer works? Second, should prayer work as Jesus promised? Finally, should science support Christian claims?
Posted inPhilosophy
Satan and Most Prayer Are Nonsensical
Reading Time: < 1 minute I’ve just had another interview with Gnostic Informant, initially continuing from the previous one in the context of heaven and hell, moving on to talking about Satan (“A great conversational piece, some great examples if you’re up against a theist. I really enjoyed learning the problems with prayer and Satan, I never would have thought […]
Posted inScience, The Secular
What if an ‘omnipotent’ god can’t save mankind convincingly?
Reading Time: 4 minutes What good is an omnipotent is a god who can’t demonstrate his all-powerfulness in the world by ending evil and suffering and saving mankind? Not much.