MY LETTER ON PRAYER
This is an excerpt of a letter I had published in The Freethinker in 2003.
I believe that the Christians are right that prayer develops their faith and
makes them take it more seriously and that people fall away from the faith when
they stop praying. That is why I think it is very important that prayer be
exposed for the superstitious uncharitable activity that it really is. If people
get ashamed of praying it will lead to a downslide in religious influence.
It is certain that human life is absolutely valuable. The biggest essential for
human life is consciousness. Consciousness is more important then than free will
or memory or virtue. This means that nothing ever justifies a God letting us
endure suffering for consciousness is hurt by suffering. Yes, we have to cause
some suffering for a greater good but it would mean that a God would have no
justification for making suffering possible for he has the power to prevent all
suffering unlike us. For example, he should not have made viruses to cause
agonising diseases. Prayer implies that God needs to make us suffer for a good
reason which is therefore a total insult against the dignity of human beings.
Everything we get in life comes about as the result of a worldwide process for
all events effect each other. When you are praying you intend that a lot of
things will happen both bad and good in the world to make the forces of chance
give you what you ask for. Is it not fanaticism and criminal then to ask for the
gift of patience when so many terrible events and deaths had to happen before
you could get it? Is it not fanaticism to ask (indirectly) a God you only
believe in but do not know to kill people to give you what you want? You are
trying to get people killed over a belief because that is all that God is. God
makes life cheap when you can try to kill just for the sake of a belief when you
need proof.
If prayer does any good it does it in spite of itself.
The WEB
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12608c.htm
Catholic Encyclopaedia. This discusses Quietism.
Books Consulted
BOOKS CONSULTED
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AQUINAS, FC Copleston, Penguin Books, London, 1991
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, Friedrich Nietzsche, Penguin, London, 1990
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Dublin, 1960
CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Veritas, London, 1995
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Redemptorist Fathers, Brooklyn, 1988
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HONEST TO GOD, John AT Robinson, SCM, London, 1963
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IN DEFENCE OF THE FAITH, Dave Hunt, Harvest House, Eugene, Oregon, 1996
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THE BRIEF OF ST ANTHONY OF PADUA (Vol 44, No 4)
The Dark Side, How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth, Valerie Tarico,
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THE PUZZLE OF GOD, Peter Vardy, Collins, London, 1990
THE SATANIC BIBLE, Anton Szandor LaVey, Avon Books, New York, 1969
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UNBLIND FAITH, Michael J Langford, SCM, London, 1982