Godless Wonder Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 So, I've never started a new topic here. I've always felt a little bit out of place here, since I have never been a Christian. I've always been an atheist. My parents were atheists. I can remember being in school one time, in 8th grad, and the science teacher, Mr. Stein, asked the class if anybody knew what a person who didn't believe in God was called. I knew, and I was one. But I was too scared to raise my hand. As far as I know, I was the only one. Not much of a story, I know. I guess my point is, that despite never having been a Christian, Christianity traumatized me to some extent. (There were, of course, other incidents besides that one, but I don't mean to go into that now.) My point, in this paragraph, I suppose, is that I feel even more at home here, than at say, iidb, because here, there seems to be a proper anger and kick-em-in-the-nuts, fuck-em attitude towards Christianity, which at other places, (iidb) there seems to be more a live-and-let live attitude in force, and while I don't by any stretch think that coercing people to (dis)believe anything is anything but a terrible idea, I do think one ought to be able to say that X is fucking retarded, if X is obviously fucking retarded. So, wow, how did I end up writing that paragraph...? Anyway, today, I was at Ben and Jerry's buying an ice cream cone. I got a fudge brownie chocolate scoop and some kind of coffee ice cream scoop in a waffle cone. It was pretty good, I highly recommend it. Behind me were two ladies. One of them was explaining about some prayer quilt that here church was making, and complaining about some people that worked on the quilt, but apparently didn't pray over the various parts, which she viewed as an important aspect of the praryer quilt. Then she went on to elaborate that she always prayed that "God's will be done." over her pieces of the prayer quilt. How fucking retarded is this woman? First, she castigates people for failing to pray, then she is proud of herself for praying, what, granting her point of view for the sake of argument, amounts to a completely meaningless, tautological prayer. I mean, granting for the sake of argument that an all powerful deity exists, isn't praying to that deity that that deity's will should be done pretty much completely retarded? If an all powerful deity wants something, does this person suppose that it's sitting there, forgetting what it wants, and that their prayer is reminding this deity? "Oh, here's a prayer from Mrs. Retard. it says, "May your will be done.' Well, isn't that sweet. Hmm, what is my will? Oh, yeah, that's right, I was about to send a hurricane or two onto the southern United States. Good thing Mrs. Retard reminded me to do whatever I wanted to do. Bless her heart with a heart attack." It's so fucked up. Damn I wanted to smack her and tell her it was God's will. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caretaker Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I can remember being in school one time, in 8th grad, and the science teacher, Mr. Stein, asked the class if anybody knew what a person who didn't believe in God was called. Do you remember the circumstance that prompted your teacher to raise this question in class? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godless Wonder Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 No, I don't. It may have had to do with something that Arkansas state legistlature was doing at the time. I had Mr. Stein for 7th grade life science and 8th great earth science, in, I guess, 1981, 1982 timeframe, at the highschool in Marshall, Arkansas. if I recall correctly. He was one of the best teachers I ever had. It might be a surprise, but actually, I found that the school system there was actually very good. This may have had something to do with the fact that the whole place (very rural Arkansas) was in a kind of time warp. It was seriously like they were stuck in the '50s. To the point that the girls were all wearing those black and white saddle shoes, I faith you not. I think the local store must havt just stockpiled them, and I guess they just never ever went out of style there... I mean, that '50s aspect of the place was seriously weird. Guys with pompadours and everything. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HadouKen24 Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I seriously don't understand the point of petitionary prayer. Christian theology says that God is infinitely powerful. If something happens, then God could have changed it if he wanted to. Nothing happens outside God's control. It also says that people should pray to God and ask him for things, as well as give thanks, praise, etc. Here's the problem: if it's God's will that something happen, then he can make it happen. If it's not God's will, and you ask him to do it, then doesn't that seem a bit, um, blasphemous? I mean, it's a puny sinful human asking of a perfect being for an imperfect thing. Is there really any prayer that a human could make other than "Your will be done" that doesn't impugn God's might? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BlueGiant Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 Perhaps it is meant to be a sacrifice of one's own free will. It does seem to get many Christians into hot water (and become ExC's). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizard Posted October 17, 2005 Share Posted October 17, 2005 I've always found it contradictory and somewhat confusing when I hear "God's will be done" in conjuction with "God's in control of everything." As you said, what is the point of praying for his will to be done, if he's orchestrating and ordaining everything anyway?? Assuming an all-powerful, all knowing, almighty diety, could a mere human pray perhaps "not God's will" in a given situation and hope to change the mind of a never changing, same today, same yesterday, same tomorrow diety? Of course, the argument is that the prayer is to bring man's will in line with god's will..in other words, an acceptance of the inevitable. Makes for happier sheep, I think, if one accepts the crap with a happy face always assuming someone else is in control. No responsibility that way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Godless Wonder Posted October 17, 2005 Author Share Posted October 17, 2005 It may have had to do with something that Arkansas state legistlature was doing at the time. I had Mr. Stein for 7th grade life science and 8th great earth science, in, I guess, 1981, 1982 timeframe Probably it came up because at the time, this was brewing: On March 19, 1981, the Governor of Arkansas signed into law Act 590 of 1981, entitled "Balanced Treatment for Creation-Science and Evolution-Science Act." The Act is codified as Ark. Stat. Ann. &80-1663, et seq., (1981 Supp.). Its essential mandate is stated in its first sentence: "Public schools within this State shall give balanced treatment to creation-science and to evolution-science." Since overturned, of course. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/mclean-v-arkansas.html Actually, I was probably there 1980, or 1981 now that I think about it, while this law was still brewing, rather than after it was passed. We didn't have "creation science," that's for sure. (Though, in 6th grade, we did have "bible study" on Wednsdays for a little while, until, I guess, someone complained. Anyway, it suddenly stopped one week.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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