I almost didn't write up anything on this, only our most recent mass shooting this week. But tomorrow's New York Daily News has a take so refreshing, I had to say something. As is usual, the GOP presidential candidates (who still number in the teens) offered up platitudes about prayer in response to the shooting in San Bernardino. As an atheist, my cynical side rolls its eyes, and says, "Well, that's the least you can do. The very least."
But hold up, several of these guys are actually in the House of Representatives and Senate. They can do more than pray, they can do something meaningful about it, if they wanted to. So, why don't they? Because they're terrified of their own base, and the NRA.
[Excerpt]
New York Daily News Rips GOP Leaders For “Meaningless Platitudes” In Wake Of Mass Shooting
Over the last few years the New York Daily News has devoted countless screaming headlines which denounced the NRA, its head Wayne LaPierre, and many other gun control opponents. . .
As an atheist, I can get tripped up on language, so I shouldn't be too hard on Wolf Blitzer. I had to train myself to say gesundheit when somebody sneezes, rather than "god bless you." But not all nearly automatic religious phrases are so easy to extract from the vocabulary. There are so many, most people probably don't even realize they come from the Bible. "Oh, god," and "Jesus Christ" are just the most obvious ones. But then, I'm not a high-paid journalist on CNN, I'm a hobbyist blogger.
What Blitzer does in this clip is make the assumption that if you are from Oklahoma, you must be a Christian. And while it is kind of the default there, and in much of America, it's not something you should assume. It's like assuming that the person you are talking to is heterosexual, it's not always the case, and could be embarrassing, depending upon the question. Anyway, part of Blitzer's mindset may have been that so many people when commenting upon a tragedy automatically resort to "prayer."
Whether it's a sincere belief that it will somehow do some good, or it's just a reflexive thing to say, "I'm sending my prayers" and similar phrases just filled Facebook and Twitter, not to mention the news channels*. Most people probably mean well, and surely some are in the same situation as I am, with a religion-saturated mental English phrase book. It has something to do with why I haven't blogged about the Oklahoma tornadoes until now. What can I add to this discussion?
Sure, I'm sorry, and it's heartbreaking to see and hear the details of what's going on. I can say "my heart goes out to the survivors," of course, which is exactly as helpful as prayer, which is to say, not much. So, I donated to the Red Cross. And I'm asking you to do it too. It's not even difficult.
Just get out your cell phone, start a new text to 90999 (where you'd ordinarily put a phone number), with the message: REDCROSS That will automatically donate $10 to the American Red Cross, and will be added to your phone bill. It literally couldn't be easier.
[Excerpt] CNN’s Wolf Blitzer tells atheist tornado survivor: ‘You gotta thank the Lord’
With the number of atheists continuing to rise, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer on Tuesday afternoon learned the danger of assuming on live television that his interviewee is a Christian. “I guess, you gotta thank the Lord, right?” he told the survivor of a deadly tornado that ripped through Oklahoma. “Do you thank the Lord?. . .”
*As an aside, I've got to say that I find the notion of prayer in these situations to be hard to fathom. To me, prayer is basically wishing, hoping, begging to get what you want, with the intensity going up according to the direness of the wish. When something good comes to pass (survival, good health, good fortune), "God answered our prayers." When something bad happens, you have to get down on your knees and pray some more. And have people pray for you, even if who you're praying for is already dead, or missing. For the missing, prayer is really perplexing. It's almost like a Schrödinger's cat exercise. Since we don't know whether the missing person is alive or dead, offering up a prayer essentially makes them that cat in the box, and our prayer can decide its fate. When in reality, that person is either really alive or dead. The prayer isn't going to change that. And you're offering these prayers to a deity that is responsible for the natural disaster in the first place! Further, what are the implications of being saved by a prayer, when there is death and devastation all around you? They didn't pray (or have loved ones who prayed for them) hard enough? They weren't worthy? So, now maybe you understand why I have such difficulty expressing myself and dealing with others' expressions after tragedies like this. When you are a person who puts "God" (as a concept and a being) on more or less equal footing with Superman and Yosemite Sam, it is difficult to hear this imaginary being invoked repeatedly as though it does any good. Besides making the person who expresses the sentiment feel better, of course.
It is rare to agree with someone completely. But in this case, with Pat Condell's request as an atheist to not pray for him, I do agree 100%. Found at Joe.My.God., who I happen to agree with, most of the time.
Well, duh. I've said before here that I'm agnostic--leaning pretty close to atheist--but I don't get hugely riled up about it. Oh, I'll get into contentious arguments online sometimes, but I'm not exactly an activist. When questions come up about the Constitutionality of things like "In God We Trust," or "under God," I simultaneously silently root them on, and roll my eyes. "Just leave it alone, guys" I'll think.
That's because while these issues are clearly un-Constitutional, they are also traditions that--while often not well-known or understood in their origins--are held onto tightly by a majority of the country. Messing with them can be more trouble than it's worth. Judges either have to piss off a huge segment of the population, or they have to make tortured decisions as to why these things are Constitutional. But hey, a win. Now, off to the Supreme Court, I'm sure.
[Excerpt]
National Day of Prayer Unconstitutional, Judge Rules
A federal district judge in Wisconsin has ruled that the 1988 law creating the annual observance of the National Day of Prayer is unconstitutional.
"It goes beyond mere 'acknowledgement' of religion because its sole purpose is to encourage all citizens to engage in prayer, an inherently religious exercise that serves no secular function in this context," U.S. District Judge Barbara Crabb ruled Thursday (April 15). . .
Quick answer: of course not! I'm not even a tiny bit religious, so I do have a bias here, but seriously, WTF? I know that some conservatives have a little trouble with cause-and-effect. So listen up, people: if A is followed by B, you cannot logically conclude that A caused B. A may simply have preceded it, and had no relation to B at all.
And prayer is probably the hardest "cause" of all to even come close to proving. After all, what if Religious Guy #1 prays for prices to drop, and Religious Guy #2 (who has a lot of Exxon-McCain-Mobil stock) prays for prices to go up? Pray for rain? Somebody's probably praying against it. And on and on. So essentially, if anything happens, somebody can claim it to be an answered prayer. Nice.
[Excerpt]
'Pray at the Pump' activist: 'We shall overcome' high gas prices
Divine intervention, not the market, is bringing gas prices down, one campaigner says. 59-year-old Rocky Twyman of Rockville, Maryland has garnered worldwide attention after holding prayer meetings at gas stations across the United States since April as part of his "Pray at the Pump" drive. Recently, to celebrate a drop in the average price of gasoline to $3.80 a gallon. . .
