• Dr. Moose
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    4411 months ago

    Personally I don’t find big issue with praying but kids should not be exposed to this sort of mentality. It’s frankly insane that we allow religious indoctrination for children.

      • @Case
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        411 months ago

        If you look at the theories behind modern spell work (I find magic systems interesting, whether “real” or from a game) you begin to realize that prayer is just a form of spell work.

        The problem is, it’s really fucking bad at it.

        Also, the church then becomes hypocritical (what, again?) for banning spell craft.

        Transubstantiation? More like transmutation.

    • @[email protected]
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      711 months ago

      If you stopped the indoctrination of children, religions would die within a generation. You’d just be left with fringe cults here and there that we’d laugh at.

      • @[email protected]
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        11 months ago

        Sounds like something that happened in ex-republics. For example during 2023 cristmas 1% of citizens visited christian churches in my country. And considering source(police) this number is probably inflated.

        Relative to countries where many people visit church every week we have pretty secular society. Meanwhile fe(de)ral propaganda will continue to sell bullshit of “staples”.

    • @[email protected]
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      511 months ago

      Yep. And yet the same people who squawk about the “LGBT religion indoctrinating kids” have no issues indoctrinating kids in actual religions.

  • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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    1911 months ago

    Trust me, when they suggest using your superior intellect to get back at the angry oversized bully, they don’t really mean it.

    I think prayer is practice deferring to authority and resignation to one’s fate as an obedient peon.

  • @[email protected]
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    1711 months ago

    Fun fact: You can actually tell if someone is religious by an mri.

    The part of the brain that deals with critical thinking shrinks due to lack of use.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 months ago

    i’m not religious and i’m not doing it, but i think praying also has a psychological aspect that should not be underestimated. you take some dedicated time to reflect on your current problems, what you want in life and the people around you, possibly just before going to sleep so your subconscious can digest everything over night and might give you a different angle.

    typing all of that, i realise i should start doing my own form of non-religious praying o_O

      • GladiusB
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        111 months ago

        Meditation IS certain religions. Such as Buddhism and Hinduism. They know that their stories are fables to teach morality to the youth. In fact most tribal religions know this as well. Only in Christianity do these fables take on a literal interpretation.

        The existence of a diety is different than the tales surrounding a religion. Many religions are very aware of how far fetched most tales are.

        • fknM
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          411 months ago

          Just to be crystal clear, the major branches of Buddhism and Hinduism do believe in supernatural entities and many if not most believe metaphysical nonsense. The idea that “Buddhists don’t actually believe this” is mistaken. Many or most absolutely believe it.

    • @[email protected]
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      611 months ago

      As a former pastor, I you’re pretty close to understanding prayer.

      God isn’t Santa and doesn’t grant wishes. Prayer is more about contemplation. It’s seeking courage, strength, and acceptance.

      Praying for healing isn’t about literal miracles. It’s about accepting that something is out of your hands.

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

      i realise i should start doing my own form of non-religious praying o_O

      It’s called sysadmin’s tambourine.

    • @[email protected]
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      211 months ago

      I was first thinking meditation as a form of non-religious praying, but that is more clear your mind or be in the moment. It’s not really reflecting which I think is an important part of praying. At least it was for me when I was religious.

  • @[email protected]
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    11 months ago

    To me praying looks like a way to pretend that you did something while actually you didn’t do anything. Very convinient but it won’t do anything.

  • @[email protected]
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    1311 months ago

    While I don’t believe in any religion, there is a relevant story in the christian bible. I’ll be writing from memory, because I cannot be bothered to search for it:

    There where two coachman travelling on an old bumpy road. Both of them broke their axle an could not continue to the next market. One of them was a firm believer, so he sunk to his knees and started to pray to god to fix his axle so he could reach the market in time. The other coachman jumped of his cart while cursing like a sailor. He copped down a small tree from the nearby woods and made an improvised axle, all while shouting and yelling indiscriminately about his bad luck. Who do you think received more help from god?

      • @[email protected]
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        511 months ago

        The mysterious thing about God is that he can do anything humans can’t (create worlds, stars, animals), but he can’t do anything humans can (create ships, fixing axles)

        • Uriel238 [all pronouns]
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          211 months ago

          Leaving it to us to regrow limbs, I guess.

          But I’m not sure we’ve given up on tokamak reactors (that is creating a very small star).

        • @[email protected]
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          111 months ago

          Does that mean the more humans learn to do the less God can do? Like God used to be able to make fire until we figured out how to start one. Since humans figured out flight and communicating great distances, God can’t fly around or hear and send messages anymore?

      • @[email protected]
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        411 months ago

        Haha I definitely like the middle management comparison here!

        I don’t remember the context of the story. But I think it was supposed to be “god helps those who help themselves” - basically discouraging people from being the ones described in the picture above.

    • Ignotum
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      611 months ago

      That first man is a fool!

      Prayer only works if there are two or more people doing it!

      Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them.

      Matthew 18:19

      This implies that there has never been two christians gathered together and praying for world peace or to end world hunger

      • @[email protected]
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        11 months ago

        This implies that there has never been two christians gathered together and praying for world peace or to end world hunger

        Or that there are two christians that want wars and starve people.

        Looks more likely.

    • @[email protected]
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      411 months ago

      Okay, I’ll bite. Which one received more help? I’m guessing the one who got off his knees and did something about his situation?

      But then what help was actually provided if the guy did it himself?

      • @[email protected]
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        211 months ago

        I don’t really want to argue for religion here. The way I comprehended the story was basically telling people to not be the ones described by OP.

        But if you really want to go into the interpretation stuff: I guess if you wanted to argue for a god, god made sure the cart broke down next to a wood with a tree roughly the right dimensions? Here we are with the part where religion can’t really be proven or disproven. Was it luck, was the whole road just forest…?

        • @[email protected]
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          311 months ago

          You’re not arguing for religion, don’t worry. I don’t believe in gods but I was raised by religious people and the whole point of most faiths, the way I was thought, was to pray for help, for strength, inspiration, etc. not for the problem to magically go away.