(August 15, 2014 at 3:54 pm)Michael Wrote: Yes, and many people act after prayer in a way they didn't act before. That is the essence of the metta meditation I was talking about. Prayer can change attitudes and actions follow attitudes. The idea that prayer is in some way contrary to action just doesn't fit with prayer in any religious practice I know (Christian, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewis, Hindhu).
I don't think anyone is saying prayer can't lead to a change in attitude, I'm certainly not. The point is that those changes in attitude which lead to action can be accomplished through completely atheistic (or secular if atheistic isn't the word you'd prefer) means, and prayer in either its meditational or theistic sense doesn't hold some sort of status as magic or unique or special, except in the sense that so many people assert it's special or magical.
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
- Thomas Jefferson
