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Current time: November 28, 2024, 7:05 am

Poll: Atheists do you pray?
This poll is closed.
Yes I pray
6.67%
3 6.67%
Could potentially be beneficial
2.22%
1 2.22%
Haven't thought about it much
2.22%
1 2.22%
Praying is a waste of time
88.89%
40 88.89%
Total 45 vote(s) 100%
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Atheists do you pray?
#11
RE: Atheists do you pray?
Praying is a dissimulated form of introspection.
So, if you feel the need to pray, just meditate instead. In time, you may reach Nirvana! Wink

@Elskidor.... it seems you didn't get the Joe Pesci reference Tongue


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#12
RE: Atheists do you pray?
The last time I prayed was over twenty years ago - to the porcelan god. "Oh god, please let me not throw up again.". Didn't work.
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#13
RE: Atheists do you pray?
(September 17, 2014 at 11:00 am)Cthulhu Dreaming Wrote: The last time I prayed was over twenty years - to the porcelan god. "Oh god, please let me not throw up again.". Didn't work.

The Lord will demand recompense for sins.

I pray to the FSM when I cook the pasta a little too long - "Oh Mighty FSM!, Please intervene and make thine linguine less naughty and more delicious in your sight! Ramen"

Something like that.
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#14
RE: Atheists do you pray?
(September 17, 2014 at 10:57 am)pocaracas Wrote: Praying is a dissimulated form of introspection.
So, if you feel the need to pray, just meditate instead. In time, you may reach Nirvana! Wink

@Elskidor.... it seems you didn't get the Joe Pesci reference Tongue



Oh I got that too, I just decided to reference Good Fellas also. I saw the Carlin video a couple months ago. ...Classic!
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#15
RE: Atheists do you pray?
(September 17, 2014 at 10:19 am)Elskidor Wrote:
Quote:Try Joe Pesci next time.
Pesci is a funny guy.
Funny how?
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."

-Stephen Jay Gould
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#16
RE: Atheists do you pray?
(September 17, 2014 at 11:21 am)Tonus Wrote:
(September 17, 2014 at 10:19 am)Elskidor Wrote: Pesci is a funny guy.
Funny how?

You think he's some kind of clown, here to AMUSE you?
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#17
RE: Atheists do you pray?
Quote:but prayers to honor humanity

Humanity seems not to give a shit.
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#18
RE: Atheists do you pray?
(September 17, 2014 at 10:19 am)Elskidor Wrote: Pesci is a funny guy.

[Image: 6a2b71136bcf88181344acb60b36b49df566bb2f...5e66d4.jpg]

OP,

No, I don't.
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[Image: 146748944129044_zpsomrzyn3d.gif]
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#19
RE: Atheists do you pray?
One of my most happy moments as an Atheist was when I started praying again. It was a day that I regained a relationship that I had built up with myself since childhood. I should say, I never performed those preformed prayers that you'd hear at church. Instead, I asked questions and I stated my intentions for myself or stated things that would satisfy me to happen to others (think Get well soon).

As a Christian, I labeled that deeper reflection of myself as God- after all, the mechanism worked very god-like according to what I understood the definition of God to be. I asked questions and received answers. I didn't get answers every time and the answers I did get seemed obvious after the fact, but at the time I thought they must be of some divine origin. After years of sporadically praying it became part of my identity and it sort of hurt to let that go.

Today I don't ascribe that part of myself to God, obviously, but I'm also hesitant to label it as just deep reflection or deep thought. I have deep thought that runs like a train with many carts and I have deep reflection of the choices I've made and the opportunities I may have missed or nailed. This is a different part of myself that I visit at will without a trail of breadcrumbs. It's a part of myself where I can be imperfect and say "I don't know what to do." or "I'm not perfect. I need help." I use that deeper part of myself as a wishing well to state my intentions and, at the same time, to define my intentions based on the situation at hand. I find it useful for strengthening my resolve.
I can't remember where this verse is from, I think it got removed from canon:

"I don't hang around with mostly men because I'm gay. It's because men are better than women. Better trained, better equipped...better. Just better! I'm not gay."

For context, this is the previous verse:

"Hi Jesus" -robvalue
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#20
RE: Atheists do you pray?
(September 17, 2014 at 10:19 am)Elskidor Wrote: Praying is kind of like thinking quietly by yourself or out loud. I'm an introvert so I'm always thinking, and talking out loud even, about what I want done and how to do it, but I'm not asking unseen powers to help me do it or show me some sign that will make my path easier. I use to meditate, but I didn't see much difference with that compared to taking a nice long quiet walk.
I pretty much do the same thing while driving sometimes. I've held long and serious conversations with myself, out loud even.
I'm not worried about my sanity because I know the person I'm talking to and that's responding is just me. But sometimes thinking through a problem in a pseudo-conversation can help me see things from a different angle.
I'd say that's akin to praying.
(September 17, 2014 at 10:19 am)Elskidor Wrote:
(September 17, 2014 at 10:09 am)Rhythm Wrote: Try Joe Pesci next time.
Pesci is a funny guy.
Funny how?

EDIT: Ugh, someone already beat me to the "Funny how?" line.... Undecided
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