(July 29, 2017 at 9:14 pm)shadow Wrote:(July 29, 2017 at 8:41 pm)wallym Wrote: Person wanted a job, a drivers license, and a girlfriend. I'm guessing they weren't ultimately looking for prayers, but some sort of connection with other people as they were alone and having a rough go of it. That they said 'pray for me' rather than 'wish me luck' doesn't seem too important.
That's how some people are. It's not so different from coming onto an internet forum, and posting your feelings, and hoping for interaction or reassurances from strangers.
The world's a lonely place, and people try cope with that the best they can.
I couldn't agree more with the sentiment, wally. But I'm a bit more pragmatic than that: human connection is one thing. False hope is another. Religion prays (aren't I punny) on people who need that sort of connection and fulfillment. It takes people's problems and pretends there's a solution (that Jesus loves you and you're entitled to an eternity in heaven). The value is fake. I'd post on an internet forum because I want to discuss something, evaluate my own views, and hopefully make better decisions from that consideration. Once you put fake factors like prayer into your decision making process, what you are achieving is the exact opposite. If you are down on your luck and you think Jesus is going to save you, you're much worse off than if you felt like you were alone (because you were) and fixed your own situation. That is the distinction, and in my mind it is perhaps the most important distinction in the world. It is the difference between lies and truth, between deteriorating and improving.
There is value in thinking someone is praying for you. There is value in praying for yourself. As a coping mechanism. As a social interaction. There's no God on the line taking the call, but the act of another person saying they are concerned for you is a real thing. I know you don't like the 'fake' part, but I think that's just decorative. It's not what it's about.
And I hear what you're saying with being pragmatic. But for some people, there is no happy ending. There will never be a happy ending. It's just a matter of being as comfortable as possible as the ship sinks. If a person is running around the subway asking for strangers to pray for a job/girlfriend/license, they're fucked. That's likely not a situation where a good life is on the table if they just make the right choices.
Just the idea of being pragmatic is beyond the capabilities of many people. I think we take what our brains can do for granted. That there is an assumed baseline that everybody is above, and I think that baseline is way higher than where it is in reality.
Not that this is always the situation. There are plenty of situations where religion is bad. And buying into lies is bad. But I don't think it matters for begging for prayers on subway people. I think with them, you can give them a second or two of comfort, or not, and that is the entirety of the significance. And that's probably why they do it, because a few small positive moments is all they can get.
