RE: If you're an Atheist, what comforts you?
November 7, 2018 at 9:54 am
(This post was last modified: November 7, 2018 at 9:55 am by The Grand Nudger.)
Mortality, loss...both things that all people, faithful or faithless, must eventually confront - and...significantly, must confront alone beyond a given point.
The specifics of the question don't seem to be directed at getting some secular description of the world as it is..so much as wondering how secular people deal with the things that the religious might pray over.
In this, we'd have to know why praying worked to calm anxiety. As it just so happens, we have reason to believe that prayer (and meditation) literally change your brain. This sounds like it might be a huge claim until we mention that..as far as we're aware, almost everything changes our brains. Learning complicated tasks, music, environmental chemicals, internal chemical balance, general health - so..in this regard it's completely unremarkable... but the effect....well.
It's certainly remarkable that a religious person can pray and feel better, lol....but prayer isn't the only way to effect that change in a brain.
The specifics of the question don't seem to be directed at getting some secular description of the world as it is..so much as wondering how secular people deal with the things that the religious might pray over.
In this, we'd have to know why praying worked to calm anxiety. As it just so happens, we have reason to believe that prayer (and meditation) literally change your brain. This sounds like it might be a huge claim until we mention that..as far as we're aware, almost everything changes our brains. Learning complicated tasks, music, environmental chemicals, internal chemical balance, general health - so..in this regard it's completely unremarkable... but the effect....well.
It's certainly remarkable that a religious person can pray and feel better, lol....but prayer isn't the only way to effect that change in a brain.
I am the Infantry. I am my country’s strength in war, her deterrent in peace. I am the heart of the fight… wherever, whenever. I carry America’s faith and honor against her enemies. I am the Queen of Battle. I am what my country expects me to be, the best trained Soldier in the world. In the race for victory, I am swift, determined, and courageous, armed with a fierce will to win. Never will I fail my country’s trust. Always I fight on…through the foe, to the objective, to triumph overall. If necessary, I will fight to my death. By my steadfast courage, I have won more than 200 years of freedom. I yield not to weakness, to hunger, to cowardice, to fatigue, to superior odds, For I am mentally tough, physically strong, and morally straight. I forsake not, my country, my mission, my comrades, my sacred duty. I am relentless. I am always there, now and forever. I AM THE INFANTRY! FOLLOW ME!
