The Power of Prayer

I guess the worst thing about prayer is the way it never works. I remember thinking years ago that if I was holy enough, devoted enough, knew the mind of God enough then I would be able to pray and have my prayers answered. I was wrong.

In fact most prayer is a complete waste of time. In most church meetings prayer can become a weapon in the hands of a minister/pastor who decides they will pray at people rather than with them. The prayer then turns into a another sermon.

All those wasted hours spent praying could have been better used. However someone has now conducted a serious study into the effects of prayer.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12082681/
The findings predictably were "Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery." In the end though Christians inevitably claimed that you cannot test the power of prayer. Maybe thats because there is no test that will find it to actually work. So the tests must all be wrong.

Imaginary friends don't really act in the world.

Subtle Influence

One of the most maddening things about Christianity is it's overwhelming desire to wield influence over others no matter how much they don't want it. It is an assumption of superiority which is unwarranted and undeserved. The same attitude when expressed towards the Christian faith is regarded as intolerance and persecution.

Most democracies have courts and processes designed to fairly rule on disputes over most matters. However when these rulings are made the Christian simply refuses to accept them and tries to undermine the broader social consensus. This article
http://www.arktimes.com/Articles/ArticleViewer.aspx?ArticleID=e7a0f0e1-ecfd-4fc8-bca4-b9997c912a91
explaining how the teaching of science has been undermined in various US states. I am sure similar approaches have been used in both Britain and Australia.

At some point the rest of us will have to stand up to this relentless bullying and subversion of democracy in the name of religion. Until we do our freedoms and rights will be continually degraded.