December 1st, 2008
Prayer vs Hard Work
“I prayed for twenty years but received no answer until I prayed with my legs.” –Frederick Douglass
You can get this design at the Miscellanea Store.
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December 2nd, 2008 at 8:01 am
Try both. it works.
December 2nd, 2008 at 10:43 am
Mmmh Wellington you’re doint it wrong on this one… Nothing stops a hard worker from praying, nothing stops a church goer from getting up from the couch and doing what has to be done.
December 2nd, 2008 at 11:55 am
There was an old sign in my grandparents’ house we 2 guys in a rowboat: “Pray to God, But row toward shore!”
December 2nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I want a t-shirt with that.
December 2nd, 2008 at 4:59 pm
A man is stranded on the roof of a flooded house, is praying for help, “Dear God, save me from these terrible waters.” A rowboat stops and the man tells them he’s waiting for God to save him. A rescue boat stops, same thing. A helicopter hovers overhead, telling the man that a big wave will soon overtake the entire area but the man says he’s waiting for God to fulfill His promise. Sure enough, a giant wave washes over the house and the man dies. As he stands before God in judgement, he asks God why He didn’t save him from the flood. God says, “Who do you think sent the 2 boats and the helicopter?”
December 2nd, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Steve; of course doing both works. Getting off your knees and singing Gloria Gaynor songs will also work, or thinking about what you’d like to have for dinner, or reciting the digits of pi works just as well as getting up and praying. I’m going to go out on a limb here and suggest that the praying part adds nothing to the equation.
December 2nd, 2008 at 8:52 pm
awesome.
totally stolen and linked.
December 3rd, 2008 at 11:23 am
So totally what I’m thinking at the moment… stolen & linked - thanks!
Very much thinking through stuff about prayer / God etc at the moment - http://thoughtwalks.blogspot.com/
December 3rd, 2008 at 3:53 pm
in response to Dan’s post:
Some sharks swim by him atop of his house in the raising flood waters and say “Thank you Lord for what we are about to receive”
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:22 pm
You know every time that I see crap like this, it only strengthens my faith. It really appears like religion bashing is the latest in a line of tired web memes. Religion is a huge and nebulous target for criticism, all making fun of it does is show utter lack of originality and creativity. The thing that those who believe in God and have faith need to remember is that many times such attacks are just designed to be deliberately trollish and to elicit a strong emotional response from adherents. Essentially it is akin to whacking a hornets nest and sitting back and watching the fun. What they don’t realize is that such attacks only succeed in creating a dialogue which ends up being beneficial in the long run. I feel extremely comfortable with the latest attacks because I knew that they were coming. (Matthew 5:11,12)
December 3rd, 2008 at 8:58 pm
Prayer works if you do it the right way: instead of asking - give. Don’t petition, offer. This way, amazing funny beautiful things will happen.
December 4th, 2008 at 4:56 am
This isn’t religion bashing. If you take it that way maybe you are guilty of something. Its just saying that praying all the time but not getting of ur ass and doing something is just stupid.
December 4th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Pity that none of the god-botherers have responded with the simple idea that prayer need not be (and in cases of need SHOULD not be) falling to the knees with hands clasped. “Getting off your knees and actually doing something” IS prayer if that is how you choose to frame it. Plenty of precedents and role-models for that in every religious tradition in the world. If I believed in god, which I don’t (at least the bearded one(s) in the sky) I would imagine him stomping around heaven shouting: “Get off your knees and actually do something, you pathetic oiks!”
December 5th, 2008 at 2:32 am
If you think prayer is easy, try doing it every day for 15 minutes. Just 15 minutes. That’s just 1% of your time each day. Let me know how it goes.
If you think prayer is fast, consider St. Monica who prayed for many years before her son (to be St. Augustine) converted. Consider even the quoted Douglass who got his answer after 20 years–to pray with his legs.
If you think prayer is free, you haven’t tried it. It costs time, effort, energy, compassion, concentration, and persistence.
If you think prayer absolves responsibility, try going to confession. Then do penance. Or compare it to saying “oh, somebody should do something about that” or “my condolences” and moving on with life.
Prayer IS doing something about things. Anyone who says differently is displaying their impoverished understanding of life.
Peace be with you all.
December 5th, 2008 at 5:07 am
Nothing fails like prayer. Thanks for the artwork, I have to steal it. :)
December 10th, 2008 at 2:12 am
u need both prayer and hardwork to achieve whatever it is you want. one w/o the other is incomplete.
December 10th, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Religion bashing isn’t going to stop, and statistically it’s getting stronger. It’s call rationality, and it’s angry about being lied to.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:49 am
Prayer does create a mental booster effect but getting off knees and doing soemthing is what actually gets it done. And prayer is easy, all you have to do is babble on about random stuff.
December 12th, 2008 at 2:34 pm
The lord helps he who helps himself first. Heard that from a *bad* Catholic.
I’m an atheist - but when you look at guys like Martin Luther King, they were inspired to do what they did by their belief in god. That doesn’t necessarily mean there IS a god, but the belief that one exists isn’t too bad a thing.
Mind you, I do find Pi pretty inspiring.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Praying is like a rocking chair-it’ll give you something to do, but it won’t get you anywhere.
December 15th, 2008 at 5:41 pm
When i was kid I used to pray evernight for a new bicycle. Then I realized that the lord doesn’t work that way.So I stole one and asked himto forgive me - Emo Philips
December 17th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
Christianity is old fashioned and outdated, if some of you actually READ the bible it becomes blatantly apparent that most of it is just the written down thoughts of what various saints thought might be right and wrong, all of it is various peoples recollections of what MAY have happened.
reading the bible is like listening to a ninety year old man talk about world war 2, it might be interesting but its still bullcrap.
christianity does nothing but hold humanity back and keep us from developing into a decent society
December 19th, 2008 at 4:11 am
Perhaps the reason religion basing is getting so popular is because people are both getting fed up with religion and are sick of being bashed by it. Don’t get angry because we’ve decided to fight back.
December 23rd, 2008 at 9:12 pm
Prayer and action go together, see James 2:14 - 26…
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=james%202:14-26&version=31
Some extra reading if Scripture is not your thing…
http://sports.espn.go.com/espnmag/story?section=magazine&id=3789373
Let me know what you think.
December 28th, 2008 at 12:24 am
So you know Ben, your holy book doesn’t say blog with the atheist, it says kill the atheist.
Lev. 24:16
So I guess it’s your job to come find me.
December 29th, 2008 at 1:58 pm
Religious folks sure get touchy about folks displaying a point of view when those points of view clash with their believe system. The common response here is to go all apoplectic and rant at the heretic, or try to support their beliefs and sway the dissenter with bible quotes (as if that’s some kind of store of logical thought). Both are ‘fail’.
December 29th, 2008 at 2:39 pm
“Prayer IS doing something about things. Anyone who says differently is displaying their impoverished understanding of life.”
Only for yourself, nothing that gains others. Unless you argue that by gaining yourself favor in the eyes of your god, or by thinking of the things you could’ve been doing, you improve others’ lives. Doesn’t seem likely to me.
February 15th, 2009 at 5:14 am
To Sigh–
No, it’s not just to make you angry. It’s to get religious people to stop posting stuff about how much they love their faith, how stupid we all are for believing science while God has proven himself time and time again to be real in these happy-go-lucky times, and to get religious fanatics to stop imposing their beliefs on other people through pamphlets and politics. We’re not convinced, okay? And we’re not going to be struck suddenly by the “truth” just because you hand us a pamphlet that goes straight to the trash anyway. And for most of us, it’s not for lack of being taught religion. It’s because science has more evidence to prove its existence.
I see the religion the way I see children’s stories. You only tell the stories to children to make them behave the way their parents want them to behave to make less work for themselves. Religion is like that, but it’s to make adults behave in a way that makes it easier for the government to control everyone and keep the country’s population from being killed off by itself.
February 25th, 2009 at 2:21 am
Prayer is the most egomaniacal act ever. If the world is controlled by god, and god can be moved by
prayer, then the person praying acquires a share in omnipotence. All you xtians should hang your heads in shame for being such greedy, underhanded douchebags.
As man’s prayers are a disease of the will,
so are their creed a disease of the intellect.
[ Ralph Waldo Emerson ]
March 11th, 2009 at 10:29 am
There’s nothing to say that you can’t perform both.
March 24th, 2009 at 9:09 pm
Leviticus and Deuteronomy are completely bunk. These are the books that say slavery is permissible and that marriage is a property exchange. No true Christian REALLY follows those books anymore.
And yet, the Old Testament is where the loudest Anti-Christian stuff on the Internet is sourced from….
March 31st, 2009 at 3:12 pm
so its just lev and deut that are false books of god? the rest of it is the truth the whole truth and nothing but the truth?
so what in your opinion makes these the only books of god that are moot? why are these false and the rest of it is true?
do you get to pick wich parts of the bible you like and disregard the rest? i didnt realise that it was “pick and mix” style religion.
so ill ask you again
do you stone pregnant teenagers to death becuase they are not married or is the bible a bunch of horse shit?
April 8th, 2009 at 6:05 pm
The Bible was written by misogynistic, homophobic, slavemongering MALE primitives. Any Christian who believes the Bible is the literal word of God obviously doesn’t realize that there are multiple translations of it. It was translated again and again by people who didn’t give half a shit about accuracy as long as the King who commissioned its translation didn’t have them beheaded.
Paul did not hate women. In 1 Timothy, he is quoting passages from a letter he received from Timothy, who WAS misogynistic, and then Paul said he didn’t approve of Timothy’s ideas. Hebrew punctuation doesn’t translate well into English, so it was lost. Consequently, the 95% of people who don’t pay attention to subtleties in language thought that all of it was Paul’s idea.
The second half of the Old Testament is merely prophecy regarding the birth of Christ. Genesis is a collective of ancient Hebrew mythology, fireside folk tales, and children’s stories. It is NOT a literal interpretation of the creation of the universe. Leviticus and Deuteronomy are ancient laws that no longer apply to modern society. The rest of the Old Testament is just romanticized history.
For the record, if you’re going to insult someone based on their beliefs, be prepared to be called a narrow-minded, uncompromising, self-absorbed jerkoff in return.
April 22nd, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Give me one scientific fact (fact mind you, not a half baked theory that also requires a level of faith to believe in), but a solid fact - just one, that discounts anything that was written in the Bible centuries ago?
When you can’t - I’ll give you a list of recent scientific discoveries that have simply shown the bible (and what was previously thought to be irrational and illogical) to be absolute fact and historically accurate. Go figure.
come on…..lets take the journey folks….go with the courage of your own convictions and begin to follow it to a logical conclusion.
Now - give me one fact of science that proves anything written in the bible is incorrect. Over to you ……..
May 7th, 2009 at 3:57 am
On translations, it might have been translated from Hebrew to Greek to English to… do you realize direct translations from the original text to English exist? So sweat that the old translated again & again versions, you can read the direct translations now or go learn & translate for yourself. Read the content in context…
May 7th, 2009 at 4:01 am
So… don’t read those old translated again & again versions…
May 9th, 2009 at 12:39 am
Yes, and the sun stopped moving in the sky.
May 10th, 2009 at 1:56 am
Apologetic Phil, go back to the dark ages where your idiocy belongs.
June 8th, 2009 at 3:47 am
Sigh, the old science verses religion debate. Can’t people accept the pact that they’re compatible? (Yes, I know some of you can, in fact, I’d go so far as say that most people can, it’s just those who can’t are the loudest.