By Alan Caruba
A very wise cleric once said to me, “Sometimes the answer to your prayer is no.”
For someone who has not stepped into a house of worship for a very long time, except to attend the occasional funeral, it may seem inappropriate for me to be writing about prayer, but the fact is that I pray every day, if by prayer one means a brief conversation with God. For me prayer has always been a great solace, a confirmation of my belief that there is, indeed, a greater power. I take this on faith, but so does everyone, other than atheists.
Thursday, May 3rd is the National Day of Prayer and thus it a good time to examine the power of prayer. Enacted in 1952 by the U.S. Congress, it is traditional for the President in office to issue a proclamation each year recommending prayer.
Its origins date back to George Washington who referred to God repeatedly throughout his public and private life. Just before the Battle of Long Island on August 27, 1776, he told his assembled forces, “The fate of unborn millions will now depend, under God, on the courage and conduct of this army.”
The National Day of Prayer has been challenged in the courts by the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The first challenge was unanimously dismissed by a federal appellate court in April 2011, but they are not likely to go away.
I have friends and even some family members who are atheists. I don’t mind that they have concluded there is no God. Many have. I do mind that atheist groups are forever trying through the courts to remove religion from our nation’s life. There would be no America if a bunch of pilgrims did not get on the Mayflower and come here for the express purpose of wanting to pray free of the intervention and persecution of the Crown.
I don’t even argue that religion has not been and is a great source of genuine evil in the world, but that is the work of man, not God.
One need only cast an eye on the roiling Middle East and see how Islam is the source and cause of so much murder it boggles the mind. Islam is far less a “religion” than a cult around the self-anointed “prophet” Muhammad. It is a political contrivance intended to mask its quest for power, for tyranny written large. The very word Islam translates as "submission."
I don’t think we are here to submit to God so much as to partner with Him to live our lives in such a way as to reflect His love for humanity. God is not some distant figure to me, but a power for good that I can tap at will. Prayer puts me at one with the universe. It is a defense against the perversity of ill fortune and an aid to overcoming it.
My thought here is not about religion per se, but the power of prayer in a person’s life. I believe it acts as a guide and underlies what courage we can muster to deal with life’s challenges. I believe it brings great solace to the troubled heart. I think it brings out what Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature” in his first inaugural speech.
There is a wonderful book by Toby Mac and Michael Tait, “Under God”, published in 2004 by Bethany House. If anyone doubts that the Founding Fathers were men of profound faith, they should read this book of the nation’s early history. At one point they tell of Thomas Jefferson returning to the Continental Congress with a draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Jefferson was a deist, a believer in a higher power in the affairs of men, but a bit of a skeptic when it came to religion. When he showed the draft, a delegate from Massachusetts, John Adams, said he would like to add the words, “They are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable Rights.” “Where?” asked Jefferson. “Right after ‘all men are created equal’ said Adams. Benjamin Franklin agreed and suggested adding “with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence.” When they convened on July 1, 1776, they took a vote and the rest, as they say, is history.
So, each in our own way, should give a prayer of thanks for the creation of the United States of America, the greatest experiment in democracy and liberty in the whole of human history.
The National Day of Prayer is also a good day to recall the words of Barack Obama during an April 2008 fundraiser, referring to blue-collar voters. “It’s not surprising that they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren’t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment to explain their frustrations.” The President has made it a necessity for Americans to cling to their guns and to their religion.
© Alan Caruba, 2012
9 comments:
I don't think you can blame the athiests. I am an athiest and I feel strongly that religion is important in this world. It is just not for me. I have no problem at all with the ten commandments in public or with seeing a nativity scene or standing for a moment of silent prayer. Most of my athiest/agnostic friends feel the same way.
The ten commandments are a great set of rules regardless of their origin and should be respected. As for a nativity scene...it means Christmas is coming. I may not lean toward the religious aspect of the holiday, but it is a great time to reflect on family and the goodness and kindness of our fellow man and the desire to make our world better.
The people that we all despise, (religious and athiests/agnostics) are the ANTI-theists. It is these idiots that want to do away with religion. It is these guys that are giving us athiests a bad name. The athiests typically lives in a world where he or she respects religion just as his beliefs are to be respected. None of us wants to get rid of religion, we want to live in harmony with everyone. It's those self righteous anti-theists that want to ruin everything and make everyone behave as they think we all should. Athiests typically have a live and let live attitude and are gracious enough to be respectful of everyone and all beliefs. So please, blame the anti-theists instead.
Just my humble opinion.
I don't think you can blame the athiests. I am an athiest and I feel strongly that religion is important in this world. It is just not for me. I have no problem at all with the ten commandments in public or with seeing a nativity scene or standing for a moment of silent prayer. Most of my athiest/agnostic friends feel the same way.
The ten commandments are a great set of rules regardless of their origin and should be respected. As for a nativity scene...it means Christmas is coming. I may not lean toward the religious aspect of the holiday, but it is a great time to reflect on family and the goodness and kindness of our fellow man and the desire to make our world better.
The people that we all despise, (religious and athiests/agnostics) are the ANTI-theists. It is these idiots that want to do away with religion. It is these guys that are giving us athiests a bad name. The athiests typically lives in a world where he or she respects religion just as his beliefs are to be respected. None of us wants to get rid of religion, we want to live in harmony with everyone. It's those self righteous anti-theists that want to ruin everything and make everyone behave as they think we all should. Athiests typically have a live and let live attitude and are gracious enough to be respectful of everyone and all beliefs. So please, blame the anti-theists instead.
Just my humble opinion.
I personally don't believe that belief in God requires faith (however, sensing God as a living presence, in the moment, requires being in tune with the living grace of God, and I think that is what "faith" really is); I believe in God because I believe in an overarching Meaning (and in Love), and as a lifelong scientist/philosopher--meaning I have always lived first and foremost in my thoughts, and found the best of them not to have originated in my own little mind, but given to me, transcendantly, by a higher power, or powers--I have seen such a coherent Meaning to the world proven many, many, many times over. There is evil in the world only because the world was not designed solely by God (and most people blame others, and ultimately God, for the evil they encounter, when it is generally an automatic long-term effect of embracing ignorance as truth, only compounded by hate). And by the way, sdkar, somebody needs to tell all of those "anti-theists" to stop calling themselves atheists, if your understanding of atheists is correct (and in fact, I tend to agree with you this far: the atheist arguments I have seen in recent years have really been anti-theist, which is to say, merely unthoughtfully prejudiced against unthoughtful religious belief--I believe atheists are embracing a second- and third-rate thought process; they should try most thoughtfully confronting the most thoughtful religious belief, and they WILL be filled (the little voice inside me says, "knock and the door will be opened; seek and you will find", and my heart swells with the divine presence, and I know I am, in this moment, In Tune).
Alan, I love it when you use "roiling" in an essay, almost as good as a proper use of "whilst".
Anyway, IMHO atheists do believe in a higher power and that power is their own ability to deal with and understand everything.
It has been a problem for millennia - "I know best".
The progenitors of the human kind first displayed this ego centric demeanor when they ignored what they did know to be the truth and acted upon their own judgment. It's been problematic ever sense.
The world revolves around MY navel. Problem is, there are too many navels!
I have to somewhat disagree with Dave. He has made the horrible mistake of labelling all people within a subset as having one mind and one thought towards something.
This is not true. I am sure most atheist do not feel "They Know Best". While I can not speak for all athiests, I can only speak for myself. I do not know what is best for everyone nor do I try to impose my will or force people to believe as I do. I also do not try to force anyone to not believe as they do. I simply believe in live an let live.
Saying all athiests are evil is the same as saying all jews are cheap or all muslims are terrorists. While it may be true that a certain number of jews are frugal or a certain number of muslims do try to blow up buildings, it does not apply to all. To make this assumption gets a little close minded.
I supposed that the "anti-theists" as I have labelled them, are a subset of atheism. But they certainly do not represent the majority. It is why I used the label "anti-theist" as I feel it describes and places these people in a much better distinct category. So, just as it would be wrong to assume all muslims are terrorists, so is it to assume all atheists want to rid the world of religion.
As for Harry, I love your outlook and at one time during my transition to atheism, thought as you did. I also can very much appreciate your distinction that God is not the cause of evil and that other forces are involved in that. It is helpful to think of things in this way. Especially when you hear someone who has had a family member die, "Why did god let this happen?". Harry's answer, from whay I gather is...he didn't. There is a distinction. I like it. Good stuff to ponder to say the least.
I started out as very religious. I came from a very religious family, went to a religious private school, went to church TWICE a week, I read the bible, I worked with my pastor at my church in many funcitons, etc. However, I had way too many questions. I suppose in the end, I just could not maintain my faith with the questions that kept nagging at me and what I saw around me. I would really love to believe, but I require something more concrete than my faith. It's just me I suppose.
Maybe this discussion is more out of context and I should not have brought up my point of view. I just wanted everyone to know that not all athiests are to be viewed as hateful toward all things religion. That not all athiest hate god or religion.
There are Muslims that go through life respectful of all others and then there are Muslims that hate Jews and/or Christians and work very hard at trying to rid the world of these other religions. We call these people muslim extremists and terrorists. So, I suppose we should call these athiests, athiest exetremists or just plain terrorists as well.
However, these anti-theists really are a very small subset of atheism. They do not speak for the majority of atheists who are respectful of others. They have an agenda and for me, it is nothing but one of hate. Who cares if others have inserted religion in our society. America is built on Christianity and I for one think that is awesome. I may not believe in a higher being or that he sent his son to die on the cross for my sins, but just about everything else makes perfect sense. Wisdom to live by. And these things should be in our world. They should NOT be removed because some anti-theist moron is offended. The foundations of all religions are good will towards others and kindness and love. Those are great things for a society to be founded on.
All I am saying is that please do not paint all atheists with the same brush. Most of us really do not want religion gone from society. Most of us feel religion is necessary and many of us have either come from a religious background and may one day return. But it is the hateful anti-theists that want all religions banned and hidden from the world. I think if that day came, it would be horrible. I want the ten commandments displayed proudly. I want to see a creche during Christmas, and a moment of prayer does not mean I have to pray to god...I can simply use this time to reflect on the goodness of others or simply use it to plan my day's events. It is the respectful thing to do and does not bother me in the slightest. If it makes others feel good, then I see no harm in it. In fact, I to can benefit from a world where others have something to be happy about.
As I am sure you know, America was founded on the principles of Christianity, and these are great principles that should continue and should be reflected throughout all of America. Not all of us want to see the signs or religion removed from our world, teh ten commandments removed from a public courthouse, etc.
These anti-theists are a truly small percentage of athiests. They just scream loud enough and hope others think they represent all athiests when in fact, they do not. In truth, most atheists think these idiots trying to remove religion from society are morons, the same as everyone else does.
They do not represent all atheists and therefore, a different moniker should be given them to let the world know that not all atheists believe as they do. Hence, my suggestion of the term "anti-theists". Just a suggestion.
I am an agnostic. I have no war with religion, I simply have seen no firm evidence that there is no God, nor convincing firm evidence that there is such a "God".
I am a firm believer in freedom of religion, except, of course those of the Islamic faith.
Just one remark. My personal namesake is emperor Heinrich the umpteenth of who-knows-where in Germany, who went barefoot to Canossa and asked for the Pope's forgiveness. What a farce. Who'd believe he went there in wintertime, only to get off his horse, assisted by pages, on the final run-up? I only grant the benefit of the doubt to Washington, sorry.
Im an Anti-Theist so thanks about that.
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