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One of the thing that scares me the most about religious fundamentalism is that ignorance is not only tolerated but encouraged.  The message is to stop thinking and just believe.  Reason, logic, and critical thinking are discouraged, even considered a sin in some cases.

Never is this “tune in and turn off” message more clearly stated than on the back of a t-shirt I saw some teenager wearing about a year or so ago:

The Simple Life: eat, sleep, pray.

Now this is actually considered virtuous by these people.  In this equation there is no thinking, no discovering the world around us, no attempt to learn how the world really works.  There is no attempt to realize our place on the planet, the solar system, and the galaxy.

This mantra is isolationist, disassociating the adherent …read more »

Who says prayer doesn’t work?

I hear a lot from religious leaders about the power of prayer. For example, we have a National Day of Prayer. Apparently our president talks to God-and God answers him; that’s who told him to invade Iraq. When those coal miners were trapped in the Sago mine disaster in West Virginia the townspeople prayed for their safe return. Initially it seemed to be working; reports were that all but one miner had miraculously survived. Joyful praise for the holy father erupted, only to be replaced by acrimonious disdain after they learned they had been “forsaken” and all but one had died. (Even the Governer proclaimed the initial reports a “miracle”. I’ll save miracles for another post.) Hell, I even received a holy hanky that was supposed to become infused with miraculous power through prayer.

The point is there are millions of people who swear by the power of prayer. I’ve always been skeptical that there’s a personal god out there listening to our wants, needs, and desires and then granting them in a seemingly arbitrary fashion. How does God answer prayers? Who gets want they want, who doesn’t, and why? No one seems to be able to answer these questions without invoking some version of the “great cop-out”: God works in mysterious ways. That’s the easy way out, essentially saying ‘I don’t know and you shouldn’t be asking’.

So after 9/11 I did a lot of thinking …read more »