A pastor friend of mine once promised me, "I will pray for [her] and for you."
I'm a lifelong skeptic and lapsed atheist. I'm almost certain there's no man in the sky who answers prayers. There are those militant atheists who would find it hypocritical of me to let it pass.
But I did.
Even though I am not a Christian, I was touched.
Because what he said to me is not "I'm going to inflict a religious ritual upon you without your consent."
What he told me was, "I care about you, and I would like to help. I am going to do that which I believe is the most powerful, most personal, most compassionate thing I know to do."
And in that translation is everything.
So, my fellow skeptics and atheists, instead of being offended by religious messages and symbolism, let's try to look beyond the shallow meaning of those messages and find the intent of the message. The humanity in all of the god-talk.
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Googlebombing for a cause: www.minnesotangos.org
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2 comments:
I am touched that your journey has landed you here. The simple message that Jesus tried to teach so long ago has been lost in man's messing around with it.
We are all in this together, and we need to do what we can for our fellow sufferers.
Your friend gave you the equivalent to the atheistic "I'm thinking of you in your time of trouble."
It's been an interesting path. from anti-theism to scientific positivism to nihilism to post-modernist subjectivism to a post-Nietzschean anti-nihilism.
A ship in the harbor is safe, but that's not what ships are built for.
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