Tag Archives: prayer

An Atheist Leads a Prayer at a City Council Meeting…

No, it’s not the beginning of a joke, but it made me smile. Naturally, before Preston Smith, an atheist, got started on his invocation, a number of the pious council members of the fine city of Lake Worth, Florida, split … Continue reading

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Jesus Prayers in City Council Meetings?

Atheist v. religionist. The old (inconclusive) back-and-forth. I hope the Supreme Court sides with the atheists on this one. And as an agnostic, if these sorts of prayers get upheld, I want my turn on the invocation list. If someone … Continue reading

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An Update on My Request to Mayor Parris for the Expression of a Moment of Doubt at City Council Meetings

I’m a member of the doubting community, not the faith community, and since my local city council in Lancaster, CA., gives an alternating member of the faith community a turn every two weeks to say a sectarian prayer at the … Continue reading

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Joe Biden Thanks Dr. Pepper, But Not God

I’ll admit it. Joe Biden crossed a line here. He set up an idol and singled it out for praise. It shows what can happen to a man who is in the habit of treating corporations as persons.

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Atheist David Silverman to Tim Tebow: Read Matthew 6:5

Why does it take an atheist to point out that Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, a “Christian,” in making flamboyant displays of public prayer, is actually not following Jesus’s explicit admonition in the Sermon on the Mount not to do … Continue reading

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God Hasn’t Answered Rick Perry’s Prayers for Rain Yet

Here’s the New York Times on this grave matter: In the four months since [Texas governor Rick] Perry’s request for divine intervention, his state has taken a dramatic turn for the worse. Nearly all of Texas is now in “extreme … Continue reading

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The Empty Box: The Problem with a Personal God

I don’t dismiss the idea that God is a person. I dismiss the idea that you or I, under normal circumstances, can ever know whether or not God is a person and actually is relating to us, at any given … Continue reading

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Republican Governor Rick Perry Calls on Texans to Pray For Rain

Reuters reports that the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, has called on Texans to pray to God for rain, and quotes him as saying the following: It is fitting that Texans should join together in prayer to humbly seek an … Continue reading

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In Japan’s quake, God is revealed. Is she serious?

I genuinely can’t tell. Can you?

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Change Your Mind, Change Your Brain?

This was in the Los Angeles Times this past month: For the Trappist monks at the Abbey of New Clairvaux, life follows a pattern centuries old. They spend their days in the field and their nights in silence. They gather in prayer … Continue reading

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In Florida, Atheists Told They Can’t Wear Shirts That Say “One Nation, Indivisible” at City Council Meetings!

A grotesque violation of the First Amendment is taking place in the city of Cape Coral: And here’s another report on the story:

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A Dog Pauses to Remember the Ground of Being and Seek Its Assistance in Love

This dog, I think, is doing three things right: he’s remembering the Ground of Being; he’s feeling gratitude at his very existence; and he’s seeking help in his progress toward greater love (not chasing cats so much). One could do worse … Continue reading

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Maybe God Wants to Be Left Alone

Here’s a little double bind to contemplate: if we do not know the will of God, or whether he exists, and yet we nevertheless seek to discover answers to these questions, we might be annoying God. Why? Because God may not like people … Continue reading

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The City of Lancaster, in California, is sued for offering sectarian prayers to Jesus before council meetings

Surprise, surprise. As fundamentalists so frequently do when obtaining power, the fundamentalists who dominate the Lancaster City Council (particularly the mayor, R. Rex Parris, and council persons Sherry Marquez and Ron Smith) have overplayed their hand, drawing a lawsuit against the city. … Continue reading

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Photo for a Sunday: Christianity Militant? Whatever Happened to “Pray for your enemies”?

Didn’t Jesus, in the Sermon on the Mount, say to pray for your enemies? In Lancaster, California recently, I noticed this message outside a Presbyterian church, and it put me in mind of Mark Twain’s “The War Prayer“:                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          . … Continue reading

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This is what a totalitarian intellectual vision looks like

Intellectual opponents rendered invisible and silent. One God. One voice. One people. Ein volk. Ein reich. Ein fuhrer. Think about what this kind of vision means for the adult mind. The hope being expressed above is for a world mediated by fundamentalist vision in such a … Continue reading

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Just Asking

If you are an atheist, and you think that free will, ultimately, does not exist, but you nevertheless act in your day-to-day life as if free will does in fact exist, aren’t you like someone who doesn’t believe in God, but under … Continue reading

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Quote of the Day

Luke 18:10-14: 10 Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. 11 The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other … Continue reading

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We Pray in Public (and Sometimes Torture in Private): Fox News Goes After Barack Obama for Not Praying or Torturing Enough

Barack Obama simply doesn’t pray or torture enough for the folks at FOX News. If Obama would just pray and torture more, we would have back the America we all know and love! On FOX News today is a truly noxious … Continue reading

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“What if the mightiest word is love?”: See Here Elizabeth Alexander’s Poem (Read at Barack Obama’s Inauguration)

In contrast with Rick Warren’s depressingly prosaic, tone deaf, sectarian and artless invocation, I thought Elizabeth Alexander’s poem was a genuinely spiritual moment during the inauguration—a “prayer,” if you will—and a moving affirmation of human work, longing, and the supremacy of love—and “walking … Continue reading

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