something to believe in
Jan. 7th, 2009 04:02 pmOne of the drawbacks with not being religious, in terms of specific belief in a personal, sentient devine being, is the lack of opportunity for prayer.
Quite a few times lately i've thought that simple ideas like "i'll remember you in my prayers" were quite appealing, as was the basic idea of giving worship and devotion to something holy and pure, and it came up again when Craig had his cancer diagnosis and everyone was asked to pray for him.
For me, while i have some sort of inclination towards the idea of something mystical or divine behind the universe, the sort of human-like, partial entity that would desire worship or answer prayers never quite rings true to my imagination. So the questions remains - how do you pray if you don't know who to pray to?
There's alway meditation, including this* form for someone in tough times, but it's not quite the same thing. I guess you could always just do it, addressed To Whom It May Concern, as it were (as i did with Craig) but does it even count if you don't really have the notion that there's someone listening?
I can see why the belief in a personal, sentient god has such appeal, but while liking the idea is one thing, just up and deciding to genuinely believe in it is a different matter.
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( * text under cut for future reference )
Quite a few times lately i've thought that simple ideas like "i'll remember you in my prayers" were quite appealing, as was the basic idea of giving worship and devotion to something holy and pure, and it came up again when Craig had his cancer diagnosis and everyone was asked to pray for him.
For me, while i have some sort of inclination towards the idea of something mystical or divine behind the universe, the sort of human-like, partial entity that would desire worship or answer prayers never quite rings true to my imagination. So the questions remains - how do you pray if you don't know who to pray to?
There's alway meditation, including this* form for someone in tough times, but it's not quite the same thing. I guess you could always just do it, addressed To Whom It May Concern, as it were (as i did with Craig) but does it even count if you don't really have the notion that there's someone listening?
I can see why the belief in a personal, sentient god has such appeal, but while liking the idea is one thing, just up and deciding to genuinely believe in it is a different matter.
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( * text under cut for future reference )