“Why don’t you try praying for a week and see what happens in your life?” say the generous people behind ‘Try Praying’, an organisation of believers who claim no church connection or interests.

 

Somehow they think it would be beneficial in a world torn apart by religious warfare and economic disasters to kneel, and pray to the almighty. This must definitely be the way forward, I mean, why work and struggle when you can simply dump all that on your chosen god and nag him enough to help you out?

 

As far as wishful thinking goes, there is no practice more readily accepted and indeed, encouraged, than prayer. Regular humans evolved from chimpanzees who wear great robes and fancy hats tell you that there is a celestial being that listens and cares when you mumble your grievances in moments of desperation; or when in search for a so called ‘higher meaning’.  Far from having any shred of evidence that such a being actually exists, they go a huge step beyond by claiming they know what this entity expects from us, and that it is ready to grant you wishes if only you ask in the right manner and make the right sacrifices (Top tip: the first step seems to be surrendering your critical faculties). Considering that all this is based on the teachings of frightened illiterate peasants from Bronze Age Palestine (who by the way did not have the slightest idea of how earth quakes, storms, floods, droughts etc. occurred)  makes me look upon it with a great degree of scepticism.

 

After several days of being confronted with the message of Try Praying on my daily bus route to work, I decided to check out what these people actually strive to achieve. So I went online and ordered their 7 day prayer guide booklet which is filled with hints and tips on how to start your adventure with wishful thinking. It even has real life testimonies by other believers that have deluded themselves into thinking this trickery actually works.

One of my top three favourite excerpts from this booklet can be found on page 23, and states the following: “There are no requirements to coming to God. We do not need to be squeaky clean. God Accepts us as we are – all we need to do is believe”.  I must say I am very impressed with the graciousness of this god who not only created us, but also accepts us. It seems however that in the Old Testament this god was not always very happy with his own creation. Floods to rid the planet of its inhabitants, fire storms for and being ready to sacrifice your own son are all part of showing his love for us. How generous of a deity that created humankind sick and then ordered it to be well under the threat of eternal fire.

 

As with every other religious pamphlet, the prayer guide booklet completely gives away the actual mentality of its composers roughly half way through. Thus, on page 25 we are given a hint of what we might like to say on our 5th day of prayer: “God, there’s a mystery here. But if you really did die for me then the least I can say is thank you. I’m sorry for my failure to do what’s right. Thank you for your love for me and for forgiving me.”  And here we go again with the grovelling and the apologising to this perfect creator whose only solution to the world’s problems was killing his own son and then blaming it on the ones he created; Call me old fashioned but that’s just plain rude.

Where can people get a moral code, the faithful will fervently ask, if a god doesn’t exist? Well I may just be a lowlife atheist, but I don’t think lying to people and then calling it spirituality is a good start.