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The excuse usually given here is “well, free will. Humans have to solve those problems and refuse to.”
How are drought and locust plagues, literally Acts of God, the result of human free will, and requiring resolution entirely by human free will?
And why are your petty problems, like car keys, passing your exam, and angst over the football game not problems of human free will to be resolved by human free will?
Prayer is narcissism of biblical proportions.
How to make someone else’s pain all about your piety.
“Praying to god is flattering one self into thinking that with words we can change all of nature.”
-- Voltaire
The ineffectiveness of prayer is matched only by its breathtaking narcissism.
"... Prayer seems to me a cry of weakness, and an attempt to avoid, by trickery, the rules of the game as laid down. I do not choose to admit weakness. I accept the challenge of responsibility. Life, as it is, does not frighten me, since I have made my peace with the universe as I find it, and bow to its laws."
-- Zora Neale Hurston, “Dust Tracks on a Road” (1942)
Prayer.
Hey this is probably random but, can I ask about where god helping christians find their car keys thing comes from. I've been recently getting into more atheist blogs and youtube channels after finally admitting I stopped believing in god years ago and at first I thought it was maybe a joke the first couple of times I saw it but with how frequent it pops up it makes me think there's more behind it than that. Sorry if there isn't anything deep about it but I am curious with how often I see it.
I’m not aware of any example specifically of car keys, it’s just sort of become a stereotype for the convenience, selfishness and arrogance of petitionary prayer.
Whether or not they’re Poes, the following are some examples in the same general theme:
And of course, the classic:
I’m sure you’ve seen plenty of other instances of people thanking their god for these sorts of petty, unimportant, statistically unremarkable “answered prayers” that reaffirm every day their worthless, worthless “faith.” The same people who hold the same god in no way responsible for starving people, poverty, diseases, and so forth. The blame for those falls on humans and their sin and free will… apparently. Their god only takes care of the really trifling shit. Because it can’t or won’t resolve anything meaningful. Like COVID, for example. Since, as a creator, it sent it in the first place.
https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/tagged/confirmation-bias
“Car keys’ has kind of just emerged as a shorthand for this. Everyone can relate to car keys - people lose them all the time, they find them all the time. Oh, and hey, you’re fortunate enough already to be able to buy and operate a car. Rather than drinking polluted water and living with an eye-eating worm that will turn you blind while you wait for your baby sister to die of malnutrition.
https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/tagged/god-of-car-keys
This is a god of the really petty shit. What I call the Concierge God.
https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/tagged/god-of-the-petty-shit
https://religion-is-a-mental-illness.tumblr.com/tagged/concierge-god
The most important part of prayer is making sure people know they’re praying, so they can get gratification from someone else’s misfortune by making it all about how pious and virtuous they are - in a completely meaningless, effort-free way.
Even the bible agrees on this.
Matthew 6:5-6
And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward.
But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.
