Originally posted by Monts
reply to post by spy66

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Well said friend, the magnificent gift of free will. People often don't realize the power that can lie in their choices and thoughts. People are scared of change, whatever the nature of change may be. Fear is enemy number 1 here, which is why prayer isn't about asking for God to fix the world, but it is about asking God to give YOU the strength to help fix the world. Here is a beautiful prayer I heard Alex Collier say once:

Great spirit, whose voice I hear in the winds, and whose breath gives life to all in the world, hear me, I am small and I am weak, and I need your strength and your wisdom, let me walk in beauty and let my eyes ever behold the red and purple sunsets you have created with me. Make my hands respect the things you have made, and my ears sharp to hear your words and your voice. Let me learn the lessons you have hidden under every rock and leaf. I seek strength, not to be greater than my brother, but to fight my greatest enemy myself. Make me always ready to come to you with clean hands and straight eyes, so that when my life fades with the fading sunset, my spirit can come to you without shame.

Plot
During a noisy space pirate attack, Bender—trying to find some peace and quiet in a torpedo tube—is launched into interstellar space beyond the reach of Fry and Leela. After an asteroid crashes into Bender, a civilization of tiny humanoids ("Shrimpkins") grows on him and worships him as a god. At first, Bender enjoys his new-found status, picking a prophet named Malakai and having Malakai bring "The One Commandment" ("God Needs Booze") from "Up High" (Bender's head) to the Shrimpkins, who brew what for them are vast quantities of "Lordweiser" beer. The Shrimpkins begin praying for rain, sun, and wealth, and Bender attempts to heed their prayers—failing and unintentionally harming the Shrimpkins in the process. Eventually, Malakai tells him that the Shrimpkins who migrated to his backside felt their prayers were unheeded and became atheists. The atheists threaten war with Bender's worshippers. Bender, aware that attempts to help the Shrimpkins so far only harmed them, refuses to intervene. The micro-civilization is destroyed when the Shrimpkin factions launch atomic weapons out of Bender's nuclear pile. Malakai remains faithful to Bender during the war and it saddens Bender when Malakai and his family are killed by a nuclear weapon.

Bender soon meets a cosmic entity who is alluded to be God and recounts his experiences. "God" notes that the best way to deal with worshippers is to use a light touch so they will neither lose hope nor become dependent on supernatural intervention, saying, "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

Meanwhile, Fry and Leela search for a way to locate Bender, which leads them to a sect of monks who use a radio telescope to search for God in space. Leela overpowers and locks up the pacifist monks and Fry spends the next three days searching for Bender. Fry finds "God" by accident, and "God" flings Bender back to Earth just as Fry and Leela are leaving the monastery, causing Leela to exclaim that "This is, by a wide margin, the least likely thing that has ever happened." Bender quickly recounts his tale ("First I was God, then I met God!") and Fry boasts they "climbed up a mountain and locked up some monks," which reminds Leela that they never let them out. Fry is reluctant to return to the monastery and claims that God will surely help them. Bender tells them that God cannot be counted on for anything, and demands they rescue the monks themselves. The camera zooms out from Earth, past planets, through space, and back to God, who chuckles and repeats his advice: "When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all."

God: Bender, being God isn't easy. If you do too much, people get dependent on you, and if you do nothing, they lose hope. You have to use a light touch. Like a safecracker, or a pickpocket.
Bender: Or a guy who burns down a bar for the insurance money!
God: Yes, if you make it look like an electrical thing. When you do things right, people won't be sure you've done anything at all.