Why Do People Think Prayer and Action are Exclusive Concepts?

"Why don't you stop praying and do something?"

Rabid Atheists the world over love to piss all over the faithful every time they want to publicly motivate others to spread positivity. They want you to think that, because they pray, they are not engaged in any other useful activity.

I don't know if they're consciously manipulating people into thinking this for their ideological purposes, or if they're actually dense enough to believe this is what happens. In either case...

It is possible to pray and volunteer for disaster relief. In fact, prayer and service to others are highly complementary, and by no means exclusive.

It is possible to pray while giving blood. In fact, prayer and service to others are highly complementary, and by no means exclusive.

Is is possible to pray and donate to cancer research. In fact, prayer and service to others are highly complementary, and by no means exclusive.

Prayer and service are complementary, and meant to be performed together wherever possible and appropriate. Every denomination of every religion I've ever even casually studied teaches this same thing. Yet the simpleton God-haters would have you believe that, instead of helping reinforce the levee, the religious people are just sitting around praying for the flood to subside.

It's possible to pray and do anything, be it simultaneously or at various times throughout the day. But people see #PrayForWhatever and think that all anyone is doing is kneeling on the ground and "talking to themselves".

And that's retarded. People who pray (the religious) are far, far more likely to be involved in community service projects and to donate money to charitable causes (look it up yourself).

Anyway, so I ramble: what makes the Atheist crowd think prayer somehow prevents people from taking direct action? It is quite frequently implied, if not outright stated in many of their "arguments", that the two are somehow mutually exclusive.

They are most certainly not.

We live in disasters and work to keep them somewhat habitable. We own no homes, no land, we have no good paying jobs, no trustworthy childcare, no reputable lender will lend for a business start up. No one services us. We love God so much and pray so much it's interwoven in daily thought.

Yes we pray, we pray that the blood banks who manipulate our good hearts into giving away our life blood to them for free and flip it making a profit off of it repent. If life blood is free, nice humble 2 story homes on 7 fertile acres with a pond and barn full of livestock should be free.

Yes we pray. We pray they will finally reveal the cancer cure kept well hidden for decades. So many in the manufacturing and health industry would have to find new jobs and once again a new disease will mysteriously have to manifest thus creating jobs for millions once again. Imagine the cure being revealed without prolonged treatment needed then the mixed feelings of joy to see the suffering go away and then the onset of madness that overwhelms those employees who are no longee needed in the health care industry anymore as they move into tent cities with the other homeless no longer seen as viable to the workforce.

We pray indeed.

Praise be to God.

a reply to: NthOther


Often I can chew gum and drive at the same time...not always though....

Merely due to doing both at the same time doesn't mean they aren't exclusive. In fact, you label them as separate actions yourself which implies separation.


An old, old joke comes to mind:


This lady is stuck on her roof during a massive flooding. She prays for God's help. A few minutes later a boat arrives and offers her help. She responds no thank you God will provide. The boat leaves. Another arrives she responds similarly. The water continues to rises and she drowns. At the pearly gates she's asks why God didn't save her? The response was we sent you help twice....

originally posted by: NthOther
"Why don't you stop praying and do something?"

Rabid Atheists the world over

Stopped reading there.

This is a rant.

I'll leave you with this, though:

Jesus discouraged public prayer.

a reply to: NthOther

Sky fairys cannot effect change, you have to be the change you want to see, otherwise it's just differed responsibility.

a reply to: NthOther

It is possible to pray and volunteer for disaster relief. In fact, prayer and service to others are highly complementary, and by no means exclusive.

Your right the two can be complementary, but you seem to have misunderstood why people make a comment like "Why don't you stop praying and do something?".

You see they say that because action is often lacking in far too many instances where people are offering their prayer.

Prayer is not a good substitution for action.


Action is the meat and potatoes of a meal and prayer works just fine as a ganish.

I would encourage the idea of prayer and action not being exclusive. Prayer often works as a way to spread information about hurting people through a community and this might promote action by others in the community.

The hashtag activism we see today is just an extension of prayer.

People, instead of actually working to better a situation just click a thumbs up button or retweet something or pray for someone else to fix it, and feel as if they have made a difference and done their part.

It accomplishes nothing besides giving people a sense of comfort in their otherwise apathetic existence. It's even worse than just being blatantly selfish and uncaring, because it feeds their egos and self importance ( as exhibited by the OP) while also allowing them to do nothing.

originally posted by: TechniXcality
a reply to: NthOther

Sky fairys cannot effect change, you have to be the change you want to see, otherwise it's just differed responsibility.

Do you really find it necessary to trash so many belief systems with your ignorant skepticism? Sky fairys? I don't even adhere to a religion, but using them term even offends me.

That's about as passive aggressive as you can get while trying to make a valid argument. Couldn't you just say God? Why are you so afraid to use the word God/God(s)?

Also, prayer isn't about faeries, as you somehow have come to believe. Prayer is about inner spirituality, transformation, thought, emotion, and ultimately action. When we pray, we commune with something beyond ourselves....and if you don't pray, I feel sorry for you.

Do you really find it necessary to trash so many belief systems with your ignorant skepticism?

"Belief systems" ARE ignorant skepticism. Skeptical that the world couldn't possibly have not been created? Has one book got the answer for you. Never read another one, though. Science is Satan trying to fool you into figuring out the answer instead of accepting the narrative that your parents fed you.

Now go forth and overpopulate the Earth, kill any gays you find, punish your slaves in this form, make sure your woman is subservient lest she be a who're, and, most importantly, hashtag all your prayers. Spend your entire life on this flat disk we call Earth in celebration of this nonsense; you don't want to end up a "rabid atheist" and be subject to the persecution complex of theists in online message boards, now.

a reply to: TechniXcality

Sometimes the act of praying itself, or a person's belief in powers greater than themself, can give that person just the extra push needed to help themselves. Now, you can call that person out and say they're just fooling themselves, that they could have done the thing all along. Consider, though, that what really matters is that the action gets taken, not how you arrive at the ability to take it.

originally posted by: DeadFoot

originally posted by: NthOther
"Why don't you stop praying and do something?"

Rabid Atheists the world over

Stopped reading there.

This is a rant.

I'll leave you with this, though:

Jesus discouraged public prayer.

Jesus discourage loud, ostentatious shows of faith for the sake of showing how pious you are.

If I pause for a second and think "Lord, help me to be strong, Amen." You are none the wiser even if I do it out in public right in front of you. For all you know, I stopped with a momentary gas pain.

a reply to: Grimpachi

No, in this case, the thread was spawned because a member was offended by the hashtags to "pray for this or that place in the world." I am assuming that right now, they are mad over Turkery.

Of course, they miss the irony that while they are wasting as much time ranting and complaining about it, they could also have been doing something to help Turkey too which is what they claim the prayer interferes with. It took about as much time for them to rant and them argue for their rant as it ever would for anyone else to pray for Turkey.

See how much valuable time they wasted? They could have been doing something!

I suppose I could look at it as yet another form of religion or faith shaming which is sort of is.

originally posted by: ketsuko

originally posted by: DeadFoot

originally posted by: NthOther
"Why don't you stop praying and do something?"

Rabid Atheists the world over

Stopped reading there.

This is a rant.

I'll leave you with this, though:

Jesus discouraged public prayer.

Jesus discourage loud, ostentatious shows of faith for the sake of showing how pious you are.

If I pause for a second and think "Lord, help me to be strong, Amen." You are none the wiser even if I do it out in public right in front of you. For all you know, I stopped with a momentary gas pain.

Kind of strange to be praying for stronger farts, ket.

Is this stuff on your twitter feed?

a reply to: DeadFoot

I don't have a Twitter feed. I'm just pointing out that if I pause in public for a few seconds to pray silently, there are any number of reasons why a person might just stop and hold still. You have no way of knowing that is. It isn't like I stand there and announce to all and sundry, "Ok, yo, Imma gonna stand here and pray now!" That would be the exact kind of public prayer Jesus did not like. I would be making a show of it for the sake of letting you know or otherwise announcing, "See how pious I am."

Without making that announcement, you are left to figure out what I'm doing on your own, assuming you even notice.

a reply to: ketsuko

The thing about him ranting about the prayers is that it doesn't alleviate anything actionable he could have done about Turkey.

Praying, on the other hand, does seem to imply that "God will take care of it". I'm not sure why anyone would pray for something like that, anyways... Like, as if the creator of the planet hasn't the faintest clue what's going on unless we talk about it with him.

originally posted by: ketsuko
a reply to: DeadFoot

I don't have a Twitter feed. I'm just pointing out that if I pause in public for a few seconds to pray silently, there are any number of reasons why a person might just stop and hold still. You have no way of knowing that is. It isn't like I stand there and announce to all and sundry, "Ok, yo, Imma gonna stand here and pray now!" That would be the exact kind of public prayer Jesus did not like. I would be making a show of it for the sake of letting you know or otherwise announcing, "See how pious I am."

Without making that announcement, you are left to figure out what I'm doing on your own, assuming you even notice.

I think I know exactly what it is...

...and it makes me wonder about the amount of bran in your diet.

a reply to: DeadFoot

originally posted by: TechniXcality

Sky fairys cannot effect change, you have to be the change you want to see, otherwise it's just differed responsibility.

Did you even read the OP, or did you just jump straight to being as insulting as you can like some offended SJW?

Prayer and action can, and often do, accompany each other. What do you care if someone prays while donating money? What do you care if someone prays while providing emergency medical services?

You just don't like people praying, regardless of what good they may be doing in the world.

Which is probably a lot more than most of the people here complaining about it.

originally posted by: DeadFoot

The thing about him ranting about the prayers is that it doesn't alleviate anything actionable he could have done about Turkey.

What makes you think I didn't?

Reading comprehension, people.