Wednesday, March 19, 2008

More stupid religion

NPR today did a story on some dude in Israel who wants to help people who can't physically get to various "holy" sites nevertheless pray there. Basically you call in, record your prayer, and then it gets broadcast over speakers to whatever particular "holy" place you choose.

Right. Let me see if I have this straight. What really apparently matters is that the sound of you intoning whatever mumbo jumbo you think will curry god's (or gods') favour hitting the "holy" place, not the act of your saying it or the intentions behind it.

What a cool god(s): Up until now, all those people who could never make it to Jerusalem/Mecca/etc had less-effective prayers--so for centuries god's basically been discriminating against the poor or the sick or the immobile. Great. Well done, god. All that "help the poor" and "blessed are the meek" shit really doesn't matter--your prayers are far better if you say the in the right place at the right time.

3 comments:

Jay said...

And I thought he was omnipotent and omniscient. Yet he can't accept a prayer from someone disabled who just can't hobble to the nearest "holy" site. Is he going deaf or something?

What a jerk.

Santa Claus has a better system in place apparently. He knows everything about everyone.

The Rat said...

Wow, there's a lot of hate spewing forth there. What is it to you if someone feels better, or more connected to God, or maybe actually believes God hears better at a holy site and uses this service? You don't seem very tolerant for someone on a "progressive" blogroll. You seem to have quite a hate-on for god/God/gods. In fact, you seem like quite a bigot. Funny, a lefty-bigot, who'da thunk it?

Dean P said...

Rat: Thinking that religion is stupid isn't "bigotry." Some opinions and beliefs are outright wrong. We're not cultural relativists who think that every belief is equally valid and equally good.

The idea that there is a god is as ludicrous as the idea that there are unicorns and dragons and Zeus and Thor.

And believing that the sky fairies would care whether your prayer gets transmitted through a cell phone takes the stupidity one step further.