{"id":1185,"date":"2014-03-03T08:45:50","date_gmt":"2014-03-03T13:45:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/?p=1185"},"modified":"2014-03-03T10:37:21","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T15:37:21","slug":"dont-praying","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2014\/03\/03\/dont-praying\/","title":{"rendered":"Don\u2019t Pray For Me"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/files\/2014\/03\/dont-pray.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-1186\" alt=\"don't pray\" src=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/files\/2014\/03\/dont-pray.jpg\" width=\"160\" height=\"160\" srcset=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/files\/2014\/03\/dont-pray.jpg 160w, https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/files\/2014\/03\/dont-pray-150x150.jpg 150w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 160px) 100vw, 160px\" \/><\/a>Like many atheists, I often have Christians who threaten to physically assault me. I even get Christians who threaten send me to \u201cmeet God.\u201d But they love me. They really love me. In fact, after all the threats, they are sure to let me know that they are praying for me. But what does that really mean anyway?<\/p>\n<p>It seems to me, that when a Christian claims that are praying for me, they are telling me that they are asking God to save me. They are saying that even though I deserve to be tortured for all eternity, they would like God to spare me out of grace.<\/p>\n<p>I think the important part here is that they actually think I deserve to be tortured. They believe that I deserve to be tortured not just for five minutes or an hour, but for all eternity (which I understand is sort of a long time). So at best, when they are saying that they are praying for me, it is really a backhanded compliment at best. They are saying that I am a wretched person who deserves to be tortured!!!<\/p>\n<p>In fairness, they believe everyone deserves to be tortured, but that they deserve it slightly less because they have been forgiven by God &#8212; forgiven for the ultimate crime\u2026 being human.<\/p>\n<p>And yet, many Christians have the audacity to claim that atheists are the big meanies because we criticize their religious beliefs as being ridiculous and call them out on their hateful actions and attitudes.<\/p>\n<p>I don\u2019t need their prayers. If they believe that I truly deserve to be tortured, then so be it. It isn\u2019t like they are going to change God\u2019s mind with their prayers anyway. For one thing, he doesn\u2019t exist so he doesn\u2019t have a mind. But even if he did (and he doesn\u2019t), then they still couldn\u2019t change God\u2019s mind with their prayers. Doesn\u2019t God have a perfect plan? Well? Is it perfect or isn\u2019t it? If it is perfect, then any change in that perfect plan would mess up the whole damn thing. Plus, if I really deserve to be tortured\u2026 and no one does, then fuck it.<\/p>\n<p>The reality is that the very fact that a Christian is praying for me is good reason not to be a Christian. If they are praying for God to save me from being eternally tortured, then God is the meanie because no one deserves to be tortured \u2013 not for five minutes and certainly not for all eternity.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t pray for me, Christian. Think about the type of God you choose to worship. Do you really want to worship a deity that has set up a system that allows for the infinite torture of billions of people for finite transgressions of being human for 0-110 years? Yeah, the system that God has set up according to Christianity allows for children and babies to be tortured for all eternity! Think about it.<\/p>\n<h6 class=\"zemanta-related-title\" style=\"font-size: 1em\">Related articles<\/h6>\n<ul class=\"zemanta-article-ul\">\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2014\/02\/28\/dear-christians-stand-god\/\" target=\"_blank\">Dear Christians, Stand Up Against God<\/a> (skepticink.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2014\/02\/26\/finally-proof-jesus-god\/\" target=\"_blank\">Finally, &#8216;Proof Jesus Was God&#8217;<\/a> (skepticink.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2014\/02\/12\/gods-not-allowed-in-our-school\/\" target=\"_blank\">God&#8217;s Not Allowed In Our School<\/a> (skepticink.com)<\/li>\n<li class=\"zemanta-article-ul-li\"><a href=\"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/2013\/12\/11\/eliminating-religion\/\" target=\"_blank\">Eliminating Religion<\/a> (skepticink.com)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"zemanta-pixie\" style=\"margin-top: 10px;height: 15px\"><a class=\"zemanta-pixie-a\" title=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" href=\"http:\/\/www.zemanta.com\/?px\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"zemanta-pixie-img\" style=\"border: none;float: right\" alt=\"Enhanced by Zemanta\" src=\"http:\/\/img.zemanta.com\/zemified_e.png?x-id=b09e4207-061d-42dc-8e15-9fe12e0acc63\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many atheists, I often have Christians who threaten to physically assault me. I even get Christians who threaten send me to \u201cmeet God.\u201d But they love me. They really love me. In fact, after all the threats, they are sure to let me know that they are praying for me. But what does that really mean anyway?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,758,178,292],"tags":[38,50,1063,1066,83,806,118,177],"class_list":["post-1185","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-atheism-2","category-featured","category-hell","category-morality","tag-atheism","tag-christian","tag-christianity","tag-god","tag-jesus","tag-prayer","tag-religion-and-spirituality","tag-torture"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/19"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1185"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1185\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1185"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1185"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/skepticink.com\/dangeroustalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1185"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}