“my prayer is gonna be different”

shining_warrior: hello, i just wanted to drop you a message and tell you i am praying for you and hope you find truth and life here on earth
atheist_jsbrown: What is your prayer?
atheist_jsbrown: You should know that I have already found both truth and life here on Earth.
atheist_jsbrown: No need to pray for that!
shining_warrior: i pray that you will know that you are loved and were created by a kivind all-powerful God who has great plans for you
atheist_jsbrown: Anything else?
shining_warrior: Yah lots of thing but i bet you could guess all the rest
atheist_jsbrown: I am interested in your entire prayer.
atheist_jsbrown: I invite you to pray all of it now, and type it as you go.
shining_warrior: what is your name?
atheist_jsbrown: <—- J
shining_warrior: Lord Jesus, I ask you right now to show J your power, to open his eyes the the one truth, yourself, I ask you to protect him always in everything he does and do not let him leave this earth without his soul being saved. show your mighty power to him now, hit him with your holy spirit right now in the name of jesus. set his heart ablaze with you
shining_warrior: you will be hit with the spirit of truth, brother, i proclaim it in the name of Jesus, you will see things you have never seen before
shining_warrior: you will realize the truth and realize how wonderful your life is meant to be. your destiny will come into place and u will do great things in ur lifetime
shining_warrior: u were createed for a great purpose, and i call u into that purpose in the name of jesus, stop choosing this world and all its traps
shining_warrior: recieve the truth now
atheist_jsbrown: All done then?
shining_warrior: sure
atheist_jsbrown: If you don’t mind, I would like to know a few basic things about you.
atheist_jsbrown: Most important is your religion and denomination / sect.
shining_warrior: religion causes division, people change religions like they change clothes, there is only one truth, i only claim to have Jesus and the bible, no religion
atheist_jsbrown: So you are a Christian then.
shining_warrior: yeah
atheist_jsbrown: That’s a religion.
shining_warrior: maybe so but i dont claim it, atheism is considered a religion too
atheist_jsbrown: …According to the common usage of the word offerd by the average dictionary, it’s a religion. That is what I am going by.
atheist_jsbrown: No, atheism isn’t considered a religion by any suc definition. This, however, is irrelevant at this time.
atheist_jsbrown: We’re almost finished.
atheist_jsbrown: What is your age, gender, and location?
atheist_jsbrown: Share only what want.
shining_warrior: 21 f tn, what is your purpose for knowing?
atheist_jsbrown: I document the prayers of people like yourself. I have been doing so for years.
shining_warrior: what for?
atheist_jsbrown: The list is more interesting when I know about the people involved.
atheist_jsbrown: If your prayer is answered, then I know who to thank. If it isn’t, then it goes along with the rest as apparent failure.
atheist_jsbrown: Either way, I benefit by keeping up with them.
shining_warrior: well i assure you, my prayer is gonna be different than others, because you are about to be hit with something u have never experienced before, my friend
atheist_jsbrown: Yes, well I’ve heard that before.
atheist_jsbrown: It might surprise you how many people say the very same things.
atheist_jsbrown: You will be #80 on the list. I post it online.
atheist_jsbrown: Would you like to be informed when I update the list with your prayer?
shining_warrior: sure but it won’t happen
atheist_jsbrown: What won’t happen?
shining_warrior: i wont be added to the list well, maybe u wil add it but then u will have to remove it
atheist_jsbrown: Why is that?
shining_warrior: ur life is fixing to change and i am positive about it not just a hope i know
atheist_jsbrown: We can only wait and see what happens.
atheist_jsbrown: Success or failure – all prayers go on the list and remain there.
atheist_jsbrown: If you decide you want to add prayers later, just let me know. I am happy to update the list anytime.
shining_warrior: alright, i wish u well, and ask u to keep ur heart open to whatever happens in the next couple of days
atheist_jsbrown: I think you mean my mind i.e. to be objective.
atheist_jsbrown: I try always to remain objective.
atheist_jsbrown: Thank you for contributing to the list.
atheist_jsbrown: I wish you a pleasant day.

A Mormon Promise

A nice girl from the LDS church named Rachel called me last night. She was doing a follow up on me. Months ago (maybe a year) I requested free copies of the King James version of the Bible and the book of Mormon. I did so for the purpose of learning about the Mormons so I would be prepared if I encounter them.

She wanted to know if I was enjoying the books. I told her that the small amount of reading I had done in them was useful. Then I let her know that I am an atheist, and why I requested them. I also told her that I had helped a Mormon woman successfully deconvert. She was literally speechless! Anyway, since I had her on the phone, I decided to make things difficult by challenging some of her Mormon beliefs. Regardless of my question, her response was always, “I just know that it’s a true book.”

I like “true books.” I want to read “true books.” Was this a “true book?” I was excited. I asked how she knew that the book of Mormon was true. She said that she wanted to witness that she had read Moroni 10:3-5 and prayed concerning the passage. This led to a feeling that she had that made her feel sure that it’s a true book! Wow!

[3] Behold, I would exhort you that when ye shall read these things, if it be wisdom in God that ye should read them, that ye would remember how merciful the Lord hath been unto the children of men, from the creation of Adam even down until the time that ye shall receive these things, and ponder it in your hearts.

[4] And when ye shall receive these things, I would exhort you that ye would ask God, the Eternal Father, in the name of Christ, if these things are not true; and if ye shall ask with a sincere heart, with real intent, having faith in Christ, he will manifest the truth of it unto you, by the power of the Holy Ghost.

[5] And by the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things.

I hear this same sort of talk from people of various religions. It’s a personal experience. It’s a special connection between “god” and the individual. It all sounds amazing. Oh, and it’s all completely lacking evidence. It can’t be tested. I can not know if any of them are telling the truth. That’s a problem for me. I shared this problem with Rachel. Fortunately for me, and you, she had a solution.

Rachel promised me that if I read the passages she shared with me and prayed sincerely about them, that I would receive an answer that the book of Mormon was true. She obviously hadn’t thought through any of it.

How can I, an atheist, pray sincerely to a god that I don’t believe exists? I can no more do this than write a sincere letter to Santa Claus requesting toys for next Christmas. It gets worse. The passage also states that I must have faith in Christ, which I don’t. It also mentions that I should remember how merciful the Lord has been, which I don’t. This is an impossible task.

I explained these things to her, yet she insisted that I go through with it anyway. She also thanked me for agreeing to give it a try. It’s circular. To receive this revelation that the book of Mormon is true, and thus know that a god exists, I must believe that a god exists and trust the book of Mormon. And how can I trust the book of Mormon? [begin chasing tail here]

This is a common problem with this sort of thing. I am willing to give them a fair chance. The problem is that they ask for impossibilities. She is safe with making such a promise. I can’t do what she asks. When it doesn’t work, there are plenty of excuses already built in. Falsifiability is an important part of determining if a claim is vaild, or even worth dealing with. It’s unreasonable to offer nonfalsifiable claims to someone with the expectation of being believed. But then this stuff never seems to be about reason anyway. I found this to be true with Rachel too.

Near the end of our 30+ minute phone conversation, Rachel revealed something interesting to me. She said that, no matter what the evidence, or lack of it, she would believe that the book of Mormon was right anyway. This was based on her feeling that I mentioned earlier. She is close-minded. The quest is over. The possibility that she is wrong is ruled out. Why should I take a person like this seriously? …especially about such fantastic and bizarre claims!

(My apologies for the wanderings of this post. I just sort of ranted through it.)

Prayers from Jail

As of 12 June, the 28 women being held at the Iredell County Jail Annex are all praying that I will accept christ.

My mother is a chaplain at the jail. She goes weekly with a few other women from a local church to visit with the female prisoners there. As she explained it to me, some of the girls were sharing their problems. In an attempt to relate, she decided to share some of her own. Among them was the admission that her son, yours truly, is an atheist. Apparently they all gasped when they heard. So they all decided to pray for me. How considerate and… ridiculous.

Speaking Up and Getting Hosed

I went yesterday to the nearby gas station to fill the tank I use for my mower. The place requires payment before fueling, which is reasonable considering the high gas prices. I’m sure a few have been filling up and tearing off without paying, like a friend of mine used to do.

I entered to pay for three gallons of gas for the tank I use for my mower. The attendant calculated the cost, I handed him a ten, and I promptly received the difference. He was a young, brown-skinned fellow with somewhat-less-than-perfect English. I have no idea about his ethnicity or native language. No matter though- he did his job adequately and was nice about it. I understood him with no problems… “Eleven eighteen is your change.”

The middle-aged white guy behind me at the counter said that he wanted to fill up his van. As I walked out the door, he was right behind me. A few steps from the door, he began to go left, and I, right. That’s when he looked over at me and made a remark that started a brief exchange between us.

van man: Those people.

me: What people?

van man: [pointing back toward the store] Those people.

me: What about them?

van man: They can’t even speak English.

me: I would say that those people are your equals regardless of what language they speak.

van man: [after a pause] You’re right. I’m sorry. You’re right.

I felt empowered, even righteous. It was the first time I ever vocally objected to the racist remarks of a stranger head-on. I’ve had plenty of opportunities in the past. My usual approach was to contort my face into an obviously disgusted look, but otherwise, to do nothing. This has always left me with feeling guilty and weak… like a pussy for not standing up for the rights of my fellow humans.

How about some instant karma?

Feeling good that I had done something that is, to me, worthy and necessary, I knelt down and removed the cap from my gas canister. I then took the pump nozzle from the pump to insert it into the canister. That’s when gas poured out of it all over my right arm and hand. I hadn’t even pulled back on the trigger. I was soaked! WTF! I just did a good thing! LOL!

Since my gas container was on the ground, it was lower than the tank on any vehicle would be. My guess is that difference was enough for gravity to empty the hose (on me). Damn it.

What do you think? Did van man apologize because he realized his mistake, or just because he was caught in the act?