My very own atheist bus!

I've just come across this great little tool (courtesy of Friendly Atheist) that allows you to generate your own version of the atheist bus slogan. Here's my effort



(Credit to Richard Dawkins for the quote)

That praying stuff again

I was only talking about prayer a couple of days ago and now it gets into the news. This story has been all over the news and was even in my local paper tonight. Until I saw that, I hadn't realised it was a local incident. A community nurse has been suspended for asking a patient if she wanted to be prayed over (prayed upon? Not sure what the correct terminology is). Of course she is now being portrayed as a martyr, being persecuted for her faith. When you read the details of the story, it turns out that she had done this sort of thing before and had been told to stop, so I guess she doesn't have much of a complaint against her employers.

The strange this is that, as an atheist, I don't think it really would have bothered me if a nurse offered to pray for me (I'd obviously refuse!). My wife actually works as a nurse in the same health authority, albeit in a different area of nursing. She said it would be very unprofessional for a nurse or doctor to do what this nurse had done and she shouldn't have done it.

Relating to my earlier post about praying, does this nurse actually believe that a prayer for one of her patients would actually swing the decision with the big guy upstairs? Does she think that she could direct some supernatural force that would change the laws of nature just because she asked (while shutting her eyes tight and putting her hands together)?

The other odd thing is why she bothers to ask whether her patients want a prayer or not. If she really cares for her patients and really believes that prayer works, why wouldn't she just pray for everyone? Why does the recipient need to know? Perhaps the nurse knows deep down that the only possible effect of prayer would be a placebo effect on a credulous patient, in which case you don't really need to pray for them, just tell them that you are...

This is 2009, right?

I've been catching up on my podcasts and just listened to one from the Radio 4 Today Programme. This was originally broadcast last Friday. The story was about a hospital in Derbyshire where staff claimed to have seen a ghost and the hospital management have arranged for an exorcist to come in and sort out the problem. The daft story was picked up elsewhere on the BBC and in some newspapers, but Radio 4 outdid them. They interviewed a former Benedictine monk, now a parish priest, who explained the details of exorcism. He explained that ghosts just inhabit places, but the real difficulties are with demons who are evil spirits that can possess an unfortunate person. Apprently, ghosts are easy to get rid of with a few simple prayers, but demons are more tricky and require the special skills of a trained exorcist.

He was interviewed by Ed Stourton. Now I know Mr Stourton is a well-known catholic, but surely that's not a good enough reason to give the ex-monk such airtime. He was treated as if he was giving his opinion on the best way to stop slugs eating your lettuces, but he was talking about ghosts and demons. DEMONS!! Is this 2009 or 1609?? Either he was being treated seriously by a presenter who who actually believed in demons or Radio 4 were poking fun at a deluded old man. I don't think either reflects well on the BBC.

I just don't get this prayer thing

I saw an article on the BBC website today about an online prayer service. Prayer is one of those aspects of religion that I never really understood. Even if you believe there is an omnipresent, omniscient supernatural being out there, how can you possibly believe that this being would change the natural laws of the universe just because you put in a special plea? If two sets of parents are worrying over the beds of their sick children, would a god choose to spare one just because the parents asked nicely? The whole concept is bizarre and a just a bit obscene.

This is related to one of my main gripes with organized religion. Why would anyone want to worship a supernatural power that demands to be worshipped in order to get special treatment? Shouldn't it be enough that you live a 'good' life ('good' obviously having different values depending on your flavour of religion). You would think that something powerful to create an entire universe wouldn't have this problem of low self-esteem with a constant need to have its postition confirmed.

I wonder if all the followers of a particular religion would be happy if the world followed the teachings of their religion apart from the bits that were 'religious', i.e. the morality and 'lifestyle' aspects, but explicitly rejected any supernatural beings?