Are you going to pray according to the President's instructions on the National Day of [Presidential Authority over] Prayer, which is May 1, 5008?
I'll be able to. I'll probably have forgotten though. There'll be a lot of other stuff for me to remember, as immortal Grand Emperor of Earth.
have never prayed according to anyone's instructions so I don't think I will start with a president of another country and religion. praying does not really make sense. there is either no god or way to many which the # of religions in the world seem to say. Each one has the word of God and they are all different.
bleep, NO! 1. i don't believe in any god who has to be prayed to... 2. i wouldn't do anything that cretin ordered... 3. if prayer would help anything [which it clearly won't], it's idiotic and lazy to the max, to just tout a single day on which to do it...
No one is being forced to pray, but it's certainly wandering into dangerous territory. I don't pray, period. I'm not offended when well-meaning people pray on my behalf, but begin to react when they try to convince me to join them, or refuse to understand why I might not wish to do so.
Nobody here said praying is idiotic. Mammamaia said that, assuming prayer has meaning, it is idiotic to single out one day in the year for it
National Day of Prayer? This is a new one. Oh dear, I wonder what they'll come up with next. Nah, I won't pray because the President instructed me to. I'll pray because I pray every day.
You are trying to have congress with an abstraction. If you don't buy into a "praying" religion, it looks pretty weird. Have you ever really given thought to the rituals involved in being a modern Christian? They're pretty strange--as strange as any number of the rituals performed by mystics a few thousand years ago.
Just an FYI - at the first threat of this thread combusting, it will be closed. Religion is a dangerous topic, so let's take extra care about other members' beliefs.
True. I pray daily anyway so, yey whoopie! A day wehre I'm supposed to pray even though I do anyway... wooooooooot.... yes its pointless. You can have a national day of prayer and still have seperation of church and state. As long as the day isn't religion specific it's not unconstitutional. Every religion has some method of prayer.
True, the article is, but haivng a Day of Prayer doesn't need to be Christian in and of itself. As long as anyone of any tradition can pray its a legal practice and I doubt anyone's going to go barging through the country to every non-Christian sayign you can't pray today on the first of may. That said, its still pointless to designate a day for it. I really don't see a point since most who believe in the power of prayer pray regularly anyway (Twice on sundays maybe). I don't see why we need a day for it.
... don't get me started on the separation of church and state. Wait, too late. The separation of church and state appeared in a letter from Thomas Jefferson and is not in the Constitution, as is commonly thought. Moreover, the intent of the separation of church and state was to keep the state out of the church (regulating religion/mandatory services) and not to keep the church out of the state (politicians displaying their religious beliefs). So, no, declaring a day of prayer does not go against "the separation of church and state." Honestly, I don't see any harm in a national day of prayer whatsoever. This is slightly off topic, but out of curiosity, why is there either 1) no god or 2) too many gods? Why not 3) one true god?
The same goes for the UK in the respect of disestablishmentarianism, Daniel. Despite the government's recent efforts to secularise the country, the British "constitution" is still heavily influenced by the country's Christian roots. Both the US and the UK are still (nominally) Christian countries.
The worlds four largest religions are Hinduism, Islam, Buddism, and Christinity. Together, they make up about 4/5 of the world's total population. All have some method of prayer, or a practice that follows the same lines as prayer. Those five religions also make up about 85% of the US population, with the otehr 14% being non-religious, and less than 1% being smaller minority religions. Shinto, Bahai, Janism, Neopaganist groups (most of them, like Wicca) and most other major religious movements have something like prayer. Of course Jewdism does too, but its hardly a major world religion with only 14 million members. Every religion has something that can be recognized as a prayer. I agree with Daniel as well. Besides, if there really was seperation of church and state we wouldn't have 43 consecutive Christian presidents. It'll be a long time befor ethe US has a president who isn't christian.
I don't really see a problem with a day of prayer, either. I've been observing it for a few years now, and it makes no difference, to me, whether the president endorses it. Oh, and I second what Daniel said about Seperation of Church and State.
