PRAYER I have very mixed feelings about prayer. At my most cynical, I think of it as little more than talking to an imaginary invisible being. It seems to be both an expression and an admission of pathetic weakness. But then I think, so what if it is a weakness? Who the hell knows anything anyway? I've said it before, and more than once. We really don't know anything. Believing is all that any of us do. We believe in God. We don't believe in God. Either way, we're just believing. What we call prayer is what we might call "overt" believing, not hiding it, just coming right out in the open with it; just standing right there in church with your hands raised and looking that perceived invisible being square in the face and telling Him/Her/It exactly what you feel. You have to admit, if nothing else, it is likely a viable form of therapy. It's not good to carry too much baggage around in your soul. You've got to dump it occasionally - on somebody else. And who better than a completely imaginary being? Suddenly, I'm reminded of something that Shakespeare wrote, one of my favorite lines from Hamlet:
... there is nothing either good or bad but thinking makes it so.
Believers feel good after they pray because they're thinking good thoughts. They're being positive. It really doesn't matter that what they believe is false. That part is totally irrelevant. When you really think about it, you can't help but notice that nobody really gives a solitary damn about whether something might be true or false. What they do care about is what they want, their own desires. And believing that somehow, some day, some way, they will have what they want, is being halfway there already. Ol' Will was right. There really is nothing good or bad but what we perceive -or wish- to be so. If it really helps (and it does help if it makes you feel better), let them pray. What's the harm? If these full-grown men and women need their invisible beings, let them have them. I'm a cynical bastard, no doubt about it, but I don't want to hurt anyone. I don't want to see them cry when I take their imaginary friend away. Hell, no. What sort of person do you take me for anyway? If these children walking around in adult bodies need their invisible playmates let them have them. You have to admit, it does indeed seem to be a workable system. Most people who pray (in earnest) stay out of trouble. Except of course for the Muslim types who sometimes pray just before they blow themselves and a bunch of innocent people into a million pieces. Now I'm really having a bit of a think. Doesn't the Muslim faith teach that Allah loves everybody? Regardless of whether they believe in Him or not? If He loves them, why would He want them blown up? How could He ever approve of such a thing? Suddenly I'm thinking the Muslims need to read that book, the one called, Your God is Too Small, by J.B. Philips. Yeah, I'm thinking that maybe they need to re-work their perception of their principle deity. They need to give their most important invisible friend a serious makeover. The Bible: Why God Had Nothing To Do With It
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