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May 21st, 2013
04:45 PM ET
Who hears #PrayersForOklahoma?By Daniel Burke, CNN Belief Blog Co-Editor (CNN) - God may not notice the thousands of prayers tweeted for victims of Oklahoma’s devastating tornado - but Ricky Gervais sure has. And he is not pleased. As of Tuesday afternoon, more than 75,000 people have used the hashtag #PrayForOklahoma, including pop starlets, pastors and politicians, according to Topsy.com, a trend-monitoring site. For example, the White House tweeted, But the hashtag and the sentiments it promotes prompted a fierce backlash on social media, led by Gervais, a British comedian, and other prominent nonbelievers. And while one Oklahoma City pastor says he appreciates the Twitter prayers, some religious scholars say devout petitions require more than moving your hands across a keyboard. "A prayer is supposed to have a consequence for you," said Elizabeth Drescher, a lecturer at Santa Clara University in California. "It's not an act of magic." Gervais, an ardent foe of organized religion, was more caustic. After MTV tweeted that pop stars Beyonce, Rihanna and Katy Perry are sending their prayers to Oklahoma, Gervais responded, “I feel like an idiot now … I only sent money.” Gervais and other atheists also kick-started a counter-trend, using the hashtag #ActuallyDoSomethingForOklahoma. “If all people are doing is praying, it is worthless,” Hemant Mehta, an Illinois math teacher who writes the blog “Friendly Atheist,” told CNN. “If they are praying and donating to the Red Cross, that’s more like it.” Mehta is promoting a group called Foundation Beyond Belief that aims to provide a humanist response to crises like the Oklahoma tornado. The prayer debate spilled into other social media sites as well, with commenters on CNN’s Facebook page sparring over God’s role in Monday’s destructive whirlwind. According to Oklahoma officials, 24 people have died, many more are injured, and once-orderly streets look likes foretastes of the apocalypse. In response to a woman who said she was praying for the victims, Facebook commenter Peter Tongue replied, “If prayer works, there wouldn’t be a disaster like this in the first place .... so please keep your religion to yourself.” But believers had their say as well. “God is still in control!” said Wilbur Dugger, a commenter on CNN’s Facebook page. “Everything (God) does is to get our attention. … My sympathy and prayers go out to those who get caught up in his demonstrations of (God) ruling the world.” The social-media sparring over prayer and God’s will reflect a culture in which traditional notions of religion - and the places where people talk about faith - are changing faster than a Twitter feed, said Drescher, the Santa Clara lecturer. “We’re watching people re-articulate what it means to be spiritual and religious,” she said. Just a few years ago, for example, no one knew what a hashtag was. Now the “#PrayFor...” meme appears after almost every national and international tragedy. But what exactly does it mean? Is the tweeting multitude really folding its hands in prayer, or is it a fleeting expression of existential angst? Or maybe just a trendy thing to say? “It seems to express hope and anxiety, and maybe even helplessness,” Drescher said. “At the same time, it evokes this strong response from people who see it as a cop-out, a way of claiming some kind of spiritual space that doesn’t actually have any meaning to the people who are posting the meme or the community they are addressing.” Traditionally, prayer has required something of the pray-er: an orientation toward reverence, a readiness to act, Drescher continued. “You are meant to do something - and that something may not be an easy thing.” Slapping a hashtag at the end of a tweet doesn’t meet that standard, the scholar said. The Rev. David Johnson of St. Andrew’s United Methodist Church in Oklahoma City said the prayerful tweets mean something to him - even if he’s been too busy to read them. Since Monday, St. Andrew’s has become a Red Cross command post and reunion site for families to find loved ones caught in the tornado’s path. The tragedy has also touched the congregation itself, with homes, and some lives, lost on Tuesday, Johnson said. Told of the Twitter prayers, Johnson said, “that’s awesome.” “People feel helpless - like God called them to do something but they don’t know what. That’s where prayer comes in.” Johnson said his church appreciates the many material donations coming its way: the generator sent by a lady from Arkansas, the food and water sent from neighboring towns. But they also solicit, and are happy to receive, the many prayers recited - or tweeted - on their behalf, he said. “We’ve seen quite a lot of trauma in the last day,” Johnson said. “Obviously, people are going to ask why God allows tornadoes to happen. That’s just part of this world. God doesn’t promise us that bad things won’t happen, he promises to help us get through it. That’s what prayer helps us do.” soundoff (3,515 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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I contribute to society, unlike you atheist losers. I'll go to a community college soon and be raking in th big bucks while you losers are living in your mother's basement.
How old are you? You sound like you're a kid who is still working at Mickey D's.
You've been here the whole day, AMoron. I just now got home from work and you've been on here braying like the ass you are for who knows how long. Certainly, you've been on here more today than I have.
Get a life yourself.
Woo community college. Make those big bucks with that associates degree!
YOU have bean posting hear all day, you loser. Weak atheists loser.
It's the loser who sole my post agian. He's a loser who hides behind an alias.
Moron, When you get to college do pay attention and get an education.
you must be an atheist trying to make believers look bad.
you dont quote enough scripture to be that crazy and a believer.
The Christian God is weak and dying out rather quite rapidly. It is most enjoyable to watch.
Moron, you don't know the difference between "hear" and "here"? And you're going to community college? I think you should finish grade school and high school first.
with a winner like you, I would think community college would be beneath you. But they take anyone so the place is fitting for you.
From an atheist point of view, what could be more natural then death and disaster?
It is the very driving force of evolution. Why should atheists care? Have this intellectual honesty
to carry your worldview all the way to its logical end. If there is no God – life is meaningless and absurd...
chemicals smashing into chemicals.
Repent and believe the gospel.
I think I'll just stick to my critical thinking skills.
Do you know any atheists in real life, or are you just assuming? Most atheists here seem quite happy with their lives and don't find them to be meaningless at all. They value life because they believe that when they die, that's it; therefore, life in the present is all the more precious.
I feel more comfortable, certainly safer, around people who look to each other and toward the well-being of society for purpose and meaning in their lives than people who imagine it will all be revealed to them by their imaginary friends Jesus and the Father God.
Our lives are MORE meaningful than yours because this is the only life we will ever have. What we do MATTERS. You believe this world is just the opening credits of an eternity of sitting with all your best mates at the feet of Jesus. So, really what does it matter to you if people die, it is all God's will and part of his plan, right? And again, it really does not matter because you will see everyone again.
For us, everything matters. There is no God granted absolution. The mistakes I make, I have to work to fix and live with the rest of my life. If I don't make something right with a loved one and they die, I have to live with that the rest of my life.
We don't believe in a Sky Director and the After Party, where all the characters come back to life. How we love, how we treat people, and how we make the world a better place for our kids and grandkids, matters to us, immensely.
"One Nation under God with liberty and justice for all"
That was forced during the 50's bub.
and that is why America will continue to go to your hell. Should have never messed with the founding father's dreams for the country. The theists messed it up.
They want to take our freedom of speech and religion away we can't let them
@moon monkey7
You said, "They want to take our freedom of speech and religion away we can't let them"
You are free to remain as blissfully ignorant as you choose. You are free to have as many imaginary friends as you like. Pointing out how completely moronic that is, isn't taking away your right to your religion. Pointing out how utterly useless it is to pray doesn't take away your right to do it.
The days that everyone accepts your delusion as normal are over. Better get used to it. Expect sane people to point out how irrational it is to believe. What you do with that information is entirely up to you.
go run to your mommy
If evolution was true – shouldn't some of the debris have reassembled into a perfect 20-story condo?
Your lack of understanding of evolution is appalling. And, judging by your apparent intelligence level, probably uncorrectible.
you're just being funny? im still laughing
Actually, his observation and position have merit. Being an atheist and fully embracing evolution, you hold the position that the original occurrence of life on earth was an accident, a chance chemical reaction that resulted in spectacular order being derived from chaos. If you truly embrace science and logic as most of you claim, then you must recognize the concept of entropy, and that systems naturally move toward disorder. So, all of the diverse life on earth, the construction of DNA from four nucleides and the complex systems in animals like the central nervous system are all products of accidents and further adaptations. So accept his argument that it would be possible in the chaos of the storm that all of those elements could possibly reassemble, ny accident, into a new and complete structure.
Given enough time, all the pieces *might* fall into place, but that would have nothing to do with evolution.
I wouldn't expect any less from a theist to actually have an IQ...thank you for confirmation of that fact
@ Winston, I love you.
@ Leslie – I love you. too.
funny how this all started because we used our freedom of speech and religion continue to do so fellow Christians because it is a right that cannot be taken away
Punctuation, monkey? Use it, it's your friend.
go picket with your Westboro friends. They practice their freedom of speech all the time.
"If a calamity occurs in a city has not the Lord done it?" Amos 3:6
The fastest growing "religious or non-religious" group in the States are referred to as the "unaffiliated" at 17%. Mathematicians have predicted that within 100 years religious groups will be a very small minority. Each day more and more parents are refusing to indoctrinate their children with the same nonsense that they were subjected to when they were children. It won't be long until the maniacs no longer have an asylum to control.
Voltaire (1694 – 1778) once predicted that there would be no Bibles in the world within 100 years. Today, Voltaire's former house is a Bible bookstore in France. (Yes – God has a sense of humor)
If all you athiest don't believe in God, then why do you hate Him so much?
Because the concept is so utterly idiotic that it's holding humanity back.
We don't hate god, bubba. He doesn't exist so there's nothing to hate. Is that concept a little too complex for you?
replace the word "him" with "religion" and you will have a rational question.
@Bubba
Those atheists losers can't answer that question, they don't have the mental capacity to answer such a question.
can't hate something you don't believe in. We just mock the followers of the flying spaghetti monster.
Being an atheist and hating a God or gods is like...hating a television show, that does not exist.
To those who do not believe in God, and want every religious object in public gone: IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T LOOK AT IT. It's that SIMPLE. How hard is that for non believers to understand??????
Because tragedies like this contradict the supposed all benevolent nature of your specific desert deity.
To those that do believe in a god, please keep your scriptures and holy trinkets and baubles inside your places of worship so that those who do not believe will not have to look at something that offends them daily.
Not hard to understand at all. You do understand though that if you display your silly beliefs in public, you shouldn't be surprised when someone points out how silly you are, don't you?
this is just a theoretical , if.
if hindu's migrated here in mass and became the majority and voted hindu's in office. then they changed the laws
and put the monkey god inplace of your idols. would you be ok with that? why do that to anyone?
To those that didn't get it the first time: IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T LOOK AT IT! Just like music, if you don't like it, don't listen to it (want music you don't like banned, too?). Just like a movie, if you don't like it, don't go to it (want movies you don't like banned, too?) Just like a TV show, if you don't like it, don't watch it (want TV shows you don't like banned too?).
Nope, don't want to ban anything to do with free speech, but just as there are book, movie and music critics who point out the good and bad, I reserve the right to comment on religion. So again, believe what you wish, but don't be surprised if a public performance gets a negative review. Do you get it this time?
@Deb Ed
You said, "To those who do not believe in God, and want every religious object in public gone: IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, DON'T LOOK AT IT. It's that SIMPLE."
You are free to display your ignorance on your private property, funded by your own resources. You are not free to have public funds or resources be used for your delusion.
You said, "How hard is that for non believers to understand??????"
How hard is it for believers to grasp that, while they are free to believe whatever nonsense they want, their silly beliefs belong in their homes and churches, and not, under any circumstance, in public.
If you want to believe in the Tooth Fairy, and proclaim so publicly, be prepared to be told that you are a couple of fries short of a Happy Meal.
simple answer......Separation of church and state.
My life partner and I laugh when you atheists support our right to marry. We still think you are losers.
Are you kidding me?! So I'm an atheist, and I support gay marriage...but you don't accept my support? Clearly your GOD doesn't support you, but that's OK?
When Jesus wrote the bible, he never said anything about gays, but he hated atheists.
@AtheistsMorons
By using my Alias to post shows that atheists are really losers and weak. If you can't post underneath your real Alias then it means you need to go to bed it's getting late for you kiddo.
@Bree
It's not me posting about gays, it's one of your atheists losers who is too coward to use his own Alias and used mine instead..
You do realize that Christianity is the single factor not allowing gay marriage right? And before you say go get a job, your responses on here are causing atheism to look better and better while demonizing your own religion.
Any idiot would know I wouldn't post about gays. I've been out and happy for years.
Billy, you get off of this blog right now!
You sure don't sound happy...
Hey Sam stop using my Alias you atheist loser. Time for you to go to bed moron.
I wonder how many of the adults who were killed by the tornado were praying as they died. Most of them I would bet. Does no one find that ironic?
Logic, reason, and rational thought have nothing in common with religion.
The gulf is wide and deep and Jesus is the cheese on the other side waiting for the mouse. Jump on and swim or drown in the milk. The kittens tipped the litter-box over in the freezer and had to be extracted. Laugh all the way to the oven prideful atheists.
Amen.
Religious faith is nothing more than vanity disguised as piousness and virtue.
If I thought it would do any good I'd pray that all these religious zealots in the world would keep their religious beliefs to themselves and stop trying to ram it up everyone else's back sides.
I have a better suggestion, instead of praying, just go get a job and life and find something else to do other than losing your time here nights and days annoying people with your atheist cult views.
AtheistsMorons is like an expanding vaginal insert without a string.
"Only fools are without strings. They will rot where they remain." – me
How old are you? I mean really.
@atheistsmorons
a cult? like human sacrifice? doesnt religion say that specific human sacrifice worked? and then rezzed?
@Topcat
You should get a job, you know working a little won't kill you.
At least this survivor isn't thanking the "Lord".
http://www.youtube.com/watch?d&v=0LP3Zs_V_BQ
the moron guy gets real excited over talk of gays because its dark in that closet and boring and stinky
I am over 9000 quadrillion years old, you stupid mortal! Cross me and I'll send a woman on PMS your way!!!!
"AMEN!"
Do you atheists morons have anything else to do instead of posting idiocies.
It doesn't appear that you have the intellectual capacity to being calling someone else a moron.
It doesn't appear that you have the intellectual capacity to go get a job and a life you loser.
Are you a mind reader or stalker to know who has and has not a job and life?
School must have let out. How sad. Children should remain in school and banned from the internet until they are 18.
You don't need a PhD or super natural power to notice that for the past 6 months every time i come here either it be in the morning before leaving for my work or at dinner time or in the evening before going to bed, to see those same atheists morons annoying people on every religious blogs. People can't come here anymore talking about what they believes in without being pestered by those parasites.
Are you STILL here? I just now got home from my job. When I left earlier today, you were here moaning and whining about people being here all day, every day, and here you are still.
Why don't you get a job, move out of your mom's basement, and get on with finding somewhere else to troll?
Christ himself commanded you to be companionate and turn the other cheek .
What part of "Christ commanded you" don't you understand?
Jesus also said to his disciples, go and cast away demons.
Really AtheistsMorons – and did he write it in English....idiot.
Kettle, is that you?
-Pot
Before I received the Lord into my life I would pray occasionally, but it was really more of a ritual, nothing more. After I received Christ wow, I wanted to talk to God all the time. "Pray without ceasing" and "cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you" are two popular verses that say it all for me. I have seen countless answers to prayer over the years. Now, I cannot imagine a day without communing with God. PTL He is indeed, the God of all confort.
you need to go get some human friends, you come across like a shut-in. rather sad 🙁
If I live my life as a believer and God doesn't exist, then I will have lived my life with good morals and I will end up in the ground. I would be perfectly fine with that.
But if I lived my life a nonbeliever and God ended up existing then I should probably get the lube ready for the pitchfork that's about to get stuck in my rear...
On another note, terrible forum to try and promote atheism. There is a time and place, but typically it is my fellow Christians who are poorly arguing the topic with atheists. This time around the Christians are using words only to support Oklahoma, not dump on atheism.
Pretty cool way to look at it. I'm not necessarily a believer, but this is definitely the most logical way of looking at it..
Which god are you going to believe in, Jake? You might pick the wrong one, you know.
That's a great question. When I pray, I pray to whoever is listening. If no one is listening, then shoot, I was merely talking to myself. But I think prayer is worth the chance that someone is listening.
Jake is destined to be a prophet for me, because he is a douche-bag.
His name means "toilet", the holiest thing as I declare it to be so.
Jake will be my Holy D-Bag™
He has already pleased me greatly so far.
Another indecisive victim for Pascal's wager.
theists kill me...they actually think they have morals! bahahahaha
75,000 peeps praying to the God that just smashed a state in, seems like a good time to talk about that God. Its like if your community sanitation crew came in and bashed in your neighborhood. Then 75,000 people tweeted to the very same sanitation crew to please help you.
Prayers count. Let's all pray for the dead and surviving people in OKC. I'll do 10 Hail Mary's,then a Rosary. Things won't get right there, but it will get better. I'll also say some of those same prayers for those of you who do not care to. Say a prayer to make yourself and others feel a bit better. Prayer is a good thing, no matter who you pray to. R/Dan
Could you do 20 Hail Marys? Or just record it on a tape loop and let it run overnight. Maybe you could use several tape loops. After all, the more Hail Marys the better. And do it in several languages just in case.
I pray for our nation
my invisible pink unicorn is praying that cindy lou who gets a clue
prayer changes things......
yes, and magic is real and so is my invisible pink unicorn
Like what?
Hi Prayerbot.
cindy lou, you are not using the proper menstrual supplies.
I suggest you pray for intercession (because I can't listen to you when you're like this) to Midol™, Saint of STFU™
No, I don't listen to anyone. Talk to the hand and STFU
prayers are like going SHlT.... both create crap