When Prayer Fails...

So, I was playing catch-up on the many blogs I subscribe to, and came across this particular post about prayer. Basically it talks about how evangelicals are happy to tell the tales of the miracles of prayer, but either neglect to mention the "failures", or rationalize them as "the will of God". Not only was the article interesting, but the comments that followed were equally eye-opening. The following is one of these comments, found on the Daylight Atheist blog, under the When Prayer Fails post.


Some of the Christians I know (family members, people at work) who know I'm an atheist will preface this kind of story with, "I don't care if you believe in God or not, this was a miracle!" It bugs me, because it's sort of a "shut up, that's why!" wrapped into a "I'm going to force you to listen to my (possibly insensitive/offensive/mind-numbing) testimonial story." So I have to listen politely and stay nice and mum while they go off about how clearly God's will was done, and they miraculously found their lost dog, or their house sold at an advantageous time, or their son was born on the day their grandparent died.

I don't understand how people can be so callous that they don't realize how those stories sound. They're all real examples, and they're all from people who repeatedly state that they believe that God answers all prayers - he just doesn't always say "yes" because of His Plan, etc. etc. etc. So if these occurrences are just another part of "His Plan" - just like the dogs that don't get found and the houses that don't sell - then why are they lauded as "miracles" instead of as a normal part of life? Or, conversely, why aren't the gone-forever dogs and relatives who die on non-significant dates not lauded equally as miracles, if they're part of the "Plan?"

Ugh, I want to *facepalm* just thinking about this stuff.

I particularly enjoy the visual of the *facepalm*. Hahaha.