Confessions of a Recovering Pharisee

[CNN]
Hordes of atheists are commenting on yesterday’s post from a Catholic priest who says Christians should pray for the cancer-stricken Christopher Hitchens, even if he is an enemy of religion. Far from being touched by the priest’s gesture, the atheists are mostly offended:

As an atheist, I find it objectionable that anyone should feel the right to pray for me because I don’t believe as they do. That’s as bad as that idiot church who thinks its a good idea to baptize dead Jews or protest at military funerals. It’s the worst kind of pandering.

Here’s another:

There have been multiple scientific studies that show that prayer does not have any impact on whether someone is cured of a serious illness. It’s time Christians just stopped worrying about people that don’t believe in their sky god. Atheists don’t care if you pray for them, your god does not exist.

Read more here.

[From me]

Help me understand something. If a person is an atheist, then they don’t believe in God, right? So, it would be a safe assumption that they don’t believe in prayer, right? So why would someone be offended by people praying to a God that they don’t believe in?

What do you think?

[Fox News]
They are not exactly Cain and Abel, but theologically and philosophically Christopher and Peter Hitchens are just as divided as the brothers of the Old Testament.

Christopher Hitchens, 61, author of the bestselling book “God is Not Great,” is one of the world’s best-known atheists. Peter Hitchens, two years younger, is not as well-known, but he is also an author, and a devout member of the Church of England.

Estranged for years until very recently, the Hitchens brothers have just released books within days of each other.

Christopher’s book is his memoir, titled “Hitch 22.”

Peter’s book, as well, is a memoir of sorts. “The Rage Against God: How Atheism Led Me to Faith” chronicles his journey from radical atheist to faithful servant of God, and in so doing has put into written form his ongoing heated debate with his brother.

Peter says of Christopher, “He dislikes anybody believing in what he describes as the supernatural.”

Peter also has no illusions that his faith may have any profound influence on his brother.

“Part of my reasons for writing this book was not to get my brother to get to the altar, or to get him to be a Christian, which I think is a sort of a ridiculous and hopeless task certainly beyond me,” he writes. “What I did want him to do was to stop the hostility and sneering that faith is possible.”

Read more here.

[From me]

I’ll bet they have fun holidays together!

[The Ledger.com]

The Lakeland City Commission is being challenged on its policy of beginning its meetings with prayer, part of an effort by a state atheist organization that is targeting the practice at other city councils in the region. City leaders cannot recall the practice ever being challenged before, and they may be facing an ongoing controversy with the atheists, including the possibility of legal action.

Read more here.

[From me]

If you don’t believe in God why would you care if someone prayed?

[KTNV]

Atheism has launched a Christmas ad campaign and it’s raising eyebrows.

“If I had a ladder I would have climbed up there and pulled it down myself,” says Brenda Kempf, who saw a ‘Yes Virginia… there is no God’ billboard on her way home from work.

“I’m a Christian, I believe in God, and I didn’t like it. I just didn’t appreciate it,” says Kempf.

The sign is a play on a famous newspaper editorial from 1897 when an 8 year-old girl named Virginia wrote the New York Sun asking if there was a Santa Claus and an editorialist responded ‘Yes Virginia, there is a Santa Claus.’

But Kempf doesn’t appreciate the latest incarnation.

“It gave the impression that Santa Claus was telling the children that there was no God,” says Kempf. “I was appalled.”

Clear Channel owns the billboards and removed that Santa version after just a few days, citing too many complaints. But two other ads, ‘Reason’s Greetings’ and ‘Heathen’s Greetings,’ have been allowed to stay.

Richard Hermsen is the local man behind the billboards. He says the signs are meant to make people question, not cause offense.

“People that drive by who have an open mind may think to themselves, maybe I should question some of my dogmatic beliefs,” says Hermsen.

Read more here.

[From me]

I still don’t get what purpose there is to get someone to “NOT” believe in something. If a person doesn’t believe then don’t believe. Why make such a big deal about it.

What do you think?