Warning! Snarky, sacrilegious post. Easily butt-hurt Evangelicals should not read this post lest they lose their religion.
Prayer . . .
Evangelicals talk a lot about prayer. However, when pressed on their claims, ultimately they will appeal to faith to justify their claims. Never answered are questions such as:
- Who is God? Yes, there’s more than one.
- How do you know God answered your prayer?
- What evidence do you have for God answering your prayer that can’t be explained any other way?
- How do you know your answered prayer is due to anything other than luck, chance, or some sort of human intervention?
When pressed, Evangelicals appeal to their peculiar interpretations of the Bible and personal experiences. Evidence for their claims is never given outside of appeals to faith. You would think that a prayer-answering God would want everyone to know he answers prayers. Instead, God hides behind subjective experiences and claims of faith.
Let’s put this idea to the test.
Go to the grocery store and buy yourself a premium baked potato — one that weighs one pound. The next time you get the urge to pray, hold the potato above your head and pray, asking the Great Potato to hear and answer your prayer. Do this every time you want to pray for thirty days.
At the end of the test period honestly ask yourself:
- How many prayers did the Great Potato say YES to?
- How many prayers did the Great Potato say NO to?
- How many prayers did the Great Potato say MAYBE to?
- How many prayers did the Great Potato say curly fries or shoestring?
Here’s what you will find: there’s no difference between the Evangelical deity and the Great Potato when it comes to answering prayer. Answered prayers are solely the result of circumstance or chance — no God (or potato) needed.
During the deconversion process, my partner, Polly, and I gave a careful accounting of our prayers. We concluded that we could give a human, natural explanation for every one of our answered prayers save for a couple of unexplained circumstances. The paucity of supernaturally answered prayers led us to conclude that God does not answer prayers; that most of our answered petitions were either answered by self or other people. We might as well have been praying to a potato as God for as much good as it did.
Bruce Gerencser, 67, lives in rural Northwest Ohio with his wife of 46 years. He and his wife have six grown children and thirteen grandchildren. Bruce pastored Evangelical churches for twenty-five years in Ohio, Texas, and Michigan. Bruce left the ministry in 2005, and in 2008 he left Christianity. Bruce is now a humanist and an atheist.
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The Great Potato sounds really cool. But I think I’ll stick with the Flying Spaghetti Monster.😏
Around 2015 and reading this blog, I think it was a random comment about prayer, Bruce that tipped me over the edge that I’d been teetering on for months into deconverting. You wrote that you and Polly sat down to review answers to prayer, and could find less than five. I woke up today to a FB message from an acquaintance, her church is opening this evening for folk to go and engage in ‘silent prayer’ for the riots happening in the UK. I might reply that maybe her god’s been too busy this week watching the Olympics to notice the horrible suffering these riots are causing. He’s sure been conspicuous by his absence as ever was!
Bruce – First, positive thoughts to you regarding health and how you are feeling today.
Notice I did not say ‘Prayers”.
While I find when Christians say: I am praying for you or prayers for you, typically I see it as a gesture of good will.
But being an atheist myself, and do not believe in “prayer” one iota, I prefer to offer those seeking comfort the words, well wishes or positive thoughts.
When I went to church with my family, (I quit when one of the Church Deacons was screwing my wife and I found out about it), I found going to the front, and having the preacher or “prayer committe” put hands on, and pray, for whatever was bothering one, to be somewhat profound and emotionally impactful. So I will give the “Church” a
“plus” mark for that ritual.
But what really gets my goat is when a plane crashes, or a tsunami, earthquake or tornado wipes folks out, survivors talk about an “answered prayer”, or glory be to God. Hmmmm………on closer examination where was “God” when all the others around the survivors were Killed, Seriously Injured, Lost their Home or Livelihood? I just SMH.
Thank you for posting, I find your site to be informative, inspirational, and a guide to negotiating the minefields of “religous faith”.
At least I can eat the potato. Potatoes are quite versatile – they are delicious if baked and topped with some salt and fat (like butter and/or sour cream), they are delicious if coated in oil and seasonings and roasted, they are delicious if cut and deep fried in fat and salt, they are delicious if peeled, boiled, mashed, and pureed with milk, butter and salt……I could go on. Potatoes can satiate hunger or cravings. Maybe they are an answer to a prayer, but only in the correct circumstances – meaning, they and other ingredients are available, along with a knowledgeable chef who can prepare them into a tasty treat.
Potatoes have certainly provided me with more than any invisible deities have.
I’m reminded of my eldest Sister who used to pray “Give us this day our daily bread and our daily potatoes” I hope this didn’t get her condemned to heck. Regarding praying to the potato, I can’t recommend it even as an experiment, considering that repetition has power to re-wire the mind and probably facilitates indoctrination. Perhaps, Bruce, consider retracting that idea lest you become known as the instigator of the Bruce Gerencser potato cult.
(But seriously) I’m reminded of Joseph Campbell’s “The Power of Myth” which I recommend. It may explain what makes religion so addictive for some people.
The Great Potato. Sounds like the one Linus would wait for on Thanksgiving. In the most sincere potato field, of course. 🥔😹
That potato looks so good. It reminds nds me of those stuffed potatoes from Wendy’s, where you could put your toppings of choice on. I don’t know if they still have that menu item. I hope so.