So, I was dropping off meals for my parents;

Mom was in the phone relating a story from when I I was a kid. The short version is we had gone into a ditch while traveling cross country. It was icy. We were going slow enough for the average conditions but for whatever reason, they weren’t salting ~1000ft of highway- we saw the city plows getting on at the same exit the county plows were getting off, leaving a gap.

In any case, my mom related the story as if the tow truck that came out was some kind of miracle, and just happened to be going by, etc.

No. We had a cell phone and AAA roadside. Dad called for service.

Personally I don't find big issue with praying but kids should not be exposed to this sort of mentality. It's frankly insane that we allow religious indoctrination for children.

Trust me, when they suggest using your superior intellect to get back at the angry oversized bully, they don't really mean it.

I think prayer is practice deferring to authority and resignation to one's fate as an obedient peon.

To me praying looks like a way to pretend that you did something while actually you didn't do anything. Very convinient but it won't do anything.

i'm not religious and i'm not doing it, but i think praying also has a psychological aspect that should not be underestimated. you take some dedicated time to reflect on your current problems, what you want in life and the people around you, possibly just before going to sleep so your subconscious can digest everything over night and might give you a different angle.

typing all of that, i realise i should start doing my own form of non-religious praying o_O

Fun fact: You can actually tell if someone is religious by an mri.

The part of the brain that deals with critical thinking shrinks due to lack of use.

While I don't believe in any religion, there is a relevant story in the christian bible. I'll be writing from memory, because I cannot be bothered to search for it:

There where two coachman travelling on an old bumpy road. Both of them broke their axle an could not continue to the next market. One of them was a firm believer, so he sunk to his knees and started to pray to god to fix his axle so he could reach the market in time. The other coachman jumped of his cart while cursing like a sailor. He copped down a small tree from the nearby woods and made an improvised axle, all while shouting and yelling indiscriminately about his bad luck. Who do you think received more help from god?

Any day now, magical sky man will solve all my problems!

Give up control so others can take it.

Ramen!

Nice ChatGPT meme

If prayers don't work, then where are all the school shootings? Oh...