Rise of atheism: 100,000 Brits seek 'de-baptism'

[Sqrl]

WessleWoggle said:

If (an all knowing) god exists, nothing we do matters because we're just part of the imagination of a self existant being, make sense Sqrl?

I also do think prayers are a literal requests. From my experience in church, people who pray hope god will magically change the circumstances in their lifes with his magic god voodoo. But prayer within some groups, they prayer to listen, not to be heard. Most prayers however are selfish.

I'm very familiar with the philisophical argument of simulism.  But you are assuming that the existence of god necessarily implies that we are imagined and not actually existant. The assumption cannot be made because we have no direct knowledge of the nature of reality.

As for prayer I would ask if the people who have selfish prayers then sit and wait for god to perform these miracles while doing nothing to help themselves?  I think you should refer to my last address to this point:

People who sit around waiting for god to show up and do things for them wait a very long time, and no religion actually advocates this idea which is truly where your argument stumbles.  There may be misguided followers who would follow this indolent path to failure and then look to place the blame for their failure anywhere but themselves but if you intend to hold up these people as an example you should note that your original argument was a broad one and focused on god and thus religion as whole, not individuals who fail to exercise free will.

The discussion is a broad one dealing with god and religions so the abuse of prayer by individuals isn't relevant.  There is a difference between praying and hoping that the prayer is answered and praying expecting that god is required to answer it simply because you prayed.  Further you only used part of what I said, what I said was:

"The concept of prayer as a literal request with an expectation of entitled fulfillment is woefully inaccurate to put it mildly."

The bolded bit is the portion to focus on.  I'm not saying people aren't making a request on god, I'm saying they aren't making a request and believing that god must answer it as if it were his sole purpose.  The comparison is made because the original reason the issue was raised was a comparison of prayer to government entitlement programs by Manus.