Feel helpless in a situation? Nothing you can do yourself at all really is there? Never fear because some deity (that didn’t prevent whatever event this is from happening) will definitely fix it from your prayers. I mean even omnipotent gods have bad days in the office right? Thankfully, the human race has exclusively found a way around this by means of a ‘customer complaint service’ or prayers if you like. If life is not unfolding in the way that is most favourable to you, then of course it should all be be changed by divine intervention without any actual effort on your part.

This rant will heavily make reference to Christian ideology, mainly because in Ireland it’s shoved down your throat from the first day of school. It should be thought more from an educational point of view that teaches every religion instead of Alive-O. Perhaps, not have the parish priest come around quizzing children about God in addition. Even in secondary school where you have the option of learning about other religions, our class was forced to learn about Christianity because our education system is sound like that! I mightn’t have acquired a vast amount of usable life skills from school, but at least I know the gifts of the holy spirit and every prayer off by heart. Those are invaluable assets to have! Hopefully they’ve changed this since my day, since we have a lot of people of different nationalities and ideologies in our population.

Prayers don’t do anything, people! I’m going to throw that one out there straight away! Praying is simply a coping mechanism for people when they can’t deal with reality. Albeit, mostly a selfish act whether the utiliser is aware of this or not. It solely serves as a way to comfort the person undertaking the act. Now, I’m not able to say that there is no form of deity, but it doesn’t prevent any of us from seeing clear flaws in these religious traditions. Now, I can already hear the pitch forks and torches at the ready, if you can stop clutching your rosary beads for two seconds please hear me out.

”When you pray to God, he either fixes the problem or gives you strength to get through the problem”

I remember this line from religion in school so strongly that I can still see the page of the book in front of me. Isn’t this some massive cop out on religion’s part? How are people so blind and so accepting of this? Literally covering every eventuality that could possibly occur and all the credit goes to a deity. How convenient…

It’s all part of God’s plan, God works in mysterious ways, God’s teaching us a lesson yada yada yada… Give me a break! If you were born in another time period you could be sacrificing people for a good crop yield! Attributing the outcome to the value of your sacrifices. Now that we understand things such as the earth revolving around the sun, what dictates crop yield etc… religion has moved more towards a more moral perspective.

Whether you pray or not, the eventuality occurs. SHOCK, FUCKING, HORROR! The one that annoys me the most is praying to win a competition, whether it be sport or a scratchcard. So let’s get this straight… you want whatever deity it is you think that exists to give you specific treatment. Above the billions of their other creations that they’re supposed to love equally? Seems legit! God will make one person feel like shit for losing so you can feel good about yourself. I guess the other person should’ve prayed a bit harder then. Oh wait hold on, the eventuality! One person was going to win at some point. Or in a broader perspective… THERE IS ALWAYS AN OUTCOME… and attributing this to an all powerful being is a bit ignorant.

Don’t worry, an omnipotent religious figure will with 100% certainty take time out of its busy schedule of not giving a flying fuck about any real tragedies happening and make sure you win a sports game or contest! Forget about all the people dying with incurable illnesses, murders, massacres due to fire-arms, people getting raped, innocent children/people being molested or abused and people suffering every day due to being born into poverty by chance. All that matters is you in this scenario. Whether you like it or not, you’re arrogant for thanking ‘God’ or whoever you wish for making something happen for you while indescribable horrors are happening to people all over the world. You may be thankful for what you have, but that’s just because you happened to be born exactly where you are. Coincidentally, your religion also depends on where you were born. I’m just going to let that one sink in… You benefit from your circumstance, while a person born in a very impoverished area of the world is a victim of circumstance. Figured out how unfair that is yet?

And if you’re still struggling:

For more check out https://www.facebook.com/memeswithoutgod/

I’m not saying God doesn’t exist (that’s an entirely different rant which I’m not getting into now) but if such a divine entity does exist, it is nothing more than a person playing a game of The Sims. Knowingly giving some people nothing but luxury, killing the maid out of pleasure and fucking up peoples lives just to watch it play out. A deity like that should be impeached and not given unconditional obedience and respect. Don’t give me the whole God can’t interfere with free will and therefore can’t answer prayers argument. That’s another cop out with religion. Miscarriages? Foetal red blood cell antigens that are foreign the mother’s immune system can invoke a maternal immune response that can be fatal to a foetus? Children murdered or raped? I’m using the example of a foetus/child as it has yet to ‘sin’ in the world and it’s a bit ridiculous that some master creator lets these thing happen. Yet, ye pray to these supposed almighty beings asking for it all to be resolved.

Stop praying and do something that’s actually valuable. If a tragedy happens, go donate money to a relief fund, donate to medical research or donate some blood! Do something tangible, something that can be felt. It may unnerve some people to know that lighting a candle for someone won’t change a thing… You know what would help? a helping hand or more of an effort to make sure an unfavourable possibility doesn’t come into fruition! Stop thanking some deity for eventualities that came out in your favour! As you can be sure that it didn’t work in someone else’s. No one was watching over you, that’s how it happened! So give yourselves some credit people. If you did well in an exam, you may have prepared very well for it or in some cases got lucky while winging it. Katie Taylor does not win because of God or her love of God… she wins because of the amount of training and hard work she puts into her passion, God has nothing to do with winning a boxing match!

Now, everyone is free to practice their own religion, it really doesn’t bother me whether a person thinks that God created the universe or that a turtle carries the world on its back. However, you should question everything! Stop being indoctrinated by your environment and think everything out logically! If you’re religious, then go for it. At least give out to your chosen deity for doing a shitty job and acknowledge this! Don’t attribute it ignorantly to God’s plan.

Now go in peace to love and serve the Lord, since he didn’t decide to put you in a situation where you’ll undergo severe mental and physical detriment just cause He felt like it!

Yours logically,

JD