Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
Not wanting to participate is both respect for one's own position, whether atheist or another religion,
Atheism is NOT a religion. It's not a belief system. It is a lack of belief in gods. That's ALL.

and respect for the religion doing the praying. It means you take that seriously too, that it is not unimportant flim-flam.
I disagree. Personally, I DO think prayer is unimportant flim-flam. As a means for getting what one wants it is tantamount to writing a letter to Santa Claus. True, prayer has been shown to have a calming effect on some people, similar to meditation, or taking a deep breath, or counting to ten. And such an effect can help people's bodies to, for example, fight off diseases more efficiently. Just like meditation. Or rest. Or soothing music.

But the prayer I argue against is those prayers which are inserted into governmental procedures, or public meetings by government entities (such as public schools). These prayers are prohibited by the Constitution of the United States, yet Christians (especially) insist that we are violating THEIR right to freedom of religion because we don't want them pushing their prayers into such venues! Or that they are being persecuted because they are ejected from a meeting for disrupting the meeting by "spontaneously" rising in prayer, loud and long.

As usual, these "followers of Jesus" have cherry-picked their beliefs, only following the rules that they agree with. They ignore the statement from Matthew 6:5-6:
"And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly."

In other words, keep it in church, and in your heart, where it belongs.