No, this post is not about that rather silly aphorism,
'There are no atheists in foxholes.' The fact is, atheists
are to be found in foxholes.
I do, however, want to say something about prayer. Anyone can prayer---even an atheist. Listen to the first two verses of this Christian hymn by the British poet and hymn writer James Montgomery:
Prayer
is the soul’s sincere desire,
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
Unuttered or expressed;
The motion of a hidden fire
That trembles in the breast.
Prayer
is the burden of a sigh,
The falling of a tear
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
The falling of a tear
The upward glancing of an eye,
When none but God is near.
‘Prayer is the soul’s
sincere desire … unuttered or expressed.’ You don’t have to package or
formulate your words in a Christian form. You don’t even have to verbalise your
desire. Whatever be your sincere desire---whether for yourself, some other
person, or our world---that is your prayer … and a prayer.
Now, there was, in what
I quoted above, that pesky little word ‘God’. The word ‘God’, if one uses it at all,
means different things to different people. For some, there is no objective
referent at all to the word ‘God’, and I respect that position. The important
thing to keep in mind is this: ‘The word is not the thing.’ That’s something
the Indian spiritual teacher Jiddu Krishnamurti [pictured left] used to say over and
over again, and he is right. It’s the reality behind the word
that matters. In other words, don't get hung up on the word ('God'). Instead,
focus on the reality behind, and beyond, the word. Well, I hear some of you
say, what is that reality? What follows is my take on it.
Despite things
constantly coming and going, waxing and waning, there is something unending and
unceasing, something that is beyond time and space itself. It is the
ever-present spirit of life---that is, the very livingness of all life, the
essential oneness of all life, and the self-givingness of life to itself so as
to perpetuate itself. You can call that God if you like. The New Testament says that God is love. That’s pretty good.
Some also use the word ‘God’ to refer to our innate potential perfectibility as
well. That makes some sense too. The really important thing, if you choose to
believe in God at all, is to avoid believing in a tribal, cruel and nasty God.
That sort of belief is very harmful to others. The Baptist minister and theologian Dr Harry Emerson Fosdick once famously wrote, ‘Better believe
in no God than to believe in a cruel God, a tribal God, a sectarian God. Belief
in God is one of the most dangerous beliefs a man can cherish.’
Me? These days I neither
believe nor disbelieve in a traditional God. I love these words from the Jesuit priest and author Anthony de Mello SJ [pictured
right]: ‘The atheist makes the mistake of denying that of which nothing may be
said ... and the theist makes the mistake of affirming it.’ But, having said
all that, God or no God, prayer is real.
Does prayer really
change things? Well, it can change the pray-er, that is, the person praying,
and when the pray-er changes other things start to change as well. That is not
anything supernatural.
Having said all that, we
should never see ourselves as the end and God as the means to that end. Dr
Fosdick made another good point when he said, ‘God
is not a cosmic bellboy for
whom we can press a button to get things.’ I think these words from Venerable Fulton
J Sheen are also helpful: ‘We
do not pray that we may have good things; we pray rather that we may be good.’
Pray in whatever way
makes sense to you, but do more than pray. There is an Indian proverb, ‘Pray to
God but continue to row to the shore.’ (I have also seen that proverb expressed
as, ‘Call on God, but row away from the rocks.’) There is an Arab proverb that
is very similar: ‘Trust God but tie your camel.’ By all means hold on to your
desires and hopes, but you---indeed, all of us humans---must do what needs
to be done to bring about positive, lasting change in ourselves and our damaged
world.
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