Ermintruder
The greatest risk is to risk nothing at all...
- Joined
- Jul 13, 2013
- Messages
- 6,208
There appears to be quite a well-funded media campaign (advertising posters and online) centred around the phrase /tagline 'TryPraying' (or 'trypraying').
See http://www.trypraying.co.uk
What I find odd about this it's a Christian religious group's attempt to deliberately-attract atheists and sceptics into religion via a seven-day personal bootcamp of experiencing the purported power of praying to the God of Judeo-Christian tradition.
I'm going to call this movement pseudo-rationalised covert evangelism.
I feel the whole concept is a disturbing blend of self-parody and misdirection.
It uses a deliberately-understated communication style to make what are some outrageously-flawed claims (in addition to the implicit 'miracles in a week or a full refund')
It's Atheist reprogramming background material starts off with a statement that I'm broadly in support of...
.....but it then goes off into some of the most self-indulgent religious circularities ever possible. In particular, I love the last sentence in the paragraph below:
It continues with an astounding unassailable assertion:
I find the whole 'TryPraying' movement humourously horrifying, and would welcome some opinions from the Forum.
See http://www.trypraying.co.uk
What I find odd about this it's a Christian religious group's attempt to deliberately-attract atheists and sceptics into religion via a seven-day personal bootcamp of experiencing the purported power of praying to the God of Judeo-Christian tradition.
I'm going to call this movement pseudo-rationalised covert evangelism.
I feel the whole concept is a disturbing blend of self-parody and misdirection.
It uses a deliberately-understated communication style to make what are some outrageously-flawed claims (in addition to the implicit 'miracles in a week or a full refund')
It's Atheist reprogramming background material starts off with a statement that I'm broadly in support of...
Who would want to believe, when the facts are lacking and the results are negative? Q.E.D. It’s nonsense. The whole faith thing is a man-made invention for people who can’t face facts, a fairy tale invented by people who are afraid of the dark.
.....but it then goes off into some of the most self-indulgent religious circularities ever possible. In particular, I love the last sentence in the paragraph below:
Atheists frequently say much more than ‘I don’t believe’. It’s often a positive assertion: ‘There is no God.’ (Not all atheists would say that, some are less convinced saying just that they don’t belive in God.) But do the ‘convinced’ atheists have a solid factual basis informing their view? What is the evidence for God’s non-existence?
It continues with an astounding unassailable assertion:
It may be someone’s conviction that God doesn’t exist, but it cannot be their knowledge. In order to be sure there is no God one has to have searched, not just planet earth, but the whole of the universe literally, physically and metaphysically, and with complete certainty say, there is no trace of God anywhere. Clearly such a search is impossible. It requires a knowledge base beyond comprehension for any person or persons.
I find the whole 'TryPraying' movement humourously horrifying, and would welcome some opinions from the Forum.