MEALTIME PRAYERS. Nothing irks me more than the traditional mealtime prayer. In my area you find Evangelical Baptists and Pentecostals that pray ridiculous nonsense before they can eat their food. There is no thanking a farmer and it goes something like this:
"Father we thank you for this food and ask that you use it for the nourishment of our bodies," etc., etc. Put in all the other flowery stuff they say, but we need to think rationally. God does not use the food you eat for the nourishment of your body. Your body uses the food you eat for nourishment. That's it, plain and simple. Now let's put this prayer in perspective.
Refrigeration as we know it is fairly new to mankind. I used to work in HVAC and many parts of the world even today do not have refrigeration. In some areas you might keep food for 3 days if you keep a lid on it and keep it in a cool place. It gets worse if you imagine that you are going backward in time 2000 years and you are hungry and find some food you could eat. Imagine as well that you are religious and thankful so you might pray over this food. Only now does that ridiculous prayer of god using the food for the nourishment of your body make sense.
The many variants of the common mealtime prayer are a carryover from earlier times.
9
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
8 comments
Feel free to reply to any comment by clicking the "Reply" button.What bothers me is that it is people thanking their god for providing them with food while ignoring all the millions of people this god didn't provide with food.
This god has it made, if they have enough food "thank you god." If they don't it's due to human failings.
And, this holds true with thanking this god for anything.
Absolute rubbish!
Joanne
Level 7
Aug 12, 2021
2
In grad school, an evangelical, for reasons unknown, set his sights on converting me. About every other day in the dining hall he would bring up some religious topic and want to debate it (which would have been fine if his idea of debate wasn't "I'm right and let me explain how" ).
One evening, sitting down to dinner, he bowed his head over his plate. I did the same. He was delighted. "You're saying Grace?!" he asked.
"I'm thanking the chicken," I explained. "It gave its life, so that I may live."
Needless to say, the converting attempts screeched to a halt.
Paul4747
Level 8
Aug 12, 2021
5
I like the dinner prayer that Jimmy Stewart said in the movie Shenandoah.
MrDragon
Level 7
Aug 12, 2021
0
The prayer went like this: Lord, we cleared this land. We plowed it, sowed it, and harvest it. We cook the harvest. It wouldn't be here and we wouldn't be eating it if we hadn't done it all ourselves.
I like to say, "Pray into your right hand, and shit into your left hand. Which one fills up the fastest?"
Beowulfsfriend
Level 9
Aug 12, 2021
1
Some things will never change.
But unfortunately they are almost always bad.
CuddyCruiser
Level 8
Aug 12, 2021
1
Enjoy being online again!
Welcome to the community of good people who base their values on evidence and appreciate civil discourse - the social network you will enjoy.Create your free account
Share this post
Related Groups More
World Music
1359 members
Categories
Agnostic does not evaluate or guarantee the accuracy of any content. Read full disclaimer.