An Atheist’s Open Letter to Those Praying for His Son

[SheilaT]

44. To quote you:

There is nothing dangerous about praying for something unless it is done in lieu of other actions, which is just generally not the case. There are religious beliefs that do harm and impede progress, and I fully agree that they should be countered vigorously.

All too often the praying is done in lieu of other actions. Like the climate denial in Texas, but the governor calling for three days of prayer for rain when they were in drought. Meanwhile, the officials of that state still refuse to understand anything at all about what's actually going on, and have recently shot down bills that would take it into account things like water availability, weather variability, and climate change itself in their planning. But prayer? Yep.

It's not just praying in lieu of other actions, but praying and blocking other actions that's too common.

And I have no problem putting down a belief in an invisible sky fairy when those "believers" have no qualms whatsoever about putting down people like me. Tolerance needs to go both ways.