Unpopular Opinion
Welcome to the Unpopular Opinion community!
How voting works:
Vote the opposite of the norm.
If you agree that the opinion is unpopular give it an arrow up. If it's something that's widely accepted, give it an arrow down.
Guidelines:
Tag your post, if possible (not required)
- If your post is a "General" unpopular opinion, start the subject with [GENERAL].
- If it is a Lemmy-specific unpopular opinion, start it with [LEMMY].
Rules:
1. NO POLITICS
Politics is everywhere. Let's make this about [general] and [lemmy] - specific topics, and keep politics out of it.
2. Be civil.
Disagreements happen, but that doesn’t provide the right to personally attack others. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Please also refrain from gatekeeping others' opinions.
3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.
Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.
4. Shitposts and memes are allowed but...
Only until they prove to be a problem. They can and will be removed at moderator discretion.
5. No trolling.
This shouldn't need an explanation. If your post or comment is made just to get a rise with no real value, it will be removed. You do this too often, you will get a vacation to touch grass, away from this community for 1 or more days. Repeat offenses will result in a perma-ban.
Instance-wide rules always apply. https://legal.lemmy.world/tos/
view the rest of the comments
I'm not arguing that people should go around treating people who have religious or superstitious beliefs like shit; I'm saying we shouldn't pretend their beliefs are acceptable and/or a matter of personal opinion or faith. They're wrong. Objectively wrong. So, if someone were to say, "I'll pray for you," I think the response should be something like, "I'd rather you get yourself some therapy, friend; prayer isn't real, God isn't real, and your faith in these false concepts is holding you back." As someone else ITT said: people deserve respect, but not necessarily their ideas.
Which simply shows how little you know about the things you despise. Prayer is just meditation by another name. Meditation has been shown to have healthy effects. Perhaps study before condemnation.
Find me the person who believes in the power of prayer who agrees with that statement.
And that is why meditation and prayer are not the same thing. Functionally, because prayer doesn't work, all it can provide at best are similar benefits to meditation, but if you've ever prayed and meditated, you should know they are definitely not the same thing in terms of what you're doing with your brain.
In christianity, there are recognized forms of prayer that are literally the same technique as focus-based meditation - only that the focus is not your breath, or a candle, but your inner connection to god as you experience it. This is called contemplation and has a centuries-long history in christian mysticism.
If you practice it, I confidently say you would gain quite the same benefits as you would with focus-based meditation.
Also I have tried both, and don't feel much of a difference in terms of "what I'm doing with my brain".
I'm sure you're talking about people going " Please god, give me the new car I've wanted for so long" rather than prayer as a spiritual practice to gain connection to the the "first reality before any thought arises", which is how modern christian mystics define god, so this likely isn't relevant to you and your beliefs and also isn't meant to be a rebuttal of your overall stance.
I just wanted to let you know that in this instance you are, indeed, factually wrong.
No one need to agree with it.
Feel free to prove your claim that prayer does not work. You can't so there is no need for us to wait for you to do so.
Both prayer and meditation bring peace to the mind. The rest of it is nothing but belief in the specifics of the method.
And some individual's belief is supposed to be identical to all others?
Why are you so hell bent on folks, whose belief you are attacking and not discussing, react defensively?
How does their belief in God harm your belief there is none?
And most importantly, why is it any of your business?
Perhaps look long at your own position before laughing at others.
Please do try to stay on subject. When you get confused looking back to the OP is the best option. Hint, the subject is not the weather.