Prayer Versus Hard Work
December 5th, 2008 by Mike Lopez
Have you ever met someone telling you that prayer is easier than doing things yourself? Well, they’re right. The question however is whether prayer is more effective than doing things yourself. Here’s a nice photo that illustrates the difference between prayer and hard work.
I guess the above illustration says it all.
Posted in Thoughts of a Filipino Atheist
April 16th, 2009 at 12:08 pm
Thank you! Anytime something important is about to go down, my mother warns me, “Say your prayers.”
For instance, about a month ago I was up for a job. Talking on the phone with her while getting ready for interviews and she tells me to ’say my prayers’ as if the job has nothing to do with my skill and ability. C’mon, Mom. Give me some credit!
Great site you have here and good for you for standing up and stating your beliefs regardless of what others think!
April 17th, 2009 at 10:50 am
Amen! Hehehe. Give credit to whom it’s due is what I always say.
May 13th, 2009 at 4:48 am
As the saying goes, “God helps those who help themselves”
May 13th, 2009 at 4:58 am
If I can help myself then I don’t need God’s help.
May 13th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Mel,
If I were your mom i’d say just the same, but I won’t make you believe that by praying to God, He will help you get the job, but rather I would tell you that “may God help you in realizing your own potential, so that you will realize if it’s the right job for you..” or if whatever your decision is in a certain precipice will be right..
July 2nd, 2009 at 8:27 am
Prayer is like a rocking chair… It’ll give you something to do, but won’t get you anywhere.
July 6th, 2009 at 3:09 pm
I’ve stopped believing and praying since 2004. I’ve finished college, and have a job without help from Him/Her/It/Them.
July 8th, 2009 at 12:25 am
Caloy,
Prayer without work is like a rocking chair is more appropriate… There’s nothing you can accomplish if you would just pray and do nothing…
Gil,
You don’t really need anyone’s help in getting a job, I mean, depending on God to get you a job is just being plain lazy and assuming… And you know what I notice? You are one of those people who has tried praying and never worked for you, and then end up thinking that its useless… What a naive person you are… Sorry…:)
July 21st, 2009 at 10:29 am
God has His ways of caring for Creation in a hidden manner through human means, He may use a Doctor to heal a sick, Nurse to take care of the sick etc.. prayer is an expression of confidence, an expression of worship and an expression of gratitude.
Gil, are you sure that God did not help you to find your job? Don’t you know that we live, move and have our being because of HIM?
July 21st, 2009 at 10:41 am
Hi Brainless / Alvin,
If you’re sure that we live, move and have our being because of god, could you please be so kind enough to tell us which god?
Mike
August 11th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
I’m a Filipio atheist, I don’t believe in God that all the religions try to push to our throats.. I believe that God, miracles and prayers can now be explained by science… I believe in prayers,For me it like positive thinking or getting in touch with my higher-self. Not the traditional Hallelujah ones.. I believe that my talents and skills came from my own passion, interest not by an invisible, magical, jealous or mysterious creator.
August 13th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
mike, just use my pseudonym, ok?
which god? There is only ONE God. The God of the Bible Mike, the Creator of the Universe. I might sound off to you, but this is what I believe. I was an Agnostic/Atheist in my high school days, but the evidence says it all that there is God.
There is only one God- the God of the Bible, the Creator of the Universe, and the Possessor of all Knowledge.
To Jim,
tell me, where did passion come from? How can you explain God by Science alone?
God is not against sound science, but I tell you God is beyond Science.
Jim, you cannot even explain the origin of the Universe in one sentence. Big-bang is nothing but a mere presumption of an Atheist who deliberately reject God.
August 13th, 2009 at 4:52 pm
Sure brainless, I can just your pseudonym. Just wondering why you won’t want to use your name… But that’s your preference so anyway…
How sure are you that your God, the God of the Bible is the only and only God? You sound like an extremist. You seem to be judging that all the rest of the world is going to hell. Tsktsk.
August 13th, 2009 at 5:24 pm
whatever angle you look at it, any religion cannot blend with science. buddhism have science but its not a religion… nothing scientific about the genesis, noah’s ark, virgin birth. the bible are just compilation of stories with “moral lessons” (to you, not for me). it is a big part of brainwashing people. religion is business, complete with marketing and advertising… trivia for you brainless – god commands people to commit murder, you may review your bible.
August 14th, 2009 at 4:19 pm
MIKE,
exactly, that’s what I’m trying to say.And its not my judgment, its God’s judgment.
I deserve Hell.I’m a rotten sinner, I know that.
Morally speaking, I’m neither qualified as a Christian.
Jim,
LOL, are you telling me that there no Science in the Bible? hahaha that’s an absurd statement. If the Bible is a fiction then there’s no reason for me to stay as a Christian. I will recant everything I believe if that is the case. take this as one example, Isaiah 40:22 said, “And God sitteh upon the CIRCLE of the Earth”. Consider this, the book of Isaiah was written few hundred years Before Christ, and almost a thousand-year advance when the “age of Discovery” people came to a conclusion that the Earth is round.
August 18th, 2009 at 11:39 am
Jim,
i know that religion is using that spirituality scheme for marketing, commerce, etc. but don’t generalize, ok?
FYI, God did not command His people to commit murder (do you know what murder means?), it was a divine command.That is to satisfy His Justice. Tell me, did Pres. Joseph Estrada commit murder when Leo Echegaray was senteced to death with the president’s approval?
of course not, Justice must be served, and I think it was Just.
who are you to call God’s command murder?
August 23rd, 2009 at 1:33 am
science and religion are like oil and water, they don’t blend. believing in adam and eve and evolution at the same time is nuts. so you really got to choose which one to believe… i prefer science, its more exciting and fresh.
August 24th, 2009 at 12:39 pm
Jim,
albert einstein once said, “Science without religion is lame, religion without science is blind”, so I prefer both. Science is cool same as religion (not the fanatical one).
what’s more exciting than mixing this two to form a more sound perspective of the Universe around us.
im a christian, a liberal theist.
i must admit that most of my fellow christians are not that open minded to Philosophy, science, and stuff.
August 24th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
brainless, your God might be different from Einstein’s…
“I believe in Spinoza’s God who reveals himself in the orderly harmony of what exists, not in a God who concerns himself with fates and actions of human beings.”
- Albert Einstein
August 26th, 2009 at 11:10 am
“Its just that Einstein, the great Scientist invoke of God, and it only shows that Einstein, though a Pantheist, believe(s) in God(s).”
pantheism is not atheism, ok?
self explanatory. Do I hav to explain that??
-brainless-
August 27th, 2009 at 12:43 pm
Hold the old book and argue or debate endlessly with others who believe in God. Talk to Einstein in the afterlife. Not with peaceful and happy atheists
August 27th, 2009 at 1:06 pm
Or contact Daniel Radcliffe, Keanu Reeves, Brad Pitt and Bruce Willis regarding God. That there is none.
August 28th, 2009 at 6:36 am
who cares
September 22nd, 2009 at 9:44 am
brainless is a good example of religious fanatic who just can’t respect other people’s belief. You chose the right pseudonym: “brainless”.
December 21st, 2009 at 5:10 pm
Mike, I’ll tell you there’s a huge misunderstanding of what prayer really means. Yes there are people who falls under that diagram that you posted, but not everyone are like that – Christians or not.
It is stupidity to “I pray Lord, give me high grades” then all you do is sleep.
But it isn’t when “I pray Lord, cure me from this incurable cancer”. Praying gives us hope to fight and to live.
Example, your doctor tells you that you only have 6 months left to live. If you don’t believe in prayer, if you don’t believe in some God (if you want to be a Hindu if you want, it’s your call), then your hope and future only lies within the realms of money and science.
But if not, then you’ll pray and ask your God to do some miracle or extend your life one more year.
Believe it or not, people who hopes and have a strong reason to hope, to live, and be happy have longer lives than those who do not have. I know people who have a deadly disease but their lives went beyond what doctors predicted, even surpassing those (sorry) atheists who have a wide margin of survival, doctors were dumbfounded. (Some of the doctors started believing in God later :p )
Most of the time, it is the belief in the spiritual realm, in a God, in the after life, that give us more hope, more joy, more life.
So here we have Mike A who prepares everything, his testaments and wills and waits for his last day of life. And on the other we have Mike B who also prepares everything, his testaments, and wills, but instead of waiting for his last day of breath, he continues living and enjoying his life, and prays for some miracle.
And because Mike B doesn’t even think or bother that his life is going to end in 6 months, he later finds out that it is already 1 year. You are an atheist and I’m sure you believe in Science, I don’t have to tell you that Science has an explanation to that
I believe in Science. I believe that Science and the Christian Bible fits together.
December 21st, 2009 at 11:27 pm
Just curious, why be specific to the Christian bible alone??? Why not the holy texts of Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism, etc?