I don’t personally believe in making a fuss about either of these things, but they’re not at all analogous.
Those who get upset at Mormon posthumous baptism are offended by what they’re intending to do, even though they don’t believe it will have any actual effect. The OP’s objection to prayer, on the other hand, seems to be because he believes it doesn’t have any effect, despite the good intentions of the pray-er.
Amen.
Sounds fair. I am mildly annoyed that someday I will be posthumously baptized by a well-meaning family member. And I am mildly annoyed every time someone says “bless you” and then expectantly waits for me to say “thank you”. Neither is such a big deal if it makes a well-meaning person feel good about themselves.
You already underlined the part where your statement is inaccurate. Mormons don’t count the necro-dunked as members. To use your recruitment analogy, it’s like receiving an official enrollment form that you did not ask for. You’re still being recruited, not drafted.
I don’t see the analogy to being drafted unless you claim that the ceremony has actual effect, in which case I would assume you would be grateful to the Mormon for providing the deceased a chance to know God that they missed in life.
If the ceremony has no effect then I cannot see how it is more intrusive than the supposedly inoffensive prayer. Both are just the believer’s way of doing what they can to care for you and both are just as easily ignored.
In other words, even dying doesn’t stop them from knocking on your door. Death, taxes, and Mormons. 
Oh ya, that’s one of the big tasks for Mormons in the afterlife is to annoy everyone.
A few moths ago I and my brothers sat with out mother while she died. My sister is an ICU nurse at the same hospital and was monitoring her vitals. My mother was 94 yrs old and was dieing from respiratory failure. CO2 levels rising Oxegen saturation dropping. The last hour she would repeatedly drift off and was carrying on conversations with her dead brothers and sisters, particulary one of her cousins that she was closed to as a kid. My sister said her levels were far below her ability to be concious yet she was talking fairly clear and loud. She never once mentioned anyone who is still alive. 5 min before her actual death she woke up and asked for coffee, her last words were " Is this dam hospital out of sugar?" We probably had 20 family members in the room only a hanful are religious but they all seemed convinced she was communicating. My mother had a dreadful fear of death but in the last hours she had no fear, no struggling just peace. For whatever it is worth.
Very sad to hear this. Hang in there.
Yeah, a waste of time on behalf of the person praying, comforting to the believers and vaguely irritating to the unbelievers when they’re informed of the actions. I totally see the analogy, I just think the populations are different (believers in the efficacy of prayer and believers in the possibility of posthumous conversion).
This is great!! This one is going in permanent quote file (for whatever that means to you…)
Precisely! I give you: “I’ll pray for you” http://www.elyrics.net/read/j/jaron-&-the-long-road-to-love-lyrics/pray-for-you-lyrics.html
I’m sorry hearing of the death of your mother, but this line made me smile.
Hear, hear! Well put. Additionally, it would put the big G in a conundrum if BOTH sides of an all-important high school football prayed for victory, wouldn’t it? Besides- if everything that happens is His will and He is all knowing, then why would the special pleadings of ignoramuses like us wretches matter a damn to him?
Or do the faithful who pray presume to know better than the Old Man in the Sky about how things ought to go down? The mind boggles. Unless you’re blessed with blind, sweet faith- then the whole thing makes sense. I guess.
I was going to post to this thread, but didn’t want to zombify the dad of Zombie Jesus, but now that it’s trending again…
But I didn’t have much. I was going to explain how, when I turned into a dad, I became less hostile to the idea that God might want his “children” to talk to him, even if they don’t need to. And that he’d rather have kids with free will than to interfere in their lives…
But then I thought I’d just post [raises hand]
Because he likes to be asked.
I followed the abduction/missing case of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins in Iowa. The searches in this small area were massive. Even the mayor of the town flew his own private plane above the areas looking for clues. Nothing. Nada. Zilch.
Then two hunters find their bodies (shudders) a couple days ago. And here’s the clinker: Police chief said that (paraphrasing) if the hunters walked five feet in either direction, they wouldn’t have seen their bodies either.
Citizens, neighbors, etc., searched for them for almost five months. But they also held prayer vigils. Then they get the outcome. The girls are dead.
After this outcome, and if I were a believer, you’d never get me near a prayer service/vigil/mass again. This is the deluded nature of the whole charlatan business of prayer and religion. It is “slacktivism”. I prayed, therefore I tried to help. Yeah, fuck off, or in the beliver’s case, go to hell. Maybe you searched, maybe you hung flyers around town. Maybe you pleaded the media to continue the coverage on them. THAT would be help. Still, the worst, worst case happened. I am so sorry for the families and community for this to happen.
I am REALLY hoping they find the killer, of course. As is everyone who prayed or didn’t. And fuck the death penalty for that SOB. Gen pop for them, or even better, solitary till they’re dead.
Praying did absolutely nothing for them. And we can all find plenty of examples of where prayer/religion was the cause of a child’s death in the first place.
What REALLY gets me is once these poor girls were positively identified, what happened? Oh, yeah. A PRAYER VIGIL. Nice. We heard about thanking the Lord (??) for taking them into his sweet arms.
Yeah. Joshua 7. There’s sweet arms. Book of Job, Genesis, Judges, etc., etc…
And I do understand that there is some solace in thinking they are “better off” or “blessed” or “being in a better place”. Problem is, those little girls are human, alive, no longer alive. And the prayers didn’t help them be safe at any point.
I just love all these people acting like they’ve never known somebody wanted something, but still waited until they were asked before they gave it.
Prayer is for you, not God. It’s where you figure out what you want. It’s where you ask God so you can find out what he’s going to do. Stop with the strawmen.
Translate please?
Prayer is for the person praying. It’s for the person who feels helpless in a situation to find a measure of ‘doing something’ towards a better outcome. It’s a more directed form of wishing. And if it gives that person some comfort, well… if that’s really all they can offer then I suppose it’s better than not caring at all.
I’m somewhere on the heathen/agnostic/atheist scale, but when I’m in a personal crisis of some sort even I find myself sending an undirected “please, please, please…” out to the ethers. Why? I don’t know. Can force of will with no other action make things happen? I don’t know that either, but I doubt it.