Say your prayers...

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AuthorTopic: Say your prayers...
By Committee
Member # 4233
Profile #0
Do you pray before you eat? A lot of people claim to be Christian, but there are Christians, and then there are CHRISTIANS. I reckon this would be a pretty good gauge of the degree of piety in the community.

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Posts: 2242 | Registered: Saturday, April 10 2004 07:00
Law Bringer
Member # 2984
Profile Homepage #1
It's a custom in my family, although we're not too religious otherwise. The last time any of us went to church was Easter, I think. That makes the meal prayer all the more surprising, but it's more of a matter of proper family unity than any religious ritual.

I myself am soundly agnostic, and when I've eaten alone, I've never prayed.

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Posts: 8752 | Registered: Wednesday, May 14 2003 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 4682
Profile #2
My family says a blessing over the food, but we're Jewish, so....

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Posts: 834 | Registered: Thursday, July 8 2004 07:00
Master
Member # 5977
Profile Homepage #3
My father is Christian. Sorry WAS christian. My mother is Jewish. However, we don't say a blessing. We just start eating strait away. of course we do wait untill everybody has his/her food on his/her plate.

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Posts: 3029 | Registered: Saturday, June 18 2005 07:00
Lifecrafter
Member # 3320
Profile #4
We used to pray before our Sunday meal, but never at every meal.

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Posts: 935 | Registered: Friday, August 8 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 3349
Profile Homepage #5
I pray before Dinner and before bed.

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Posts: 1287 | Registered: Thursday, August 14 2003 07:00
Shaper
Member # 22
Profile #6
People still do this? Wow. I must be more out of touch with the Christian community than I thought.

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 07:59: Message edited by: Morgan ]
Posts: 2862 | Registered: Tuesday, October 2 2001 07:00
Shaper
Member # 5437
Profile #7
When I am with friends and family who prefer to pray before a meal I will pray with them, but I don't say a blessing before meals on a regular basis.

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Nena
Posts: 2032 | Registered: Wednesday, January 26 2005 08:00
Guardian
Member # 2238
Profile Homepage #8
Only when my mother is there.

Otherwise, there's never an organized meal to pray over anyway.

And I'm not Christian, but the majority of my family is.

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Posts: 1582 | Registered: Wednesday, November 13 2002 08:00
Too Sexy for my Title
Member # 5654
Profile #9
quote:
Originally written by Morgan:

People still do this? Wow. I must be more out of touch with the Christian community than I thought.
You are not the only one. I am a Catholic because both of my parents are and most of my family as well. I did the Holy Communion when I was nine and I have received the Eucharist. Nevertheless, I'm not a good catholic. I don't believe in the pope (and please don't start a discussion about it); I don't go to church every week; I don't say my prayers before meals, and I don't believe in saints.

Nevertheless, I consider myself a good person. I pray before going to bed; I help as many people as I can, I do community service, I read the bible whenever I feel like getting closed to God, and I'm a good person overall. I never do anything that bad, always respect my parents and elders, and am hardly selfish. I may not be the greatest CHRISTIAN, but I’m not the worst.
Posts: 1035 | Registered: Friday, April 1 2005 08:00
Guardian
Member # 3521
Profile #10
We Hindus have prayers to be said before meals just as Christians do. However, I only bother to say them when I'm at the house of a family friend and everyone else is reciting these prayers. I am quite religious, but I've never placed much importance in rituals and such. Besides, as I don't believe that God/Brahman interferes at all with the workings of the mortal plane, there is little point in praying in times of need. Some Hindus believe that praying over food will "sanctify" it, but I don't believe this has any effect.

My religious thoughts tend to focus exclusively on how I can bring myself closer to the state of even-mindedness, or moksha.

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Posts: 1798 | Registered: Sunday, October 5 2003 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 6102
Profile #11
I'm atheist as my family and I do not practice, believe or follow any religious activities. With praying, that's sort of a "no-no" in my family as my parents raised me that God exists only in people that believe in him and that every "miracle" in the world has some kind of explaination, minus the supernatural stuff. Although my parents crammed stuff into my head at an early age that "religion" is just a way to keep people to conform to a society and to have "hope", I still believe, somewhat, in supernatural stuff.

Though I was raised this way, I personally do believe that we all have one God and that we should do good things for others so that good comes back to us. I'm guessing a lot of people probably do follow this concept as well and are probably atheists themselves around these boards.

This concept probably would be the one thing that would sort of make me a non-atheist as I believe in the whole "universal God" thing.

As for the question, I do not pray for any of the 3 food servings of breakfast, lunch (or brunch), dinner, and the occasional snack. I do, however, have the manners to wait before everyone gets their food first, then I begin to eat mine.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their opinion of comformity. This was just how I was raised.

EDIT Post Statement: A person who can get by w/o religion and have no one to pray to or to depend upon would be quite a success story to me. Almost everyone I hear of around me gets success because of religion, hence the "faith", and people backing them up. It's rare to find someone that is a complete individual, meaning that they follow nothing of a society or it's conformed religious practices, even mixed representations. Of course, we know those people as either insane or psychotic.

EDIT Post Statement 2: For those that may be offended that my parents raised me as treating religion as "false hope" is a misunderstanding. I simply meant that our family doesn't use religion, and some people use it to satisfy their needs of "faith" to conform to society, but rather through hard work and dedication throughout your life. Our family values do follow a lot of guidelines that religions use; we simply do not believe or practice them through religion, hence our position of being atheists. My apologies if this was offensive to anyone. I personally am not against religions, I just chose to not follow in one. Hopefully, this clears up my previous statements that avoids future arguments. Thank you.

EDIT Post Statement 3: Now stranger, I also do not want to start any arguments as well. Hopefully, my previous post statement will clear things up a little better. My fault for making it sound too cold hearted. Thanks for your input.

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:49: Message edited by: Jeros ]

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Posts: 220 | Registered: Monday, July 11 2005 07:00
Electric Sheep One
Member # 3431
Profile #12
I usually make a silent prayer of thanks before eating wherever I am, and when we sit down to eat as a family my wife and I take turns (meal by meal) praying briefly aloud. We often omit this if we have guests whom we think might be made uncomfortable by it, since our purpose in the practice is to cultivate our own sense of thankfulness, and this still works if we skip the odd time. I don't imagine that it will protect us from food poisoning or anything like that, and I don't believe I can tell God anything God doesn't already know. It does have some affect on our own attitudes, and for me this is the point of this kind of prayer.

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Posts: 3335 | Registered: Thursday, September 4 2003 07:00
Agent
Member # 1558
Profile #13
Jeros, you certainly portray your parents as melancholy no-hopers.

I don't want to start an arguement, but could you justify your comments in your edit?

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 10:26: Message edited by: stranger ]

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I'm tired of the strain and the pain ___ ___ ___ I feel the same, I feel nothing
Nothing is important to me ___ ___ ___ ___ __ And nobody nowhere understands anything
About me and all my dreams lost at sea ___ __ But we’re not the same, we’re different tonight
We’ll make things right, we’ll feel it all tonight _ The indescribable moments of your life tonight
The impossible is possible tonight ___ ____ ___ Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight

Go All Blacks xtraMSN Rugby _ MuggleNet
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Friday, July 19 2002 07:00
Shaper
Member # 73
Profile #14
I was raised as a Catholic, but I don't have any religion anymore. Last Easter, my grandmother was insisting that I say grace before we ate dinner.
She said, "Vincent, you have to say grace."
I said, "Umm... No."
"What do you mean, no?! You're the man of the house now! You have to say grace!"
"No."
"Why not? You're a Christian! You have to say grace!"
"I'm not a Christian."
"What do you mean you're not a Christian?! Of course you're a Christian! Your whole family's Christians!"
My cousin then said, "I'm not a Christian."
The conversation continued in this vein for some time. Everyone was laughing the whole time. Eventually my uncle brought up how my grandmother never went to church with the family when he was younger because she wanted to watch TV. She started arguing with him, but eventually gave up. Then he started making dirty Jesus jokes that were pretty funny, although I can't remember any of them. Then we ate.[/ramble]

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Posts: 2957 | Registered: Thursday, October 4 2001 07:00
Fire! Fire! Fire! Fire!
Member # 919
Profile #15
I only pray before a meal if I have reason to suspect it's poisoned. :P

While I believe in God and in Jesus as our savior, I am not strictly a Christian and feel that prayer is mainly a way of emphasizing one's belief and highlighting areas of need. God knows your thoughts whether your hands are together or not, and I feel no need to follow an empty tradition. The family reasons mentioned above are valid, of course, but it would take more than an evening prayer to bring my family together, and I'd rather leave things the way they are.

Jeros, I find that ironic and somewhat encouraging... I'm glad you're open-minded...

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Posts: 3351 | Registered: Saturday, April 6 2002 08:00
Agent
Member # 1558
Profile #16
For me, Jeros, the point in question was your slanting in ... ALL of your posts.

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I'm tired of the strain and the pain ___ ___ ___ I feel the same, I feel nothing
Nothing is important to me ___ ___ ___ ___ __ And nobody nowhere understands anything
About me and all my dreams lost at sea ___ __ But we’re not the same, we’re different tonight
We’ll make things right, we’ll feel it all tonight _ The indescribable moments of your life tonight
The impossible is possible tonight ___ ____ ___ Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight

Go All Blacks xtraMSN Rugby _ MuggleNet
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Friday, July 19 2002 07:00
Master
Member # 4614
Profile Homepage #17
Practically always. Well, usually not me, but my dad, and the prayer is always the same. But it's still a prayer and says what it needs to say. Basically, we're not supposed to start stuffing the food into our mouth until we pray over it, but it's not a strict life-or-death rule.

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Posts: 3360 | Registered: Friday, June 25 2004 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 6102
Profile #18
quote:
Originally written by stranger:

For me, Jeros, the point in question was your slanting in ... ALL of your posts.
Slanting? As in changing my opinion when I receive criticism or becoming open minded in an odd sort of way? Just curious. It does seem pretty ironic and obvious that my opinions seem biased against the topic in question, but that's how I am. Sorry if being open minded means offense to others.

To me, personally, there is nothing wrong with prayer. Prayer encourages conformity for a lot of families, whether a loved one is sick or is at the dinner table. It is just I was raised as an atheist and nothing else. Our family follows the a lot of the same moral qualities that brings us closer; it just doesn't involve religion.

I wonder if there was a world w/o religion...would there be more or less conformity between friends and family? That all depends on the bond of loved ones and the individuals that bring them together in the first place...

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 13:42: Message edited by: Jeros ]

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"Truly, if there is evil in this world, it lies in the heart of mankind." -Edward D. Morrison
Posts: 220 | Registered: Monday, July 11 2005 07:00
Agent
Member # 2210
Profile #19
How disrespectful, I pray before meals during holidays, but don't remember most of the holidays. I also sometimes pray or meditate before I go to sleep or very early in the morning when I first get up. Food is rather distracting. I am a deist so there.

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Posts: 1084 | Registered: Thursday, November 7 2002 08:00
Mongolian Barbeque
Member # 1528
Profile #20
I once had a long conversation with my college roommate over dinner after we said grace over it, about what one's criteria is for having to pray over food.

For instance, you can have a huge snack in the afternoon and then a tiny, late dinner several hours later, but you pray over the dinner but not the snack. Size is apparently not the sole criteria—time of day has something to do with it, and how "formal" the meal is.

After we got back to our dorm room we wrote up a list of tongue-in-cheek "rules" for when you have to pray over a meal—rules that we all apply without even being aware of them. I wish I could find it, it was really hilarious.

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Posts: 907 | Registered: Monday, July 15 2002 07:00
Agent
Member # 1558
Profile #21
quote:
Originally written by Jeros:

Slanting? As in changing my opinion when I receive criticism or becoming open minded in an odd sort of way?.
You are right in claiming your open-mindedness takes an odd form.
No, I mean that when you state your opinion, you show so much bias that I wonder if you're cleverly taking the mickey.

quote:
I wonder if there was a world w/o religion...would there be more or less conformity between friends and family?
Wouldn't it be less because: a lot of religions are positive in respect to nurturing relationships, providing morals and offering marriage ceremonies (w/o religion there would be no concept of marriage). Religion is essential in the legal and social framework of (I daresay) most countries, without it there might be problems with morals and therefore social security, causing less conformity between friends and family.

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 16:40: Message edited by: stranger ]

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I'm tired of the strain and the pain ___ ___ ___ I feel the same, I feel nothing
Nothing is important to me ___ ___ ___ ___ __ And nobody nowhere understands anything
About me and all my dreams lost at sea ___ __ But we’re not the same, we’re different tonight
We’ll make things right, we’ll feel it all tonight _ The indescribable moments of your life tonight
The impossible is possible tonight ___ ____ ___ Believe in me as I believe in you, tonight

Go All Blacks xtraMSN Rugby _ MuggleNet
Posts: 1112 | Registered: Friday, July 19 2002 07:00
Shock Trooper
Member # 6102
Profile #22
Well, I'll take your advice stranger and try to be less bias. As for the conformity with religion, I do agree with your point that if it ceased to exist, there would be no traditional things such as wedding vows or certain legal rights. As for people who disagree, they could say that it brings a greater sense of individuality, but in a way, that's sort of breaking away from conformity in the first place.

Although I may not use religion to keep my family together, others do and I respect every sense of that. Different people have different ways to love and conform to one another. My grandparents had a habit of making "false threats" in order for my parents, when they were kids, to obey certain rules. In my generation, it's all about trusting one another and knowing that we each have other's backs, to my family that is.

Certain things exist for certain reasons. If things like laws never existed, there would be a constant critter of chaos. To others, they think that laws and rules are meant to broken, hence they are made in the first place. I perfer to live in a society with rules and laws and not of the latter.

Well, this could be my very first non-bias post, unless there's something bias about it...

[ Wednesday, August 03, 2005 17:26: Message edited by: Jeros ]

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"Truly, if there is evil in this world, it lies in the heart of mankind." -Edward D. Morrison
Posts: 220 | Registered: Monday, July 11 2005 07:00
? Man, ? Amazing
Member # 5755
Profile #23
I say a prayer of thanks whenever I catch a fish or arrive back at port safely. Of course, I am praying to the river god and ocean god, not some gentrified omniscient thing. I also give an offering when I first hit the water, usually a splash of coffee to wake up the fish.

It would seem redundant to pray before eating. I guess I'm still a hunter-gatherer at heart.

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Posts: 4114 | Registered: Monday, April 25 2005 07:00
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Member # 5491
Profile Homepage #24
quote:
Originally written by Morgan:

People still do this? Wow. I must be more out of touch with the Christian community than I thought.
Uh, yeah, lots of people still do this.

I'm not one of them though, despite considering myself a devout Christian.

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