Super Bowl Winner Chosen By God |
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| By: Dennis Trainor Jr Saturday February 2, 2013 9:30 am | |
Millions of Americans willfully suffer under the illusion that religious faith brings health, wealth and- I kid you not- Super Bowl victories. A recent study by the Public Religion Research Institute found that one-third of the United States believes that God plays a role in determining which team wins the Super Bowl.
Also, a majority – more than one in two- believe that God rewards individual athletes who are faithful to God with success.
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13 Comments
People, we are doomed. Any chance this cuts along geographic lines, and the rest of us can just succeed?
Being all-knowing must take the thrill out of watching sports.
Tim Tebow must have been praying to Satan all this time.
Robertson Davies, one of my favourite (Canadian) authors, notes in his Voices from the Attic, that God is not the only answerer of prayer. Who else, he asks rhetorically, would answer prayer? The answer, he says, is “unfashionable.” Think about it.
In another work he notes that “Prayer is petition, intercession, adoration, and contemplation; great saints and mystics have agreed on this definition. To stop short at petition is to pray only in a crippled fashion. Further, such prayer encourages one of the faults which is most reprehended by spiritual instructors — turning to God without turning from Self.”
Look, I don’t even know when the Super Bowl is, let alone who is playing. It may be arrogant of me, but I don’t think God (if there is such a thing) cares more about it than I do. That is my story and I will stick to it.
Hey god !!! just feed the poor…
Or, it could be that all the Great Interceeder really cares about is punishing those choosing to wear sparkly polish.
Actually I think he was just led astray after leaving that bastion of piety, Gainesville Florida
Of the many things that hold us back, as an enlightened society, I don’t think who prays the hardest for their Super Bowl team to win, is on the short list. Pray if like but it doesn’t mean diddly squat to the outcome. If The Big Cloud Guy really answered prayer we’d all be able to do elementary probability, basic math and science. And then he’d be able to relax, place his bets, sit and just enjoy the game. Like most rational people do.
Many people think that once Christianity became the State religion of Rome the games were ended. Not true, they went on after that for hundreds of yrs. and only ended when Rome collapsed and was over run. Christian Romans loved the blood lust of the games just as much as their pagan forebearers had. Just as we do today.
God will bless all those who pray to Him with the Healing Touch of His Noodly Appendage:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster
If the poor are fed, they’ll make more babies – furthering the exponential increase in human population and demand for earth’s finite resources.
Sure, feed the poor which are living today, but draconian birth control measures are needed.
Interestingly, Religion promotes increased population, but does not feed the poor. Thus Religion promotes ignorance and great human suffering.
Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge
—God
Even a cursory reading of the Bible tells us that prophets chosen by God are rarely rewarded in this life. In fact, they often suffer through hell on earth.
It is heresy for Christians to believe that life on earth is like a vending machine where people insert virtue and are rewarded with good fortune and happiness.
We are a nation of Fantasy Christians:
http://laughterhopesockintheeye.wordpress.com/2009/08/21/fantasy-christians/
Funny, we were just making the comparison today about how the OWS movement seemed to be lined up with Jesus’ views on moneychangers (Wall St) in the temple (which makes the super church bunch the pharisees).
This ties into current research that has Jesus as a Jewish radical trying to overthrow the Romans and those those of the Jews who were supporting the Romans.
Of course, given my predilection to tie into all things politically/economically related , I think that our current religious bent towards explaining how faith leads to wealth and fame is a logical outcome when one half of your political party believes greed is good and uses the other half (fundamentalists) as dupes that are twisted to vote Republican.
All just my take, and my theological background is sketchy at best so take it all with a grain of salt.