Hello Leopard, good reply; however, this topic was gone over once before you arrived, with the same objections. If my memory serves me, I will try to get the responses right:
Praying and healing:
This has nothing actually to do with praying, as it does with attitude. People that were prayed for without their knowledge, have never varied from the statistical norm. Those that do believe, pray and such do better for the same reason that someone with an "Im gonna beat this attitude" or super supportive families also do well. Attitude makes all the difference. If praying makes you feel better, it will probably help you heal better.
As for the inmates issue - At the time of the original posting about a year ago, I think several of us suggested that there had to be some conversion. probably a few different ways for the stats to be accurate - however, remember that mose people who are not religious are not athiests. They are simply undecided - athiesm is a rational choice, not lack of one. There was a large figure in the numbers for undecided - your brother would fall into the Catholic of undecided catagoty - never the athiest - so the point is not well made.
Nice try though, and thanks for piping up!!
Bill Roh
Snow Leopard wrote:
> In response to the statistics about prison inmates, I feel that I have
> something to contribute. The Snow Leopard collective decided to let these
> conversations take their own course because the general annoyance we were
> creating. I would like only to emphasize that a qualifying clause of the
> Blue Pill theorem was "if belief has equal benefits to disbelief…" and that
> studies have shown that hospital patients that pray, are prayed for or go
> through any sort of religious anything experience positive psychosomatic
> effects.
>
> Anyway, my brother was in one of the prisons you mentioned, as well as 3
> others in the Upstate New York area. Do you want to know why 5-% of inmates
> are Catholic? I can help. Tony was always a rebellious boy, didn't believe
> in God, wanted to live his life to the fullest, here and now. It broke my
> mom's heart. He was imprisoned on drug charges. With nothing else to do,
> he spent time on his artwork, and on letters home, a few classes and some
> religious activities. He of course, knew it would please Mom, and thus
> provide more food, if he followed Catholic rituals. This is part of the
> reason why so many prisoners readily admit affiliation. However, when he
> was released, he absolutely refused to acknowledge any such tie. Prison
> temporarily causes the manifestation of latent meme-complexes. The
> statistics are not face value.
>
> This isn't to say, of course, that no one in prison has a life- changing
> experience or gets more permanent convictions. Often, the prison experience
> is shocking enough to make someone re-evaluate their attitudes, and look for
> a moral system, and find it attached to religion.
>
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