My First Religion Paper... Ugh

Emily Trostle
Three Religions
Prayer
01.26.2009


I don’t pray. This being the case, I am having a tough time writing a two page paper about my approach to prayer. But I’ll try.

I think I used to pray. When I was very young and my mind highly impressionable adults prayed and told me to pray. So I probably did. What did I pray about? Who knows? I was too young to be aware of what I was doing and why others around me were doing it.

At some point though, praying struck me as silly. I felt silly doing it and others looked silly doing it. I didn’t feel at peace, “heard,” relaxed, nor closer to anyone. I just felt silly. I imagine that’s when I stopped praying. To me, it didn’t (and still doesn’t) make sense.

As a non-prayer, the Bible selections that we were asked to read sounded condescending and slightly contradictory. One selection suggested that people pray and practice in private, unlike those “hypocrites.” I think it’s the use of the “hypocrite” at least three times and the word “pagan” numerous times that turns me off to these selections. Another selection said that people should be out in the streets, praying with their arms up. Seemingly so that others could watch them and recognize these people as the “ideal” and be envious of them.

Either way, praying doesn’t sound appealing to me. I’m not out to convince people that pray that I don’t agree with it and therefore they should stop… But for my lifestyle and my beliefs, it’s unnecessary.