What do you do if somebody tells you, the atheist, that they pray for you?
If they know then they clearly are trying to disrespect you.
The one who prays is trying to put you in the hands of a deity who stands by while babies starve. While we are to blame for that, a lot of the starvation is down to unexpected natural disaster.
A believer has no right to ignore all the murders and violence from the God portrayed in the Bible.
Prayer amounts to asking something bigger than you to control your life and maybe your will so that what they ask for will happen. For example, one who prays that you will not terminate a pregnancy or avail of assisted dying is clearly hoping something will backfire for you as a result of the prayer.
Even if the person suspects prayer does nothing it does not mean they don't intend something to force you.
Prayer is smug for the Bible says that doubters and sinners don't get answers and if they do the answers are in their heads. So "I'll pray for you" means, "God listens to me for I am good."
So prayer is passive-aggressive.
If you see evil the way the religious person might or see it as just a threat from nature which is ruthlessly based on natural selection or both you can call prayer evil.
Atheists have a right to see prayer as an evil activity. It conditions people to prefer God’s rights to human rights and to deepen the religious hold on the world with all the terrible disasters that brings. You have no right to tell yourself that if you get a after asking for it that prayer was answered for what about the prayers for your sick neighbours that were ignored? You have to take credit for not helping the neighbours by prayer or if prayer works you can blame it.
Nothing gives you the right to say that the suffering of another must be God's plan for it is not your suffering to treat it like that to make a religious point.
Prayer insults people. The view of God that it proposes for us is unacceptable and has resulted in the hypocrisy that is so common in people of faith. One wonders if people who are unaffected by its danger really believe or only imagine that they believe. Prayer implies God should let good people suffer for he has the power to save them and won’t. It can only lead to trouble. If people didn’t see the need for praying they wouldn’t see the need for believing in God so prayer must be exposed.
The benefits of prayer do not come from prayer at all which is why we should destroy people’s faith in prayer and have no regrets. The benefits are nothing compared to the damage that is done. Prayer puts the thinking man and woman of prayer in danger of fanaticism. The pleasures of some people who pray cannot be used as an excuse for failing to deal with the issue.
In a 2006 Harvard study, researchers worked to ascertain if praying for somebody's wellbeing did any good and if it made a difference if the person knew they were being prayed for. "The study found that prayer didn't have an effect on patients who were unaware of it. Patients who knew they were being prayed for actually had more complications than another group who received prayer unknowingly" (Losing my Religion, William Lobdell). I would suggest that telling somebody they need prayers is saying they need intervention over and above medicine which brings in a nocebo effect. They must be in big danger if they need a miracle. If God sends sickness in the first place, it is hardly helpful to tell a person you are asking him to do something.
There was a Jewish prayer in which one said, "I will not pray for you to end disease when many of us can become doctors etc". It ends with, "Rather than wishing for things to get better, I will be the wish. I ask for willpower to help positive change happen."
Willpower is actually doing more harm than good. It is why people take drugs and let bad things happen to them for they think they will overcome them. And if we should not ask God to end disease for that implies laziness, then asking for willpower for others is strange. If you mean you want it for yourself then who do you think you are? Where is your big campaign to get us all to pray for this willpower?
We wouldn't thank people for casting spells for us so we should handle those who declare they will pray for us like this. "Thanks for thinking of me but being prayed for is not for me." Or you can joke saying, "For me being prayed for works in contraries."
The WEB
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12608c.htm
Catholic Encyclopaedia. This discusses Quietism.
Books Consulted
BOOKS CONSULTED
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AQUINAS, FC Copleston, Penguin Books, London, 1991
BEYOND GOOD AND EVIL, Friedrich Nietzsche, Penguin, London, 1990
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CATECHISM OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH, Veritas, London, 1995
CHARITY, MEDITATIONS FOR A MONTH, Richard F Clarke SJ, Catholic Truth Society, London, 1973
CHRISTIANITY FOR THE TOUGH-MINDED, Edited by John Warwick Montgomery, Bethany Fellowship, Minnesota, 1973
CRISIS OF MORAL AUTHORITY, Don Cupitt, SCM Press, London, 1995
EVIDENCE THAT DEMANDS A VERDICT, VOL 1, Josh McDowell, Alpha, Scripture Press Foundation, Bucks, 1995
ECUMENICAL JIHAD, Peter Kreeft, Ignatius Press, San Francisco, 1996
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THE PUZZLE OF GOD, Peter Vardy, Collins, London, 1990
THE SATANIC BIBLE, Anton Szandor LaVey, Avon Books, New York, 1969
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