to look at the Tiffany windows and some church lady who was working or volunteering there after showing me around offered to "pray over me". I guess she meant while I was standing there. I told her she should free to "pray for me" but that no one was going to "pray over me."

Reminds me of a relative of mine who received a free trip to go with her sister and BIL to Europe and who refused to go into the cathedrals because they were Catholic. She is some evangelical religion. I am neither Catholic or Evan, but wish that i had been given the chance to see the wonderful cathedrals in Europe. What a dope. She is as bad as the atheist who thinks that he might get hit by lightning if he promised to pray for the son of the anguished mother. The God of Atheists (ie all the other atheists) would strike him dead for such a godly acquiesence (sp).

Henry VIII had the right idea about Catholics.

I was recently very sick and my coworkers found out. I was back at work and someone asked me how I was feeling and said she would pray for me. I didn't say anything that she shouldn't. If it made her feel better to think she was doing something to help me, who am I to say anything?

The atheist didn't think he/she would get struck by lightning. The atheist is just repulsed by being dishonest and really doesn't want to tell a lie. Admirable, no?

Malarkey:

The atheist is just repulsed by being dishonest and really doesn't want to tell a lie. Admirable, no?

Not necessarily. I don't believe that honesty has any moral weight. It is the situation in which the honesty is employed (or not) that gives moral weight to the action. There are situations were being honest hurts someone. I would say that being honest in those cases, unless it is to prevent some future greater harm, is not admirable. So if an atheist tells a worried and upset religous person that she will not pray for him because she believes that a theological debate on her beliefs is more important than comforting a fellow human being in need, I would say that is not admirable.

I went to England with my father who was between religions at the time and he said the same thing, that he wouldn't enter a cathedral because people slaved to build it, the Church was corrupt....yadda...yadda...yad­da. I told him 'Dad, just think of it as a work of art you can walk around inside of....' Afterwards (it was Salisbury Cathedral), he couldn't get over the beauty, the grandeur and the peace of a thousand year old place of worship. I'm not religious at all but I enjoyed showing him around. They used to let you go up on the roof to see how the place was constructed....he loved that!

Henry VIII had the right idea about Catholics.

yup. he did have the right idea. for a while anyway. till the pope refused to grant him an annulment, he was a dedicated Catholic, vehemently opposed to the phenomenon of protestant reformation. his Catholic writings earned him the papal title "Defender of the Faith."

That's what you mean, right Machismo?