Prayer in high places

In a discussion with a co-worker about the election in general and Gov Sarah Palin in particular, he has many reservations about her.  One of his biggest reservations is that he's tired of our country being led by people who pray.  He wants a leader who uses sound reasoning for their decisions instead of listening to God.

That remark has been rattling around in my head for the past couple days and I have some thoughts on it.  First, what harm does praying about problems and issues do?  If there is no God around to help guide the petitioner's thought process, then it stands to reason that praying turns into a sort of meditation and the part of our mind that reasons things out will be able to work without much distraction, thereby finding a good and reasonable solution to whatever problem has been prayed/meditated about.

Meditation is simply the practice of focusing your attention on a particular object — generally something simple, like a word or phrase, a candle flame or geometrical figure, or the coming and going of your breath. In everyday life, your mind is constantly processing a barrage of sensations, visual impressions, emotions, and thoughts. When you meditate, you narrow your focus, limit the stimuli bombarding your nervous system — and calm your mind in the process. The reason meditation works so effectively is that it connects you with a spiritual dimension, which different commentators give different names, but many people simply call it "being."

Swiped from Meditation for Dummies, 2nd Edition

So if one's focus is on whatever the problem is and one's mind is calming, one generally can come up with new and innovative solutions to problems that seem insurmountable.

I'm all in favor of prayer/meditation/whatever to help whoever's in charge make better decisions.

Comments

[heidi]

I agree. If you don't believ ein God, what do you care if someone prays? Obviously you believe their "thoughts" are going out into the great unknown and if there is no diety, in your opinion, to answer them then what ar eyou afraid of?

[Arlene]

I don't care if someone prays/meditates/whatever. What I do care about is when someone in a position of power prays and decides to go to war or build a pipeline because G-d "tells" him/her to. I want my leaders to study, talk to advisors and be thoughtful and make decisions based on facts.

And I dislike being told I'm afraid of something just because I don't agree.