Talk Elections

So, do you pray before meals?

Yes about half the time but not as much as I should.

No, but I do usually go along with it for the sake of being amiable and preventing awkwardness when a host insists on performing the ritual. There is a time and place for being assertive, really.

Yes, but only on special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, and Easter. 

No.

I only pray for certain results in spectator sports.

Not often. Only at big family meetups. I was once with a church group that said grace even though we just ordered pizza and had a bunch of weed that was being passed around, lol.

We definitely have a disproportional balance of Christians to atheists on this forum if 10 here are atheists and only half that many are Christians.

The nature of this forum tends to attract young and/or intelligent people.  Ergo, it's disproportionately more atheist/agnostic than society at large.

I noticed the young part lol. There's nothing wrong with that as long as arguments actually come from the self and not mass media or party elites.

Encouraging about the atheist majority (for the moment).  I don't pray before the meal, but when I see others do it I silently condemn them as 'to be avoided'.

No, I'm trying to eat. Keep your religion to yourself, it's not something to be proud about.

I'd not exactly say the mass-media and party elites are propagating some kind of atheist agenda...

Also, n=19

Never have. Never been a family thing either.

n= naive

Surprised how many people said yes. I waited tables for a while in my younger days. I've seen a lot of people eat, and even here in the Bible Belt, you almost never see people praying before they eat. Or do you guys just not do it in public?

I think the usual position for Christians who aren't hard-core fundamentalists is to say grace around the family dinner table but not to bother when out in public. I don't anymore at all, but this was how my (church-going) family did it when I was growing up.

Prayer need not be showy, flashy, or even spoken aloud.  Indeed, the NT frowns upon ostentatious prayers.

Yes, at every meal. I pray aloud when I'm at home or eat together with other Christians and silently when I'm in public.

If someone else offers a prayer before digging in, I bow my head along with everyone else, and listen, and even say "amen," at its conclusion. It's a matter of being polite and respectful.  Otherwise no. I'm Godless.

Almost always. Unless I am eating with someone who dislikes it a lot or make of fun of it. I am generally too hungry before a meal to bother arguing with stupid people.

It's not something we ever did, so no.

Every dinner, my mother or father lead us in a short prayer.  I close my eyes and bow my head out of respect to them, rather than out of fear of their God.

I try to pray before every meal, even when eating out, although I try to keep it private then.

born-again friend of mine led a prayer before we ate late night wings last night.  I remained silent and watched Game 4.

Only if someone is at the table on whom I have my eye.

good post

Only if I'm with my family or a group of people likely to do it (you've all heard about me being with people who said grace over pizza and weed, lol). A lot of times I'll pray on a lunch break at work but that has more to do with actually having the time/stress.

I know I'm late to the game on this, but what does that even mean?

That's a now banned Derek sock, so you're not going to get an answer.

Every once in a great while, when the thought strikes me, but I don't make a routine of it.

Yes, yes, we have.  It was on page 1 of this thread.

Yes, at every meal that i can.  God has provided me with this food to nourish my body.  God has even provided McDonald's and wants us to be thankful for that, as well, because when someone is starving out on the road, and they're in a hurry, McDonald's sounds pretty good and is good!  It's not necessarily quality food, but it is so much better than starving to death.

I don't do it as often as I should, and i don't condemn those who don't either out loud or to myself.

The prayer doesn't have to be long and drawn out and "Pharisee-ish", just a quick, simple, "Thank you Lord for this food and the hands that prepared it.  Let it nourish our bodies, in Jesus name, amen".  The food is not going to get cold because of two sentences.

God wants people to clog their arteries?

He wants them as a grease beam.

Only if they live in a nation that has fast food and people that can afford it, otherwise he's fine with them starving to death.

Not before fast food, which is about all I eat these days.

No. I'm an atheist, and I only pray to a faux-god/human idol.

I responded in the affirmative and I most certainly am not Christian

Gee, let me guess... Collor? ;)

So you watch TV at dinner?