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If You Were Dying...

I wouldn't waste my time praying. If there is a God, and God thought I was worth saving, I think He'd do something about the situation, without my whining.

But, I know a little something about God (assuming there is one, for argument's sake), that most of His followers don't: I know that I am stronger than God.
I know that I have more power to save my own life, and/or to make the best use of the time I have left, myself. I know that, if chose to do so, I could help save the life of others who might be on the verge of dying.
God (if He even exists) is essentially powerless to do anything of this sort.
God won't even move a simple table out of the way of a seizure victim, so the person won't hit their head while convulsing.
So, once again, prayer would be a waste of time.

It doesn't take much to be more powerful that God: All you have to do is be able to intervene in human affairs.

l0rca said:
The question be changed to "when you are dying". We're all going to die.
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Not those few immortals beings among us...
 
I certainly would not pray, but I might ask anyone present to assure me that no religious services would be conducted as a result of my death.

It would be nearly accurate to say that I might pray for a continued lack of prayer.
 
I've been in a car accident, trampled by a war horse, and had a freak accident with an automated platelet donation machine where I thought I was suffering a heart attack or embolism.

At no point did I pray.
 
Would I pray? Can't say for certain. I've been near death and can't remember a thing about it.

I can hope that my last moments on earth would be filled with thoughts of family and good times shared. I think if my family were with me I'd spend those moments reminiscing and expressing the desire that they hold no regrets. Having lost eight family members in a five year span, the "no regret" part is important to me.
 
Since dying will be my final experience, I hope that I will be fully aware of the sensation and accept it with composure. Distracting myself from the experience with prayer or lamenting "why me, why now?" will be fruitless, depriving me of the last thing I will ever feel. Death will be my last hurrah, I want to feel it!

But, not too soon, I hope.
 
I would probably pray. I was raised catholic, and because of an anxiety disorder I revert back to childhood behaviors when sufficiently stressed. I put praying in the category of slightly embarrassing things you might do just before you die. Kind of like crying, or like losing control of your bowels.
 
Endymion said:
I would probably pray. I was raised catholic, and because of an anxiety disorder I revert back to childhood behaviors when sufficiently stressed. I put praying in the category of slightly embarrassing things you might do just before you die. Kind of like crying, or like losing control of your bowels.
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Hey Endy, welcome to the forum. That's cool. We humans are often irrational. As I often say, I won't eat Balut, eyeballs or testicals simply because I find them disgusting. That is not a rational response. Hey, so long as we recognize our behavior is irrational then that is cool, IMO.
 
I hate to startle anyone, but we are all dying. Everyone is, all the time.


Oh, you mean like about to die suddenly? Yes, I have a prayer prepared and it goes as follows: Oh Lord, I know I haven't been the best gigolo, but I have been the best gigolo in Ohio!
 
I might, but I'm not an atheist. I don't believe that it would do any good in preventing my death, however, but it might somehow offer a little solace. I'm not religious either, so I wouldn't have the problem of deciding which one, just 'God' will do.
 
Shadow said:
If you were dying would you pray?
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No.
How can I be sure?
I was quite close to death a bit more than two years ago (anaphylactic shock).
When I realized that it´s getting close, and the emergency team hadn´t arrived yet, I only concentrated on one thing: keep on breathing.
Since I survived it (and it was close), the automatically made decision not to waste energy with prayers to an imaginary friend, seems to have been the right one.
 
It would be weird... really... like praying to Zeus or trying hard to believe Santa is real or doing a rain dance in desperation for rain. My husband was dying of cancer... lots of people prayed... it didn't work. Neither of us prayed. We tried positive thinking and such... but reality doesn't really care about what people wish reality to be.

When people ask me to pray for them, I feel weird. I agree... but I just feel like I'm reciting mumbo jumbo in my head. It would be the same if I asked them to wish on a star for me, I think.
 
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