In the wake of natural disasters and mass shootings, the phrase ‘thoughts and prayers’ has become so ubiquitous that it’s turned into the world’s most depressing meme.
Despite the good intentions, it’s the kind of response that is often criticised as a way for political leaders to eschew responsibility. Bad press aside, it’s still pretty surprising that people hate thoughts and prayers enough to pay to avoid them.
Atheist and agnostic participants in the study paid an average of $3.50 to request that Christians keep them out of their conversations with the big guy. That’s an egregious amount of money to spend for the sake of pettiness. You could buy a coffee with that.
For the study, researchers gave $5 to a few hundred North Carolinians in the wake of 2018’s Hurricane Florence, and offered them the opportunity to exchange some of it for thoughts or prayers. They could choose anything from a priestly intercession to a humble spot in the mind of a non-religious person.
It makes some sense that religious participants put a premium of $7 on priestly prayers. Regardless of whether it works or not, at least they believe it does. There’s no evidence that vaginal steaming works either but it hasn’t stopped Gwyneth Paltrow from profiting off it.
At any rate, praying Hurricane Dorian away does a hell of a lot less damage than nuking it would’ve, so maybe Evangelicals are the States’ saving grace.
Receiving free money, only to squander it on some kind of grand statement about how terrible organised religion is seems like insanity to me. Not very logical or rational at all. After all, it’s not like they were paying to avoid a politician’s thoughts and prayers – that I could definitely relate to.
Obviously, practical assistance in responding to and preventing disasters is the best way to go, but that’s not always possible for the average Joe. It seems a little tragic that even the simple kindness of expressing sympathy can be made political.
Might want to rethink that Hallmark card, next time.