Praying Will Not Help

Tuesday 17th November

Since the atrocities in Paris on Friday night Facebook has been inundated by posts asking us to Pray for Paris, Pray for Peace.  And here I have to offend many friends – Praying will not help.  It may help to make you feel a bit better; it may even make you cry.  But you are deluded if you think it will stop these outrages.  Let me give all you Religious People a simple message.  GOD IS NOT LISTENING.  Even if he does exist, or some intelligence created the Universe billions of years ago, he isn’t listening NOW.

Let me tell you something else, those callous and cowardly killers prayed to God too, and just before they pulled the ripcords, or started spraying the bullets around.  They prayed to God, and as any Historian will tell you, the Christian and the Jewish and the Muslim religion all have the same roots, and essentially the same God.

Religion IS the problem, not the solution.  Stop praying and start acting.  And yes, we all feel powerless in the face of such horror.  So, what can you do?  Write to your M.P. and insist that real peace talks are started NOW, including ISIS.  Because sooner or later we are going to have to talk to them.

Forty years ago I lived through terrorist attacks in London.  The IRA did not lay their weapons down because anyone’s prayers were answered.  They stopped killing people because a political settlement was reached.  True, it is fragile, it is imperfect, it needs constant re-enforcement, but it is better by far than the killing which preceded it.

So get off your knees, stop praying and start doing something.  Sign Petitions, join Marches, pressure those in power and stop blaming Muslims.  And who knows – a better world may just be possible.

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