Why should an atheist be angry? Let me count the ways ...

A blogger named Greta Christina posted on October 15 a long and rambling but interesting and entertaining list of reasons why atheists might be angry. There are of course some reasons that are good, some less so, some undeniably true, some on a little shakier ground, but since she did the hard work, I thought I'd give her list a little more publicity.

My favorite part of the list is about one of the most incoherent (to me) aspects of faith: prayer. An extended quote seems worthwhile:

I'm angry that so many believers treat prayer as a sort of cosmic shopping list for God. I'm angry that believers pray to win sporting events, poker hands, beauty pageants, and more. As if they were the center of the universe, as if God gives a shit about who wins the NCAA Final Four -- and as if the other teams/ players/ contestants weren't praying just as hard.

I'm especially angry that so many believers treat prayer as a cosmic shopping list when it comes to health and illness. I'm angry that this belief leads to the revolting conclusion that God deliberately makes people sick so they’ll pray to him to get better. And I'm angry that they foist this belief on sick and dying children -- in essence teaching them that, if they don't get better, it's their fault. That they didn't pray hard enough, or they didn't pray right, or God just doesn't love them enough.

And I get angry when other believers insist that the cosmic shopping list isn't what religion and prayer are really about; that their own sophisticated theology is the true understanding of God. I get angry when believers insist that the shopping list is a straw man, an outmoded form of religion and prayer that nobody takes seriously, and it's absurd for atheists to criticize it.

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