STILL PRAYING FOR PARIS

Does not this trend for calls to refrain from praying for Paris smack as a little small-minded if not opportunistic? We are being told by a very vocal but growing minority that the attacks of Friday 13th November are proof that religion has 'done enough.' No, it hasn't, because religion is not the cause of any of this; it's merely one of several popular excuses for people who wish to do harm. If faith were intrinsically evil and lack of it the only way to peace, atheist Bolsheviks under Lenin wouldn't have implemented the reign of what has been dubbed the Red Terror. For those who don't know, this is when, beginning in 1917, those wishing to continue practising any religion were impaled, crucified and boiled, their places of worship burned down. The Rwandan genocide of 1994 committed by one ethnic group against another irrespective of religious affiliation would never have happened if religion was the one thing in need of eradication to bring about world peace.

No, religion has not done enough; people of all faiths and none have used any and every excuse they can get their hands on to commit evil against each other since time immemorial. And even if religion were really the sole reason for historical and current terror in the world rather than disaffection and man's lust for power over his brother, what of prayer? When those members of ISIS stop five times each day to pray, is not this the one thing they do that is good at best, or ineffectual at worst? If Allah is all-merciful as the majority of our Muslim friends believe, he will ignore those prayers born from a desire to do harm to the world and use the opportunity to convert the individual to a more peaceful way. If, as our atheist friends believe, there is no Allah, then those praying for world domination are wasting their time and at worst, end up with a placebo's boost to their own courage.

Even if those who do not believe in God decry religion, prayer has had demonstrative positive effects in numerous academic studies. Even if there is no God listening, prayer is good for the one doing the praying, as long as he is not praying for the downfall of another. That being the case, maybe if our leaders prayed or at least stopped to reflect more they wouldn't be so quick to yell "War!" in retaliation every time we are attacked, thus perpetuating the endless cycle of death we have been in for centuries with one enemy or another.

Maybe prayer has no active benefit for those being prayed for, in and of the action itself (though I believe it does), but it is still an active form of support and no less well-intended than the ocean of French-flag profile pictures, hashtags and professions of solidarity from those of no faith. And I may be wrong in this but the people who are angrily rebuffing offers of prayer don't seem to be those who were in Paris and directly effected by the events last Friday but those who have their own (in some cases understandable) reasons for disliking religion.