Prayer to start a race

dearest lord:

let me smite my competitors today on this field which you have so graciously given us. those who fall beneath our spikes today are those who do not trust in your compassion and strength and yearn to see us fail. with your banner before us, we lead the charge against those who have not trained 120 mile weeks, nor wore minimalist shoes, so that the ever lasting glory of victory will be ours (in your name, of course.)

amen.

Wrong!

You have to pray to the real creator:

And that's the Flying Spaghetti Monster

more infos here:

http://www.venganza.org/

and here a painting that illustrates the creation of mankind:

http://www.vestaldesign.com/vestalblog/uploaded_images/Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage-720112.jpg

Whatever. If a bunch of delusional retards want to just stand there and recite meaningless Iron Age poetry before the start, let them. More space for me to do warm-up striders.

No, if you pray to the real thing it works.

Problem is that they are not praying to the Flying Spaghetti Monster it's pretty much wasted time.

I mean it also makes more sense as we all know that pasta is good for runners.

The BIG question of this thread is "How many people here know the origin of the name 'Ron Obvious'"? ;-)

Before every race I quickly and quietly say, "Oh Great Lord, let my body be strong, my mind be stronger, and my competitors weak. Bless me Rexing, Amen."

I am a Christian and have thought about the same thing. On one hand you know that Jesus Christ is Lord and should be honored and praised. However, its important to respect other peoples beliefs even if they are not truth. This is a hard one. I would say that if the people who are putting on the event want to do it then they should do it. Its their constitutional right. The eople choose to be in that event so if they don't want to listen to a prayer then they should'nt do the event. On the other hand in a arena such as public education the students are not choosing to be their so it probably should'nt be forced on them. However, the facts are that since prayer has been taken out of schools in the 60's, violence has grown at incredible rates. Unfortanelty, I believe theres a correlation.

Run with Perserverance wrote:

However, the facts are that since prayer has been taken out of schools in the 60's, violence has grown at incredible rates. Unfortanelty, I believe theres a correlation.

Were spelling and grammar removed from schools before your time, too?

Run with Perserverance wrote:

Unfortanelty

ekidenbiden wrote:

Wrong!

You have to pray to the real creator:

And that's the Flying Spaghetti Monster

more infos here:

http://www.venganza.org/

and here a painting that illustrates the creation of mankind:

http://www.vestaldesign.com/vestalblog/uploaded_images/Touched_by_His_Noodly_Appendage-720112.jpg

fool Rexing could take the flying spaghetti monster anyday, Rexing would eat him for breakfast

Run with Perserverance wrote:

However, the facts are that since prayer has been taken out of schools in the 60's, violence has grown at incredible rates. Unfortanelty, I believe theres a correlation.

You don't have to BELIEVE there is a corrleation. There simply is a correlation. You believe there is a causation, which ain't so smart. Since we've taken prayer out of schools in the 60's we've also seen the fall of Communism, the near eradication of polio and a huge rise in the availability of porn. Did god do those too because we stopped praying?

Also, violent crime has dropped every year for the last 25 years. We're safer now than we have ever been. So your fact are wrong too.

As a jewish runner I believe that your god was mere mortal. What kind of pompus schmuck comes on a message board and says others religious beliefs are wrong?? There are more muslims in he world does that make islam the true religon? Maybe. Its the same logic your using. The jewish people have been around three thousand years and will continue. If you study Judaism you will understand that the concept of the messiah is very small and almost irrelevant compared to following g-ds laws and living a life according to his rules. If im a damned heathen to you for doin that than so be it. Shalom.

Chuck Darwin wrote:

You don't have to BELIEVE there is a corrleation. There simply is a correlation. You believe there is a causation, which ain't so smart. Since we've taken prayer out of schools in the 60's we've also seen the fall of Communism, the near eradication of polio and a huge rise in the availability of porn. Did god do those too because we stopped praying?

Also, violent crime has dropped every year for the last 25 years. We're safer now than we have ever been. So your fact are wrong too.

uh the rise of porn is not a good thing

rock and roll fan wrote:

uh the rise of porn is not a good thing

Uh, yeah, but do you think god did that to punish us because we removed prayer from school?

The point is that we can correlate lots of things and that doesn't make them causative. Clear?

Furthermore, I think the rise in porn is sweet. ;)

If memory serves, in Marty Liquori's autobiography On the Run, he tells of being lined up for the NCAA XC championships. He was keyed up and nervous, and a Villanova teammate droned on with a prayer (let us avoid turning our ankles on stones, let us not bog down in streams, let us run for your glory, etc) while the rest of the field was staring and waiting. At last the fellow said "Amen," immediately followed by Liquori screaming, "LET'S KILL THOSE MOTHERF***ERS!"

Jumbo just shook his head.

Praying before a race is a waste of time. Everyone knows God is too busy deciding which football team he will help win on the weekends.

For what it's worth this is what I pray before each race silently, altough my friends have seen my lips moving:

"Lord, thank you for giving us the chance to run in this race today. Please let all run well and please let no one get hurt. In Jesus' name we pray Amen."

[It seems to me that no one would really get upset about that little prayer. When I say "Merry Christmas" by accident to some of my Jewish or secular friends they repeat the greeting back (usually with a chuckle), knowing it is a message of peace and happiness; essentially a nice thing. At the same time if someone wished me a "Happy Chanukkah" or "Good Ramadan" I'd like to think I'd say "Thanks and the same to you" accepting it in the spirit in which it's intended. It's the thought that counts.]

TROLL ALERT

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LOL. That's actually a funny story. Humor, too, was one of HIS creations after all.