A contributor recently opined that I failed to understand my own opinion submission, “When prayer becomes the target.” I’m bemused to have someone explain my own thoughts back to me, and yet get them wrong!
This is a matter of epistemology. That’s a fancy word for how we know what we know — what counts as truth, what we accept and what we dismiss. Christians believe prayer is real because God is real; atheists dismiss prayer because they’ve already ruled God out. It all comes down to this: faith versus unbelief. That is the heart of the divide and explains why we talk past each other when tragedy strikes.
For those who don’t believe in God, prayer is not just ineffective, it’s worthless. For secularists, only political action counts. That’s why the four prayer cynics I cited responded as they did. They all dismissed prayer. But dismissing prayer is no neutral act; it is a worldview that insults every believer who knows prayer is the first and most powerful defense against evil. That is why Christians reject the epistemology of atheism.
