Christian Bus Ad Advises Child with Druggie Parents to Pray, Not Call for Help

Speechless. Absolutely speechless.

It’s staggering to think that praying to an invisible sky fairy will be helpful in that situation. Pitiful.

Edit- In that or ANY situation.

Maybe if I had prayed to a fictional character my mom wouldn’t have died of a heroin overdose. Stupid ad makes me want to punch someone.

 Now put up an ‘atheists exist’ ad and let it get the same number of complaints, and see if they take the same approach…

Two comments- Just because you don’t believe in prayer doesn’t meant that it doesn’t help those that do. And nowhere in the ad does it say pray instead of or to the exclusion of telling other people such as a teacher.  You are adding that implication based upon your atheist bias.

So, an ad that says “Atheists. ” is too controversial.  But an ad that tells children to stay in a dangerous situation and not get help is just fine.  

So controversy = bad.  Helping children stay in life threatening situations = good.  Gotcha.

Praying may help some people feel better. But it absolutely will not help a child whose parents are using drugs get into a safer position, nor will the child’s prayers have the slightest impact on the parents.

The ad is horrible advice- unethical in the extreme. In most other contexts, its creators might actually incur legal liability when the predictable results (death or injury) occur.

 This reminds me of a joke that circulated in the (liberal) Christian community that my mom still belongs to:

A man was in the middle of a lake, when his boat sprung a leak. He had no lifevest, and the shore was too far to swim. So he prayed to God: “please save me!”
While he was baining out water as fast as he could, onother boat passed him. The people on the boat asked him: “Do you need a hand?”
“No,” he answered “God will save me.”
His bailing could not keep the boat afloat and while treading water he closed his eyes and prayed: “Dear God, please save my life!”
After a little while, another boat came near and the occupants reached out their hands to help him in their boat, but he refused: “I do not need your help, because God will save me.”
His legs started to tire, and it became difficult to keep his head above water. Fervently he prayed: “Dear God, I’ve tried to be a good man, please spare my life.”
Nearby he heard a splash. A man had jumped out of his boat and swam to him. “Take my hand!” he said. “I’ll save you!”
But the man refused. Between gulps of water he managed to say: “No” *blub* “God” his head went under for a moment “I prayed” and then he slipped into the deep.

When he entered throught the pearly gates and met his maker, the man asked Him: “My Lord, I prayed for my life, why did you not save me?”
And the Lord answered: “Not save you? I sent three boats!”

While I no longer believe in the existence of an omnipotent supernatural being, I like the morale of this story: Do not sit on your a$$ and wait for God to fix things for you. Take every chance that is offered to you.

Many theists that do not care to give up their belief in a God, would do well to amend their world view to one that accepts that people and technology (like medical science) may be instruments through which their God operates. In my opinion, it would prevent a lot of unnecessary suffering.

 This is in response to all of the comments responding to mine.  You guys are letting your atheist bias read too much into this ad. There is absolutely no implication that the message of the ad is to pray and then stay quiet and not tell anyone else.  I am sure that an atheist child would ignore it and a child who is a believer would read and it be reminded that all of our troubles are to be brought to God. It does provide us peace and reminds us that we are not alone in our troubles.  You never know, that reminder might be just what a child needs to ask for help from someone else. 

“” You never know, that reminder might be just what a child needs to ask for help from someone else.

“We do know, “ASK FOR HELP” would do that better.

Again, the bias you think you see is a bullshit detector.

This advert will totally backfire, too. Kids might read it and follow its advice, notice that their situation does not improve, and conclude that there is no God. Well don, idiotic bus sign!

I think we all agree there’s a bias here. But I don’t think that any misinterpretation of this ad’s message is coming from an atheist bias.

It is viewpoints like yours, publicly expressed, and like those in the ad, that demonstrate the ways in which religion materially harms individuals and society, and which provide justification for ethical people to speak out against it.

“Dear child: call 1-800-668-6868 immediately. While you listen to hold messages or redial after a busy signal, pray some more and wait for real help.Dear everyone else. Donate to Kids Help Phone at http://org.kidshelpphone.ca/en/donate/. Make sure this kid has more than prayer in his corner.”

This should tell you something about how effective prayer is..

Again I say:

If you can point out where it directs the reader to “tell others” then I’ll happily and humbly apologize for overreacting. In case you are thinking of replying with ‘it’s assumed’; don’t.

Actually when I and others  go to orphanages and food banks what we here is that we are answers to their prayers.  So yes it is evidence that prayers work.

Tell that to kids praying for their parents to come back. Those prayers never seem to work.
You religious bias is letting you see evidence where there is none. But then again, you don’t have a very high standerd of what evidence is when it comes to your own believe. So no surprise here.

Praying to a god that does not exist is not harmful to a person.  Humans need to be able to cope with tragedies and suffering.  Believing in a fictional
god may be beneficial to that child.  People including children must create meaning out of suffering in order to deal with that suffering.  We are meaning creating creatures.  

If believing in god helps a person create meaning out of their suffering them more power to them.  Science is showing that religion helps reduce anxiety, religion is beneficial.  A good book on creating meaning out of suffering is Viktor Frankl’s “Man’s Search for Meaning”.  I also know from personal experiences how a belief in  god can help a person deal with suffering.  

Religion helped me deal with tragedies and suffering in my childhood.  An atheist form of belief would not have worked for me at this time.  Of course suffering is a complex issue, if someone finds solace and help in belief or unbelief then more power to them. 
Let me also point out that I am not saying that a belief in god is superior to non-belief they are equal.  

I am saying that what ever works for the individual is what matters.  Lastly, one of my biggest problems with atheist is that at times their prejudice towards religion blinds them to the greater complexities of an issue like suffering.

Harold

 I was wondering when someone would take the position that   encouraging a child to pray  should be a criminal offense.  So much for the freedom to exercise religion.

If you look at the tiny print below the response, it suggests that this is an “actual” Bible verse from the “New Living Translation”…
KJV (King James Version) :

 6Be careful for
nothing; but in every thing by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving
let your requests be made known unto God.  7And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.NIV (New International Version) :6 Do not be anxious about
anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with
thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7 And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. The underlying message of the ad is, “the solution to every problem is to turn to the Bible/God” – both of which are useless.

Good thing it’s a sign aimed at children and not contract law or statute huh?

You have got to be joking. So you advocate children praying instead of calling for actual help? You are completely blind to this perfect example of how religion causes more harm than good. Religion as a crutch is all fine and dandy, but it should supplement real-life action, not replace it. Do you not understand that?

Have you not heard of religious expression? The freedom to express a religion goes beyond the right to belief a certain way in entails actions as well.  Your opinion that prayer does no good is just that, an opinion and one that is held by a minority of people. I can assure you that this ad would not support a claim of recovery and any lawyer taking that case would be thrown out of court with sanctions.

There is only one action prescribed; pray. Unless this, by itself, fixes the problems described then ambiguity exists. In assuming the reader has the wherewithal to use common sense and mature understand it, the language is not agreed on, it therefore becomes ambiguous as meaning is not controlled.

 So you are admitting that prays alone doesn’t work?

“It is not ambiguous because I say so. The implication, though non-existent, is apparent to ME.”

Come on RW, think clearly here. “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.” Do I really need to draw the connecting lines? Apparently so.

The ad says to not worry about anything. It suggests to replace that worry with prayer, praying about everything in life. In the context of the given question to the responder, this is telling the child to not worry about his or her parents’ drug problem, and to instead pray about it. It is clearly suggesting a course of inaction, with prayer being the only action recommended.

 Not saying that at all.

 Yes you did.

“most religious people pray and take their children to a doctor.”

Why are they taking the sick to the doctor if God is all powerful. The Bible says that to pray for anything and it will be granted. I guess Jesus lied again.

You are assuming that God has never healed an amputee.  You are also assuming that in God’s love he must answer the prayers the way you think they should be answered.  Both of which do not prove that prayers do not work.

 If the ad said- “Go tell your teacher”  Would that imply that the ad is saying don’t go tell the police?

You are adding to the language when you say that unless this fixes the problem, then the ambiguity exists.

The only implication is directly from the ad saying to pray and the child will experience “God’s peace.” Or did you not read it?

The child is asking for help with his parents, and the response is to be silent and pray.

Honestly, where does it say be silent? 

 Right where it says “instead, pray about everything”

Ramen, glen!

Problem: Mommy & Daddy do drugs.
What to do: “Don’t worry” + “instead, pray” = Report the issue to god, no further action is needed (hence further action is silenced)

Where does it say to do anything else?

But there is no god…

Fooled…the orphans were praying for ponies.

This is addressed towards a child, a child asking for help, wouldn’t you give that child a little more substantial advice, such as telling a teacher, rather than just pray?  You may know what avenues for help are available but this child doesn’t or help wouldn’t be requested from Jesus.  It’s manipulative and dangerous to give that kind of half-assed advice to a child.

 “Praying to a god that does not exist is not harmful to a person.”

Praying is not harmful, endorsing the act of praying as a sole solution to a harmful situation is. The ad clearly provides the reader a singular solution; pray INSTEAD of worrying about the issue at hand. Prayer without further action will not correct this or any situation where harm is pending.

They did! They ran the “There probably is no god” ad and didn’t pull it. 

I am leery of my bias, so I do appreciate you pointing it out.  I agree that prayer may very well help the child deal emotionally with things beyond their control.  But “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. ” doesn’t seem very far away from ‘to the exclusion of anything else’.  No, it doesn’t explicitly say “don’t do anything else” but it also does say “pray about everything” and “don’t worry about anything“.

I only skimmed the comments so if I missed something, then I apologize.  But another facet that has been ignored, is the drugs. No one’s going to bat for the drugs here?

Drugs can be great.  And a child can have other reasons for worrying about their parents doing drugs than cracked out parents with needle marks and missing teeth. They also have a shitbrained education system telling them that all drugs are bad, regardless of their parents wishes on the matter.  I can easy see a child overhearing their parents talking about drugs and being convinced that their parents are doing something bad.

I’m not having kids and I understand it’s a delicate matter, but I’d be honest with my kids about drug use. Obviously I’d forbid them until they were old enough to make their own choices, but drugs are out there, and a good deal of them that I personally have done have been healthier for my mental state than two decades of Catholicism.   And the best part is, the more time passes, the more I see articles saying science backs me up on this.

 I wonder if they would reject an add promoting fast food for the overweight, or sweets for diabetics? Or just one saying all medication and medical treatments are dangerous?

More importantly it says to pray and stop worrying. That implies to not do anything else about it after you’ve prayed.

It is interesting to see the public responses to some of our
displays.  In the past 5+ years we have posted literally thousands of
‘studies’ on public transit in Canada (the majority on the TTC) and it is
surprising to us how little response we do get from the general public. 
Thankfully, most of the responses we get are quite positive.  Sometimes
the testimonies we receive are life
changing which is what encourages us to keep doing what we do. The text for
this particular ‘study’ has been on the TTC almost continuously for
5-years.  It was only when someone took a photo of it last week and
Tweeted with a negative comment it that it has become an issue.  We now
live in a world of instant media.

Over the years of this ministry we have come to learn
that people’s paradigms dramatically impact their response to any message we
might display.  I have personally experienced too many direct answers to
prayer to not believe that  God is perfectly able to respond to any
child’s genuine cry for help.  In the Bible Jesus holds up children as an
example of what our faith should be like.

Consider this for a moment… A child prays the suggested
prayer in genuine faith (recognizing that God is able).  God answers that
prayer by convicting the parents of the damage they are doing to themselves and
their child and they turn from doing drugs.  Would you not then agree that
our counsel has been effective?  Our paradigm is faith based.  Others
will scoff and say “Ridiculous!”

Having said this, some have made an excellent point that
children need to be directed to resources where they can find practical
help.  To this end there are other ads on public transit which promote the
Kid’s Help Phone,
an organization that is equipped to direct children to practical resources if
they feel the need.  Due to copyright restrictions, etc. we cannot simply
display this information on our ‘studies’ but children on public transit who
read the ads can avail themselves of both the spiritual and the practical.

Our transit messages may not be the complete answer to
every situation but we do believe they are at least part
of the answer.

David

David
Harrison, President

Bus
Stop Bible Studies

 You are assuming a god exists, that has never been proven.

Do you believe god answers all prayers?

Do you believe that prayer “moves mountains”?

Do you believe prayer heals?

Do you have any real clients? Or do you just troll around these boards all day playing a fake lawyer on the interwebs?

Exactly – it is perfectly geared toward people like RWLAW – you know, feeble-minded, developmentally stunted stupid people.

Have you ever known an amputee whop prayed for his/her limb to grown back actually see the limb grow back? Nope.

As stupid as that ad is, telling children to report their parents to the cops just for doing drugs is far worse advice.

DavidOHarrison –  ‘Our transit messages may not be the complete answer to
every situation but we do believe they are at least part
of the answer.’

Wrong your message are totally delusional, out of date, useless to the victims, not to forget that religion is the number cause of slowing down advancement in science, medicine, psychology and human rights.

Wake up, grow up and try to live in the 21st century please.

 1. No one need assume that amputees don’t get healed. It doesn’t happen. There’s no reason to think it has ever happened. You just argued that people who don’t think a unicorn is behind them RIGHT NOW are just “assuming” that and implied that they are wrong.

2. The Bible specifically says that people will receive what they pray for. Your dishonest semantics about “ambiguity” (using legal tricks as Apologetics? You don’t see the problem there? Really?) don’t magically erase that.

 Christ, but you’re thick!

How the fuck is PRAYER going to do ANYTHING to help that kid? Oooh, a bit more peace of mind? Yeah, that’ll last until the next time Daddy gets drunk and starts throwing Mommy around the house like a ragdoll.

PRAYER DOES NOTHING.

It is irresponsible (possibly even negligent) to even suggest to a child that they don’t need REAL help, they just need JAAAYZUSS-AH and life will magickally just *POOF* and be okay.

 So, you admit that even a child is smart enough to read the true intent of the ad, and you, a lawyer, could not.

Great. Done with you. Buh-bye.

Excellent point.

Also, the fact that at the same time, we’re practically pushing drugs on kids. No problem if the kid legit needs to be dosed to keep him from, like, bouncing off the walls and disrupting the entire class, or something, obviously. But there are also school administrators and parents who are pushing doctors for a diagnosis because little Cznofleykke’s behavioral problems can’t possibly be a result of a no-discipline kid-centric “parenting” style. *rolleyes* We also have adverts for this drug and that drug and what-have-you running on television 24/7.

We’re telling our children “drugs are bad, mmkay”, while inundating them with data telling them that, no matter what it is, “there’s a drug for that!” (All while trying to convince them that a wonderful little plant — a PLANT, FFS! — is The Worst Drug Evar!)

I’m going to go have a smoke, now, because I can’t EVEN.

I agree, especially since small-ish kids tend to generalize “drugs” to mean ALL drugs, not just the “bad” ones. (And some of debatable “badness”).

Plus, there’s just something… creepy and wrong about telling kids to narc out their parents. It’s Orwellian.

When I read the section that reads “If you do this you will experience God’s peace,” to my wife she suggested that means that the drug addled parents will eventually kill the kid and the kid will get a free ticket to heaven.

So now tell me that it is not detrimental to children.

You are assuming that God has never healed an amputee because you have never heard of it. As for the verse you cite, Mat. 7:7 it says pray and you will receive, not that you will get what you pray for in that moment but what you need. Sometimes that is a no.

You can say that all you want but like it or not, your charitable work  may have been the answer to someone’s prayer.  

 It is a coincidence. Like it or not.

The probability of a prayer being ansewered is the same as random chance.

 Then why didn’t god help the kids? Why is it that god can’t tamper with abusive drug-addicted parents’ free will, but the kid’s free-will is fair game?

Is social services taking away the parents’ free-will when they take their kids and put the parents in jail for child-endangerment? No? Then why can’t god do something about it?

(Child welfare services do not count as god’s action, because they are so bogged down with thousands of cases, that god would have to be incredibly inefficient and powerless if that tiny service was his/her/it’s answer)

I think if you read between the lines, you get a whole different scenario.

“Hey kid, your parents work very hard, and they get tired. The last thing they need is their whiny brat running around talking about Jesus. So why don’t you go in your room and pray, and let your parents make that funny smell in the bathroom where they leave the fan running. OK? Thanks”

 It’s wordplay because there are thousands of others in Uganda and millions of others around the world who just suffer and die. Why aren’t all their prayers answered? Does god just suddenly decide that some people don’t “need” food or clean water or adequate health care?

Yes, I think you may have forgotten earlier that this ad was targeted at children. Children don’t have the same critical thinking skills that adults (should) have. A child would read that ad and think “if I pray it will help me.” A child will not read that ad and think “If I pray it will help me, but I should also tell an adult and get outside help.” Children tend to think literally.

The ad directs readers to web sites.   No doubt that at the bottom of it they are selling something, but it’s probably legal.  I’ve seen ads for quack medicine on buses, and that’s equally immoral.

 And if you did I would turn the other cheek.

 Why are you so threatened? Unless you do a test to determine the belief system of those that you provide charity to, then how do you know that your help was not the answer to someone’s prayer?  Do you only provide charity to atheists?  If you have provided charity to a Christian in the past I can guarantee you that that Christian has thanked God for your generosity. 

It’s insulting because you are claiming credit for what he does.  Not you personally, but you’re saying it wasn’t him, it was God.  The closest analogy I can think of (and it’s not great) would be “You only give to charity because you’re trying to buy your way into heaven”.  It degrades and diminishes what you do.

http://www.busstopbiblestudies.com/contact/atheist-visitors.phpAt least they have this.
Don’t go if you want your brain to not hurt

For me, I don’t mind if someone says “God Bless You!” if I do something for them.  I usually smile and say “I’m an atheist, but thanks anyway”.

However.

You saying prayer has anything to do with my actions is a different matter.  In particular because you know I’m an atheist.  It’s funny that I have free will to not believe in God, but not free will to do good things without God making me.

I have personally experienced too many direct answers to prayer to not believe that God is perfectly able to respond to any child’s genuine cry for help.

Nice use of the word ‘genuine’ there.  So if a child does exactly what you tell them – don’t worry about anything, instead pray to god – and nothing happens, is it because they aren’t ‘genuine’ cries for help?  Or is it that God is perfectly able to respond, and he just decides not to?
Also, I have personally experienced too many direct answers to prayer to not believe that Discordia will intercept prayers to any god and force her will to happen.  What argument do you have to reject my personal revelation, that I cannot turn around and use on yours?  What I’m trying to say here, is that if you aren’t talking to your fellow believers, don’t use personal revelation as proof for an all-powerful god.
Though it is true that copyright restrictions prevent you from directly copying the text of the Kid’s Help Phone ads, do they also prevent you from mentioning their existence at all?
Finally, you say “Our transit messages may not be the complete answer to every situation but we do believe they are at least part of the answer.”  They’re as much a part of the answer as Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs are part of this balanced breakfast – the breakfast is balanced before the cereal is even added.

“Why on earth do y’all even argue with this psuedo-lawyer fuckwit”

Because he/she is a person and I am too principled to deny a person their voice. As an atheist I argue for equality, the right to be regarded by deeds, by action, by the content of my character, not by lack of belief. It is hypocritical and counter productive to expect fairness without offering the same courtesy.

This means, as long as he/she is polite or polite-ish (I don’t object to snark) then the least I can do is return in kind.  

Unfortunately, your god isn’t a mandated reported of child abuse.

If you think anything bad I do is because I have free will, and anything good is God’s will, then we’re not going to meet on this one either.

All the more reason that if I actually did believe in your god, I would reject him.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eefS0gayKFc 

TerranRichCollapse

I don not advocate children praying instead of calling
for help.  No were in the ad does it tell children to do this.  Terran the whole reason why I posted is because this is not an example of how religion causes harm.  

My problem with atheist is that they are so blinded by their own prejudice that they cannot evaluate anything dealing with religion accurately.  My point is this religion and prayer are not crutches they are real life actions.  Taking a child away from their parents is only part of the solution.  

Whether you like it or not religion and prayer can be another part.  Atheist need to wake up and put down their blinders and realizes that there are other ways of dealing with things that are just as valid as the way atheist deal with things. 

Harold

Tilted Horizon,

They are not endorsing prayer as a sole solution.  This is an intent that you are reading into this.  The ad also offers a phone
number.  If you check the website this phone number is manned by my people for the purpose of helping those who need help.  If these people believed that all you had to do is pray then they would not have people trained in how to help distressed people.  

My biggest problem is not that atheists fine this ad ineffective but that they have this dogmatic view that religion is harmful.  The
belief that religion is harmful is no truer then the belief that atheism is harmful.  This dogma of atheist blinds them to the larger world around them.  Atheists at times seem as close minded as any religious fundamentalist.  As I stated above religion and prayer are pragmatically useful; the good that religion produces out weighs
any bad. 
 
-Harold

Liz

“The big lie of religion is CERTAINTY”

This is not actually true.  A lot of things besides religion give us
certainty.  Feminism, Humanism, Secularism also gives people certainty.  The reason for this has to do with how our brains work.  Our brains can not stand uncertainty.  Certainty is not the big lie of religion.

“This will happen (or won’t) because it’s God’s will” or “you dion’t have the understanding to appreciate why this happened but you will.”

God’s will is a powerful way to create meaning and has helped many people deal with adverse situations. Humans by thier very nature have to create meaning.  This includes atheist.  Now different people call it different things, fate, luck or god.  These are just concepts that help us answer the big questions in life.  These concepts are still around because they offer us practical use.  It does not matter if luck or fate or God exist or not.  All that matters is that people find these beliefs useful.  

Harold

This is in response to your last post. I think that good or bad it is your choice, but that God uses your choices in his plan.  Because it is not just your choices that are in play.  They are interrelated with other people’s choices.

Read the ad again. It specifically says to not worry about anything, and pray about everything. That is clearly replacing real action with self-reflection.

And no, prayer is not an action. Prayer doesn’t feed children. Prayer doesn’t help the sick. Prayer doesn’t save lives in a life-or-death situation. Prayer doesn’t do anything other than make the one praying feel better about perhaps not being able to do anything else of use.

There have been studies, time and time again, that show that prayer does nothing. You may or may not be aware of the recent study where heart surgery patients who knew they were being prayed for actually did worse than those were not prayed for. I really don’t see how prayer is anything but a self-soothing action.

What you call “blinders”, I call seeing reason and logic. It’s one thing to say to a child, “Now that you’ve done all you can, all that is left is to pray,” but it’s a whole other thing to say, “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything.”

No, that is not an appeal to ridicule. An appeal to ridicule would be me saying, “You believe in ___? What else do you believe in, fairies? Unicorns? Ha ha!” That’s an appeal to ridicule. Being incredulous that you’re a parent… that is not.

I’m sorry, but when faced with people praying for me vs. people physically help me, I’ll choose the latter every single time. Wishful thinking is not action.

“Your opinion that prayer does no good is just that, an opinion and one that is held by a minority of people.”

Ah, the appeal to popularity. My opinion (which is NOT mere opinion) is a minority, therefore it’s easily dismissed.

Also, there are studies that show, without a shadow of a doubt, that prayer is not beneficially, and in some cases people who knew they were being prayed for were worse off as a result.

Also, you asked earlier, “How many people do you know who pray instead of taking action?” There are plenty of cases out there. For example: 
http://www.whatstheharm.net/christianscience.html

You are being willfully ignorant, and it’s sad really. Appeals to popularity, arguments from ignorance… you should be aware of logical fallacies.

By certainty I mean:

Unquestioning acceptance.
Misguided faith.
Unreasonable tolerance.
Dangerous passivity.
Heartbreaking expectation.
Agonizing and excruciating (as in  the verb TO CRUCIFY: how appropriate today!) hope of the impossible.

I say this as a surviving child who was told to pray while her leg putrified and rotted to the bone with osteomyelitis in 1975-6. I say this as a surviving teen who stumbled through high school with a knee fused solid in a bent position, sure she had failed to understand  God’s Perfect Universe and so had not been healed. I say this as a recovered believer with two failed marriages, 35 years of PTSD and a horrific time of coming-to-my-senses in my past, all because of the religious protection that is STILL LEGAL TO PARENTS in 38 states.

I say this as an above-knee amputee whose leg was so fucked-up by that childhood religious treatment that it was beyond all surgery and so cut off five years ago on February 26, 2007. (The day kinda sticks in my mind, you know?)
 
Is it reasonable to admit that religion should do no harm? Would it be worth evolving past primative beliefs in order to save the suffering of kids across this country TODAY?? Is this collateral damage part of your so-called “practical use”?

Faith in a god has outlived its usefulness.

 Well, damn.  You touched on just about every single thing I was going to say in reply!  Though I do have one point that I’ll add above.

The implication of the ad IS that you don’t need to worry since “god” will take care of it. There is no other suggestion given. (And it might do you some good to worry about your grammar a bit).

This hiher light minitries ware the powre of God manifest, if you are in any spiritual problem and you need a solution thire is nothing God can not do(jere 32 ves 27) you can contact us with in out email address or through our phone number 08030897033 08184268576 for prayers and you will the power of God in action

To be fair the cop probably won’t help things either.

Praying for somebody to change is not one of the many miracles God can perform. I can’t stress this enough. God cannot physically fix problems himself as he has given us “free will”. Praying for your dad to change is not what she should be praying for in my opinion. Praying for a solution is what she should be asking for. A way to “get help”. God works in indescribable ways sometimes. I don’t know why God hasn’t answered your moms prayers but I do know that he is listening. I will pray for your mother as well as you. I hope one day you can see the light in his words and in his miracles. God bless!

Maybe ‘God’ doesn’t exist.

You are projecting your “I know, I’ve been there” on me.  You haven’t been me.  You assume I’m selfish, but just because you were selfish doesn’t mean I’m selfish.  Just because you’re happier now doesn’t mean I’m not truly happy.

In the same way that Christians often accuse atheists of trying to understand God on their own terms, you are trying to understand me on your terms.

 Maybe God took those children out of a horrific situation.  The alternative is that there is no God, in which case we are no more important than the flies we swat or the spiders we step on.   If our lives are just the produce of a Big Bang, then our lives don’t really have a point and the strong will just  survive longer than others.  Some will suffer some won’t.    Personally I believe in God.  I have been in many bad situations and have come out of them much stronger, and much more compassionate for others who have suffered.   Evil, with or without God in your heart, will always exist in this world.   God promises to give you the strength, and peace to get through it.  He has never broken that promise to me.