One of the few prayers that has stuck with me since becoming an atheist is the Serenity Prayer.
God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,The courage to change the things I can,And the wisdom to know the difference.
Now that I've seen the secular light, I know that it's pointless to ask of God what we can do for ourselves. This revised "prayer" serves as a reminder to do just that.
Brain, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change,
The courage to change the things I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
Revising further, it serves a new purpose. This is a reminder that while encouraging critical thinking and challenging fundamentalism is great, religious debates with some theists are a waste of time and resources. Furthermore, our own beliefs should always be subject to change given new insight or information.
Brain, grant me the serenity to accept the beliefs I cannot change,
The courage to change the beliefs I can,
And the wisdom to know the difference.
The Serenity Prayer, it's not just for theists and alcoholics anymore.
"religious debates with some theists are a waste of time and resources"
ReplyDeleteThis can be true, but especially when you are debating in a public forum, it is always possible that you are changing the mind of a bystander.
Also, think about all of the little things that slowly built up to change your mind. For me, there was no single interaction that changed my mind, but instead a huge number of little interactions. I wouldn't be surprised if I had seemed like a lost cause, especially early on in the process.
Good point, Hausdorff. Though I do understand what Grundy is getting at, a lot of what changed my mind was reading blogs just like this one. Not so much the posts, though they are contributors, but reading debate among commenters was very informative.
ReplyDeleteOh, for just a touch of that wisdom.
ReplyDeleteGreat point Hausdorff!
ReplyDeleteGreat post Grundy. That "prayer" is such a useful piece of advice. I am constantly talking to friends, family, students etc about worrying about what they can control. Being able to recognize what we can change is the first step to happiness in my opinion. I know way too many people who fail in this regard and are often unhappy with parts of their lives.
Amen to that! Great twist on that classic.
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