Atheis Ternyata Juga Berdoa

Who would've thunk it ?

http://www.scrippsnews.com/node/36827

When atheists pray
By DAVID YOUNT, Scripps Howard News Service

Among the provocative findings of two recent surveys of religious faith is that a majority of Americans who claim to be atheists are inclined to pray, one-third of them "often." About the same number of atheists profess a belief in Satan, hell and demons. Half of them believe in angels and ghosts.

Granted, we're not talking big populations here. Only about 4 percent of Americans claim to be atheists. Baylor University pollsters suggest that professing to be an atheist is often just a personal objection to organized religion.

That still leaves us to ponder what it is that disbelievers seek through prayer, and to whom they pray. Perhaps the impulse to reach out through prayer may be even stronger than our intellectual assent to God's existence. Alas, we're back to the old cliche that there are no atheists in foxholes.

A nationwide survey by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life reveals yet another mystery: that one-fifth of people who say they are atheists also say they believe in God.

Kala atheist berdoa
Oleh DAVID YOUNT, Scripps Howard News Service

Diantara temuan provokatif dari dua survey atas iman agama baru-baru ini adalah bahwa sebagian besar warga Amerika yang meng-klaim sebagai atheist cenderung berdoa, [bahkan] sepertiga dari mereka "sering" [berdoa]. Kira-kira sejumlah yang sama atheist [ie. sepertiga] menyatakan kepercayaan mereka kepada Setan, Neraka dan Iblis-Iblis. Separuh dari mereka mempercayai malaikat-malaikat dan hantu-hantu.

Memang kita disini tidak membicarakan satu populasi yang besar. Hanya sekitar 4 persen dari warga Amerika yang meng-klaim sebagai athiest. Pen-survey dari Universitas Baylor memberikan pendapat bahwa meng-klaim sebagai atheist kadang hanya merupakan penolakan pribadi terhadap agama terorganisir [ie. orang yang berkata bahwa mereka athiest bisa jadi hanya sekedar tidak suka terhadap agama-agama yang ada bukannya atheist murni].

Namun hal tersebut masih membuat kita berpikir apa yang dicari orang-orang yang tidak percaya melalui doa, dan kepada siapa mereka berdoa. Mungkin dorongan untuk mencari [Tuhan] melalui doa lebih kuat daripada penerimaan intelektual kita akan keberadaan Tuhan. Tampaknya kita kembali ke klise lama bahwa tidak ada atheist di foxhole [ie. foxhole adalah istilah untuk parit dimana tentara bersembunyi/berlindung dari tembakan musuh].

Sebuah survey di seluruh negeri oleh Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life menunjukkan suatu misteri lain: seperlima dari orang yang mengatakan bahwa mereka adalah atheist juga mengatakan bahwa mereka percaya akan Allah.

http://www.ekaristi.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=9997

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/25/atheist-prayer_n_3498365.html

Atheist Prayer: Religious Activity Not Uncommon Among Nonbelievers


Why would an atheist -- who by definition does not believe in God -- pray?

A Washington Post article by Michelle Boorstein spotlighted the fascinating phenomenon of a minority of atheists, agnostics and the religiously unaffiliated who take to prayer, chaplaincy and other commonly religious practices as a way to experience community with others, relax, meditate and connect to something other than the physical.

The Post leads with Sigfried Gold, who "drops to his knees on the beige carpeting of his bedroom, lowers his forehead to the floor and prays to God" twice a day.

While Gold doesn’t believe there is some supernatural being out there attending to his prayers, he calls his creation “God” and describes himself as having had a “conversion” that can be characterized only as a “miracle.” His life has been mysteriously transformed, he says, by the power of asking.

While Gold may be a unique example, he represents something bigger among the 20 percent of Americans who are religiously unaffiliated, as a recent national survey from the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life found. The survey, released in October, estimated there to be 46 million religiously unaffiliated adults in the U.S. That includes 13 million self-described atheists and agnostics and 33 million people who don't identify with any religion.

Among that broad group, which is commonly referred by researchers as the "nones," more than two-thirds of people said they believe in God, more than half said they frequently feel a deep spiritual connection with nature and the Earth, more than one-third see themselves as "spiritual but not religious," and one in five pray daily.

Among atheists and agnostics, 14 percent of said religion was "somewhat important" in their lives, while 17 percent said they took part in daily, weekly or monthly prayer.

In a HuffPost article last fall, Pew senior researcher Greg Smith explained some of the statistics on the "nones."

Smith said the growth in nones can be largely attributed to the gradual replacement of older, generally more religious generations with younger, generally less religious generations.

The survey found that one-third of adults under 30 do not see themselves as members of any religion, compared to one in 10 among people 65 and older.

"Young people are also more likely to be nones than previous generations were at similar stages in their lives," said Smith.


While it's clear that the "nones" are growing and that some atheists pray, not all nonbelievers think it's fair to call prayerful atheists by the same name.

"If you pray to a supernatural being or force you call 'God,' you are not an atheist," said David G. McAfee, who wrote "Mom, Dad, I'm an Atheist: The Guide to Coming Out as a Non-Believer."

Still, it's undeniable that atheists are picking up habits traditionally found among the religious. Just last week, an "atheist church" had it's first meeting in New York City.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/non-believers-say-their-prayers-to-no-one/2013/06/24/b7c8cf50-d915-11e2-a9f2-42ee3912ae0e_story.html

Some nonbelievers still find solace in prayer


(Linda Davidson/ The Washington Post ) - Athiest Sigfried Gold, his wife, Galia Siegel, and children Beatrice Gold, 2, and Solomon Gold, 8, say a serenity prayer at dinner at home Tuesday in Takoma Park, Md. Gold launched a regular prayer schedule to comply with a 12-step program for food addiction.

By Michelle Boorstein, Published: June 25

Each morning and night, Sigfried Gold drops to his knees on the beige carpeting of his bedroom, lowers his forehead to the floor and prays to God.

In a sense.

An atheist, Gold took up prayer out of desperation. Overweight by 110 pounds and depressed, the 45-year-old software designer saw himself drifting from his wife and young son. He joined a 12-step program for food addiction that required — as many 12-step programs do — a recognition of God and prayer.

Four years later, Gold is trim, far happier in his relationships and free of a lifelong ennui. He credits a rigorous prayer routine — morning, night and before each meal — to a very vivid goddess he created with a name, a detailed appearance and a key feature for an atheist: She doesn’t exist.

While Gold doesn’t believe there is some supernatural being out there attending to his prayers, he calls his creation “God” and describes himself as having had a “conversion” that can be characterized only as a “miracle.” His life has been mysteriously transformed, he says, by the power of asking.

“If you say, ‘I ought to have more serenity about the things I can’t change,’ versus ‘Grant me serenity,’ there is a humility, a surrender, an openness. If you say, ‘grant me,’ you’re saying you can’t do it by yourself. Or you wouldn’t be there,” said Gold, who lives in Takoma Park.

While Gold’s enthusiasm for spiritual texts and kneeling to a “God” may make him unusual among atheists, his hunger for a transcendent experience with forces he can’t always explain turns out to be more common.

New research on atheists by the Pew Research Center shows a range of beliefs. Eighteen percent of atheists say religion has some importance in their life, 26 percent say they are spiritual or religious and 14 percent believe in “God or a universal spirit.” Of all Americans who say they don’t believe in God — not all call themselves “atheists” — 12 percent say they pray.

Responding to this diversity, secular chaplains are popping up at universities such as Rutgers, American and Carnegie Mellon, and parents are creating atheist Sunday schools, igniting debate among atheists over how far they should go in emulating their theist kin.

Atheists deny religion’s claim of a supernatural god but are starting to look more closely at the “very real effect” that practices such as going to church, prayer and observance of a Sabbath have on the lives of the religious, said Paul Fidalgo, a spokesman for the secular advocacy group the Center for Inquiry. “That’s a big hole in atheist life,” he said. “Some atheists are saying, ‘Let’s fill it.’ Others are saying, ‘Let’s not.’ ”

Prominent atheists, including writer Sam Harris, are exploring the spiritual value of “non-ordinary states of consciousness,” he wrote in a recent essay. However, “there is a lot of resistance to that among other atheists, who think it sounds very hocus-pocusy,” Fidalgo said.

Gordon Melton, a historian of new American religions, said that it’s only been in the past decade that atheists have become organized and the range of their views has therefore become more known. Sociologists have also just begun asking more complex questions about faith to a wider range of respondents.