Ed's wife here. Ed frequently sends me threads that he thinks will be of interest to me. When I read your original post "Religion again" I must admit I was offended by your tone and implications. Days went by before I had the opportunity to read the entire thread and I would like to share a couple of thougths with you as a cradle Catholic Christian:

I know no other way to approach life other than as a Christian. The Christian faith my parents taught me, and that I have grown in over five decades, provides me with guidance for living a good moral life, an opportunity to share my faith beliefs with a community of fellow believers and a comfort in knowing that my way of life supports values and beliefs that respects the rights and beliefs (or non-beliefs as it may be) of others.

My Christian faith has enabled me to grow as a woman in relation to my spouse, my children and my community. It has nudged me to forgive when I might not want to. It has encouraged me to share when I might be worried about my own material needs. It has helped me to make the right decision when I might have been tempted to make the easy decision or to justify a wrong decision. Ed says I live in a black and white world. I tell him that a life lived in the grey would make it so much easier for me to slide into the black, sinful areas. Being a Christian makes it easy for me to determine right from wrong and to live those choices with the consequences or moral satisfaction that may arise from them.

I find nothing in the 10 Commandments that is contrary to living a good moral life. Who can argue that being faithful to ones spouse, not stealing or lying, caring for one's parents and so forth makes one a BAD person? Would I need to believe in an organized religion or God to practice those moral imperatives? For me, that is a "no and yes" answer. No, I do not NEED organized religion but it helps to have a community of believers to support and model moral behavior. Yes, I do need a belief in God to make sense of those imperatives.

Without that belief, I tend to think that society would resort to a survival of the fittest mentality. All one needs to do is look at societies in pre-Christian eras to see how they functioned and who survived. It was a pretty cruel and heartless world. In a Christian society, we TRY to care for the poor, the downtrodden, the hurting, the oppressed. Does that mean we always get it right and that religion itself has not perpetrated its share of oppression and violence and injustice? Sure it has. That is the nature of nearly any institution. Any organized religion is an institution, created by, and administered by, humans. And we all know that we humans tend to be self centered and self serving and sinful by nature. Again, the survival of the fittest. I can understand and sympathize with your position on the institution of religion.

However, an institution is vastly different from faith. I would argue that there is a place for faith in our lives. Faith in the goodness of our fellow man, in the opportunity for redemption for our failings, and the hope for a life beyond our brief time here on earth. And what could be better than a group of individuals with a common faith in goodness and kindness and respect wanting to make a profound difference in a world characterized by oppression and violence and injustice?

My faith in God allows me to respect your atheist beliefs without trying to impose my faith beliefs on you or trying to convert you to my belief system. My saying that God exists does not make it so. My living a God-centered life makes it POSSIBLE for non-believers to consider the possibility that something more important than ourselves drives me.

I will not do you the disservice of telling you I will pray for you since you don't believe in prayer. That is your right and I respect it. I will, however, pray for a softening of your heart to enable you to respectfully challenge my beliefs without mocking or disparaging them.

I will conclude by addressing one of your original points: How do "we" respond when someone makes a prayer request from any group? For those of us who belive in God, we believe He already knows what is in our hearts and minds before we know it ourselves. Whether we take the time to drop to our knees or clasp our hands or mumble or shout makes no difference to God. Just the act of asking for prayer is a sign of faith in Him and just the act of hearing/reading the prayer request is a sign of our faith in His ability to positively impact our lives. Why would I bother to read a prayer request if I did not already believe there is hope that it will be answered (although not always in the way the requester may have liked....again, that is a testament to faith itself)?

 I don't have a pipeline to God but I know He hears me.  I don't have God's email address but I know He reads my heart on a moment by moment basis and has since before I was conceived.  I know that rain will come in His time and for His purpose. 

I wish you peace and prosperity in 2010.