A Moment of Prayer
By Irreligiosity on May 15, 2008 in Atheism, Featured, Irreligiosity
I attended a funeral today for a great great aunt who was a devoted churchgoer for all of her 96 years. As a result the ceremony was highly religious with lots of pauses for prayer.
When they asked for people to bow their heads in prayer I simply assumed my non-theist prayer stance: hands clasped and head up with eyes open, no amens or mumbled agreements with the pastor for every Jesus this and Jesus that. I’ve found it’s a nice non-confrontational way to abstain in social situations where prayer is obviously going to be called for.
The interesting thing was a great uncle at the funeral. Everyone else bowed their heads and closed their eyes with hands clasped firmly in front of them, but he stood there with his eyes open looking ahead in much the same stance as me. We looked at each other, shared a brief nod of understanding, and went back to looking ahead, this time smiling at the irony of ferreting out a fellow non-believer in a moment of prayer.
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