President Trump is calling for a National Day of Prayer tomorrow, Sunday, 3 September 2017.
I don’t see one Muslim, Hindu, or anyone besides a Christian there at his announcement. I had to chuckle when I heard Ralph Reed say, “we all come together and we all bow to almighty God.” Ralph Reed, like so many other religious people, isn’t paying attention to the growing number of non-believers in this country. Non-believers are still in the minority for sure but things are changing here in America. Here’s a graphic from Gallup showing the slow but steady decline of people that are affiliated with a religious tribe here in America. You see a good steady decline there with a slight increase there at the end. The trend overall is down.
Science has proven that intercessory prayer has no effect and that religious people have problems understanding the world. There’s more studies out there that have wreaked havoc on religion, especially in population genetics and evolution. What really bothers me about Trump calling for a day of National Prayer is not that science has proven prayer wrong. Religion and religious people will go on and has gone on no matter what science has achieved. What bothers me is that Trump is calling upon the people to worship God when it’s clear that all that Trump worships is himself. Trump clearly didn’t write his little speech here too. He’s made a day for a confusing God, a god that caused the hurricane, that a growing number of people does not recognize. We live in interesting times but we also live a confusing, muddled up world.
Dispatches from a lowly biologist. 