I can understand praying to be like Jilli; praying for her, NSM.

My sister's doctor offered to pray for her. My sister, being acutely non-confrontational, declined to file any complaints, but it made her uncomfortable enough that she stopped going to the doctor (it's a pain in the rear to get a new one in her plan, so when I say stopped going to the doctor, I mean stopped going to any doctor, which is bad when you're an overweight smoker in her mid-40s).

I don't recall people offering to pray for me out of the blue, but I also didn't have a single stranger pat my belly when I was pregnant, so I think I just give off a "stay away!" vibe.

I understand praying for people, even -- like Aimee said, not praying they'll find Jesus or whatever, just praying that things are OK for them.

the standard NYC "If I can ignore you, you can't bother me" response.

This is one of the great, underpublicized benefits to the iPod! "You can preach for five stops and end every conversation in this car but as long as I have these white headphones, you don't exist."

I think I just give off a "stay away!" vibe.

Ooh! I should totally get pregnant to test if mine's solid.

Except -- mine's so good that getting pregnant is rendered complicated.

See, now that's harassment.

Yeah, that's what I (very politely and kindly) explained to him. He was aghast that it could be considered harassment, thanked me for warning him of that, and said that he still thought I was a bright girl.

The developer on that team who brought his bible to code bashes and tried to get us to pray before tackling a bug? He didn't get that his behavior was harassment. Thank goodness the death spiral of re-orgs allowed me to flee the team pretty soon after.

I can't imagine any God looking upon you and not feeling fond and proud and a little amazed.

God, looking at Jilli: I did that? Cool.

scuffs toe against the carpet, turns bright pink

Kimono for your 4G iPod.

Oooh!

to get us to pray before tackling a bug?

And practicing magic is against the rules, right. "Oh, Lord, let us find the glitch that makes everything multiply by the GNP of Bolivia!" To which God says, "Um, working on the famines of Africa right now, let me get back to you."

Actually, I don't mind anyone praying for me, really -- I think the Mormon thing of baptizing people in absentia is kind of charming. Personally, I don't think they're right, religiously, but what if they are?

Our sales manager once told me he prayed for me every night. I told him to cut it out.

Fortunately there is clear evidence at this point that being prayed for does you no harm. Of course, the evidence is equally clear that it does you absolutely no good, at least when it comes to measurable things like health, psychological well-being, or success. I think that this is the closest thing we have to an experimental test of religious beliefs.

And the one study in JRM that claimed being prayed for increased fertility - that's been thoroughly debunked, but because JRM hasn't removed it from the archives it keeps getting quoted. It's frustrating - especially when there's arguments like the one I had at work where someone wanted the government to spend money on having people pray for those who were sick instead of just spending the money on things like medicaid.