I was at a training day in Thursday: sit in a room in the basement of a hotel, their 'Conference Suite', a posh title to market a space that lacks natural light or air. People with varying presentation skills, armed only with Powerpoint, talking with varying degrees of interest about subjects which almost certainly won't interest my blog readers. (This was organised by my Institute, not my employer).
A chap gave a very interesting presentation. He knew how to present, not using his Powerpoint as a crutch. I thought he was probably an Evangeical preacher. It might have been the shoulder length hair with massive bald patch, the deluded idea that having a really bad haircut demonstrates that one is a non-conformist, a rebel, and not of the mainstream. Plus, the badge with a dove on a cross. I have to confess that I tend to get my sects confused, never remembering which branch of Christianity crucifies doves and which nails fishes, but I think they're all basically the same.
He did something which I always find irritating. He made several references in his speech to his personal life. Needless to say, he is long-time married with offspring. I have found that only married breeding men bring their private life into a presentation (with Powerpoint). I have never heard any man mention that he hasn't bred, his life partner is a man, or he is going through a messy divorce. I have never once heard a woman do so. Women who mention their children are frequently judged to be insufficiently committed to work.
By chance, I sat with this man for lunch, he seemed pleasant, charming and, initially, an engaging conversationalist. He launched into a long anecdote about how he had ruined his passport by accidentally leaving it in a shirt he put into a washing machine (this is a common occurrence, according to the Passport Office).
I was amused by the way he told the story, being all proud that in his wife's absence he had managed to work the washing machine and had checked all his trouser pockets.
Part of me wanted to say something, but I wasn't sure what. Anyone who uses a washing machine frequently occasionally makes a mistake; if you point out that he's a fool, you risk being accused of being humourless blah de blah. You need pinpoint precision, otherwise you risk double standards. However, I find it weird to discuss detailed domestic arrangements with complete strangers*.
He needed his replacement in a hurry, he got his pastor to countersign it (irrelevant detail; also, is it really wise to assume that any old pastor, preacher, reverend or imam is really sufficiently trustworthy to be a counter-signatory?**). The point of his story was that his photographs were too cheerful, causing a hitch in the application. He went away and prayed in Durham Cathedral, then received a phonecall to say it was okay. Suddenly, he was in my face, almost aggressive, demanding that I agree this was a miracle caused by prayer.
Which of course is complete and utter bollocks.
There is nothing that suggests prayer makes any objective difference. That is not to say that it is completely pointless, if you happen to be of that inclination. There is a lot of evidence (and common sense) that people face challenges more easily and successfully in a positive and calm frame of mind. It doesn't make much difference if that is achieved by meditation, exercise, meticulous planning, avoidance strategies, poetry, music, sex or praying; whatever suits the individual. It reeks of arrogance to credit the solving of a minor bureaucratic hitch to one's ability to pray.
Many misguided people pray in vain for similar events; many manage to get them resolved without mumbling away to a myth. If someone actually believes that prayer can alter the course of events, isn't it selfish to pray for the speedy resolution of a minor bureaucratic hitch, when instead they could pray for someone else's life-affecting intractable problem.
People most often go on about the power of prayer at a time of illness. To sneer at their stupidity would be an act of cruelty, so I really missed a trick when there was an opportunity to sneer at trivia, but I don't feel comfortable being rude in a professional setting.
It's quite extraordinary how prayer has got more powerful in perfect synchronicity with medical science. Indeed, it has got so powerful that it isn't even necessary these days to pray to be saved from smallpox.
Those people all those years ago who prayed desperately to be saved from the certain death of toothache, weren't their prayers good enough? They were poor ignorant uneducated and, also, God decided that their prayers just weren't good enough.
Of course, the religious types would claim that God doesn't always answer your prayers the way you want them to, he works in mysterious ways, what you think is a bad thing in your small life is actually a good thing in the Masterplan.
So, in other words, they admit that actually, praying for something has no effect on the course of events. God's doing do whatever he likes, anyway. That's when things don't turn out well. They should remember that when they do turn out well.
The closing salvo was to announce to the lunch table in general, that, really, having children was simply the greatest blessing that could possibly have happened in his life. "Don't you agree?" he demanded of the woman sitting opposite me, who flinched and floundered and shook her head in a confused panic. Sometimes, there really is no excuse for bad manners.
How rude to make so many assumptions about the people you are talking to. I get rather fed up of these religious nutters who have to bring up their obsession at every opportunity. I know instinctively, not to introduce partisan politics to such as conversation. It's generally considered bad form to assume that your companions are into football or Reality TV, so why on earth do we keep giving the religious nutters a free pass.
Finally, everybody at that event was an auditor. We are Trained and Paid to be Sceptical; it's what we do. He must be a very stupid man if he thinks his evangelical preaching is going to make some instant convert out of a professional sceptic. I realise that people's views do change, but this happens generally as a result of life-changing events, not small talk over lunch. Perhaps these nutters think that if they drip drip drip away at every opportunity, eventually people will be worn down.
* which is different from writing them on a blog; the blog reader can close the tab, the person who sits next to you by chance at lunch can't reasonably walk away
** just about every other countersignatory has an accountability to their employer, professional body, licensing body or electorate that would militate against false declaration - I can't see how the 'Pastor' of some fringe church,(as opposed to a vicar or priest employed by recognisable sizeable national organisations), accountable to no one, can be considered to have standing in society.
