"...nearly prayed."
-Poul Anderson, Ensign Flandry IN Anderson, Young Flandry (Riverdale, NY, 2010), pp. 1-192 AT Chapter Six, p. 61.
See previous reflections on prayer here.
I think that the agnostic prayer to Whoever might be there is valid. It cannot do any harm as long as the person offering the prayer is doing everything in his power to address whatever the problem is. A British Sikh police officer said that he thought that everyone prays in an emergency. Maybe not everyone but maybe more than we think.
Is this true? -
| More things are wrought by prayer | 55 |
| Than this world dreams of. |
-copied from here.
3 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Again, we see both humor and gravity in this part of ENSIGN FLANDRY. The "nearly prayed" bit brought to mind the old saying about there being no atheists in foxholes! That is, in moments of extreme danger we might see disbelievers in the existence of God using the agnostic prayer.
And I was also reminded of this bit from Chapter VIII of THE REBEL WORLDS, after one of his men died of his wounds after the subdestroyer commanded by Flandry was being buried on Dido, Kathry McCormac inquired: "Will the captain read the service?," she asked." And handed him prayerbook, " 'Me,' he thought. 'But I never believed--' she was watching. They all were. His fingers stained the pages as he read aloud the majestic words. A fine drizzle began."
Sean
Sean,
The drizzle was fine, not harsh. Nature seems to confirm that the prayer was appropriate.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
I didn't think of that! A fine, slow, gentle rain--not a harsh, heavy, downpour. I should have realized this was probably an example of the kind pathetic fallacies so often used by Anderson in his works.
Sean
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