A few people have written me saying I should go easy on those Christian praying for the Gulf — it’s harmless, they say, it’s just building social bonds, etc., etc., etc. Well, la-de-dah — they’re delusional. I don’t just mean the people praying, but also those making excuses for them. Somehow, it’s OK to pretend that the Baptist getting down on his knees begging God to stop the oil isn’t really asking God to stop the oil…he’s just engaging in a social ritual to soothe his psyche, and we shouldn’t disturb his emotional equilibrium.

Bunk. Believers believe. Quit pretending that they’re all really just faitheists, because they’re not. Here’s a poll that illustrates that they really are thinking that prayer does something.

BP has tried many ways to stop the Gulf oil leak. Is it time to give prayer a chance?

Yes

72.87 %
No

20.11 %
Not sure

7.02 %

Like the fact that BP has been making failed attempts to stop the leak interferes with everyone’s ability to pray; as if none of these believers has been praying right along with the real-world engineering efforts; as if failure means now is the time to give up altogether and close our eyes and beg a ghost in outer space to fix our problems.

Give them some credit: these Christian wankers are entirely sincere, and entirely wrong.