Firstly, something like "I hope I can poop today, it's been so long" is not a prayer. Nor is it necessarily related to faith in some higher power. Nor is it true or even remotely supportable that "Any human being has prayed for help at least once in his life", nor is it true that the structure of every hope is essentially a prayer, "Please, let X happen". Nor is it true or proveable that an animal leaving its den doesn't think, to the extent it's capable of thinking, "I hope a hawk doesn't eat me." It is, however, probably true that faith developed as a result of hope. When life or death depended on, say, rain falling at a certain time or there not being a drought, people made up physical manifestations of their hopes of not dying, with backstories and other semiunrelated powers. All of this and all of the preceding conversation, of course, hinge on there not having been at any point in history a voice from the sky telling people to have faith. Given that this doesn't even come under discussion here unless I, the best atheist of all of you, drag it in, I proclaim us all spectacularly unqualified to discuss any of this. In addition, the inevitable next phase of this conversation, "Don't atheists really have FAITH that God DOESN'T EXIST?", should be avoided at all costs, lest we all actually do go blind from stupidity.

Don't be. You do the job as well as, to name a few, velveeta cheese, Lisa Kudrow, or poking myself repeatedly in the eye with a pen. It's not a distinguished category.

Dovina's magic - CROWD: You're not levitating. You're just standing there. DOVINA: Blaaaaat.

Agreed.

According to the poem the tree will never fall over. I'm quite flattered that you hope that such a thing does exist. Me too. The poem came from a story I started to write years ago and never finished. Hense the assured title. It does exist at least in that story.

I'd like to comment, if I may. You are talkng about an abstract concept know as 'faith', where someone who believes in God has 'faith', and someone who is an atheist does not. I'd like to extend that concept and change it a little. What I believe is inherent within human beings is not the capacity for faith but the prayer for deliverance - or hope. Any human being has prayed for help at least once in his life; for example, you walk around the corner and see that your house is on fire and your family is inside. The first thing that whips through your mind is, 'Please, let them be all right'... Most events in life can't be controlled. Hoping for something to turn out okay is essentially the same as a prayer to God, Luck, or the laws of physics; and this is, in my opinion, a trait common to all living beings, on different levels. I'd like to argue that this, in fact, should replace the concept of 'faith' that you are disputing. Change it to 'prayer for deliverance'. Do animals 'hope', or 'pray for deliverance'? Why shouldn't they, in the sense that I described? In fact, the entire concept of 'God' is, basically, just an extension of this tenet based on the fact that humans have superior, more developed brains; allowing them to develop this *extremely* basic idea along with the development of their brains over time, or evolution, if you will. So in my opinion, what I would say is: The hope of being delivered from trouble is a universal trait and common, on one level or another, to all sentient beings. Humans, having superior brains, have developed from this a concept of 'God', 'religion' and 'faith' as an outlet and a reason for hope - we will always hope for the best, because God is with us. However, since most phenomena can be explained perfectly well by physics, faith is no longer a necessity in modern life, and has been spurned by atheists; however, every human (faithless or not) continues to hope.

Not quite. It's because words are a necessity in rap. Even its name comes from a slang term for talking. Most other popular forms of music tend to rely more on the actual music. I will say some country music has many of the qualities you find in literature poetry. Then a bunch of cowboys drew their pistols.

Q: You were smoking a joint when you wrote this weren't you? Actually that sounds like a good idea.

Thank you! Much appreciated.