The Agnostic Pulpit: Self-help

If you are counting on using religion as part of a self-help program, forget it. As agnostics are fond of saying, "Nothing fails like prayer." No one has ever prayed away the fat or prayed away cravings for drugs, alcohol, or any other addiction.

Prayer won't get you through college, fix a nagging spouse, or elect the right candidate to office. It won’t even prevent the next hurricane.

And yet people go one praying and asking for this and that. Sadly, the delivery system is no better than chance. Would you send a package with a delivery system that works only fifty percent of the time? Or check you baggage with an airline that loses your luggage most of the time?

Over the years, study after study has been done to evaluate the effectiveness of prayer on such things as plant growth, the fall of dice, and health recovery. Again, nothing fails like prayer, as we've proved that by now, in life experience and in the laboratory.

On the other hand, studies show that quiet, disciplined meditation does improve the quality of life, including the quality of abstinence from an addiction. Call it contemplative prayer if you like, but if mediation is prayerful, it involves just listening for answers, not asking for any kind of divine intervention, solution, or favour.

Almost forty years ago, Thomas Merton wrote an amazing little book called, Contemplative Prayer. Merton was a Catholic monk, but little Christian zeal emerges in his Zen-like writing about meditation. He wrote: "In reality, the monk abandons the world only in order to listen more intently to the deepest and most neglected voices that proceed from its inner depth." Here he was referring to the heart and mind of the individual.

So, we have the suggestion from Merton, confirmed by countless opinions and studies in the psychological literature, that most of us already have the answers to complex life problems if only we allow ourselves to tap our inner wisdom. Good psychotherapy or participation in a self-help group can suggest additional reasonable alternatives we may not have thought of before.

The first step in any self-help program ought always to be the development of self-knowledge and self-understanding. To do this, we learn all we can about our problem, and then we go alone into a quiet place to listen for answers. We look at all the available groups and programs for whatever might help knowing that there is no single magic solution, no easy way out of complex problems.

If you have baggage, you probably know best how to handle it. If you don’t, find some friends who have overcome similar problems and hang out with them. Don’t trust religion to deliver the goods. In other words, don’t confuse the entertainment of religion with real problem solving.

(Julian I. Taber, Ph.D. is author of Addictions Anonymous: Outgrowing Addiction with a Universal, Secular Program of Self-Development: ISBN 978-1-60145-647-2)

Politics TIME FOR LABOR AND THE AUSTRALIAN ELECTORATE TO PART COMPANY The results of the Australian elections, just held, have highlighted a number of things that, if not addressed, will spell the end of the Australian Labor Party (ALP) in terms of the party being able to retain any future support of the Australian electorate. more GILLARD KNEW ABOUT FAILED HOME INSULATION SCHEME. RESULT? FOUR DEAD AND 200 HOUSES DESTROYED BY FIRE 17.Aug 2010 One aspect of the Australian Government in which coup-leader Julia Gillard play...read A GILLARD GOVERNMENT IN AUSTRALIA? THERE IS NO SUCH THING 15.Aug 2010 The Australian elections thus far have been the most monotonous processes ever ...read WILL THE REAL AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER PLEASE STAND UP? 8.Aug 2010 Australian has lots of former Prime Ministers, wannabe Prime Ministers, could-h...read COUP LEADER JULIA GILLARD MOVING FORWARD IN CIRCLES 2.Aug 2010 After two weeks of electioneering, there are signs of desperation within the Au...read AUSTRALIAN PRIME MINISTER KEVIN RUDD DEPOSED BY ALP JUNTA. JULIA GILLARD IS NEW PM WITH ALP POWER BROKERS IN CHARGE OF RUNNING THE GOVERNMENT THE US GOVERNMENT CLEANING ISRAEL’S DIRTY LAUNDRY NUCLEAR-ARMED ISRAEL CONFIRMED AS BEING A ROGUE STATE Opinion Making a half empty glass, half full A lack of confidence can breed a vicious cycle. The more you ruminate over the topic, the more depressed and often insecure you can become about it. more Telstra Bigpond - What an Experience! 11.May 2010 Have you ever tried to get your internet connected amidst incompetence and inef...read How to overcome the tension after a personal tragedy 15.Apr 2010 All of us would experience some kind of a tension some time or the other in o...read Primary Colors 14.Apr 2010 I wrote this article because it upsets me how cruel humans are toward each othe...read Israel and Palestine: The World compelled to Listen 11.Apr 2010 As the Israeli–Palestinian conflict has become more and more difficult to repor...read

Travel TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY 5th June 2010. DO NOT TRAVEL TO ISRAEL. 5.Jun 2010 Given the recent incident whereby the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad, used...read more TRAVELWISE. 16 APRIL 2010. EUROPEAN TRAVEL ALTERNATIVES 16.Apr 2010 Travelwise issues the following advice in relation to cancelled flights to, fro...read TRAVELWISE 6 APRIL 2010. AUSTRALIAN AIR TRAVEL. THE BEST WAYS TO TRAVEL BY AIR IN AUSTRALIA. 5.Apr 2010 Regular readers might have seen and read the various advisory and no-fly notice...read TRAVELWISE 2 APRIL 2010. QANTAS. 2.Apr 2010 Some concerns have been raised in relation to some of the maintenance practices...read TRAVELWISE TRAVEL ADVISORY. 14 DECEMBER 2009. DO NOT TRAVEL TO IRAN. 14.Dec 2009 Given the political and human rights situation in Iran, Travelwise advises pote...read Sport No Payoff From the Playoffs $16.50 will Get Anyone in the Hall Mr McGwire Stupid Athlete Tricks Technology Top 9 cool laptop accessories for laptop geeks Twittering: I'm not that interesting Cheers Jesus' Answering Machine Brown Couch or twelve midgets in the town square How To Be Happy Drugged Out Saturday Nights Muslim Decapitation: Bad, or Simply Misunderstood?