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Forced prayer in work

Hey guys.

I'd like to know your opinion on a subject. I come from a country where religion is not as common (New Zealand) and at work more than once we have been forced to pray.

An example would be at the end of year company lunch. The CEO of the company told a story about a man trying to get somewhere in life. I thought to myself oh yeah, I can learn something from this, until the end of his story. He ended with the man not getting where he needed to go until he accepted god into his life. He followed by saying YOU will not get everywhere you need to go unless you accept god into your life (coming from a man who started rich and ended rich). And proceeded with "let us pray", I'm surrounded by atheist's who just go along and bow their heads and say their amen's (other than me and a few select people). It infuriates me to see people behave this way just because their boss puts them in this situation. In such a large company I find it unprofesional.

Has anyone had an experience like this, I want to know how I should react to this sort of forced religion.

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Permalink Reply by Filbert Lam on January 29, 2012 at 1:53am

What the CEO did was absolutely repulsive. There is no way anyone can justify forcing someone else to accept their own religious faith and its associated practices. Furthermore, to say that one needs to accept God in order to be successful or, at least, happy in life is condescending. As an atheist, I am perfectly happy with my life without God. I personally do not find any evidence to believe in the existence of a God and neither do I need to invoke God to justify why I should live morally or be charitable (note: I do not believe that living morally and being charitable are mutually exclusive, but that's besides the point).

In fact, I would argue that such an act is unethical. The 18th Century German philosopher Immanuel Kant once said that one should "act according to the maxim that one can, at the same time, will it to be universal law." It seems to me that forcibly imposing one's religious views and practices on another cannot be willed to be universal law because if it can, then the CEO must also accept a Buddhist telling him to go vegan, for example.

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Permalink Reply by Nerdlass on January 29, 2012 at 5:41am

Ask him if he intends to install a prayer closet for future prayers.

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Permalink Reply by Fan of OHair on February 2, 2012 at 9:18pm

Sounds like a job for
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friedrich_Nietzsche
'will to power' or is it power to will; vol 1 book 1-2? or is it.. anyhew

work is work; not prayer
just like creationism is not high school or any school biology class
i hear ya though; perhaps some CEO's haven't broke free from childhood's overbearing parental influence;
or somebody's being blackmailed...by a coworker.. one of the two. ask to create a union at that right-to-pray job and see what happens~