In the October 2005 issue of Oscailt John Ward denounced "believers" for putting their problems in the hands of God rather than seeking to solve them themselves. He described this attitude as "devout irresponsibility".
Years ago, as an undergraduate, I remarked to a fellow student that I did not accept full responsibility for my work. Say I had to produce an essay. I would do the required readings and then some research involving extra readings, the relevance of which would often be a matter of luck. And then I would wait for inspiration, the quality of which would always be outside my conscious control. My experience of such things is that I facilitate the creation of my work rather than create it myself. It a common practice to pray to St. Anthony for aid to find a lost item. Suppose I am frantically searching for something and I give up in frustration. By relaxing and putting my search "on hold" my unconscious mind may then throw up clues as to its whereabouts. I assert that to request the aid of St. Anthony may program the unconscious mind to retrieve buried information regarding it. The point here is not that it is the unconscious, and not St. Anthony, that finds the item. It really is St. Anthony that does the finding. What is in question is the nature of the "saint". He may be a kindly early Christian gentleman in heaven or "he" may be an emotionally charged phrase that kick-starts the unconscious mind into problem-solving mode. But, of course, belief in the usefulness of the process aids its effectiveness or, perhaps, may even be vital.
I have sometimes suggested that atheists should pray to "God" (with the quotation marks) rather than to God; that is God as a metaphor rather than an actually existing being.
If one has a problem "X" and it can be solved by performing actions "Y" and "Z" well and good. But many problems have no obvious solutions. "So sleep on it" is a common and reasonable response. Wait for inspiration. I would suggest that a prayer to "God" if not God just might kick-start the unconscious into action and produce a solution. The unconscious mind is said to be vast. It may even pervade the universe. Is it God that works in mysterious ways or something almost identical but secularly understood that does the trick?
It is widely believed that St. Anthony either does or frequently seems to find solutions to a particular type of problem irrespective of ones understanding of the nature of the saint. Similarly, problems of a more general kind seem to be solved by either God or "God". This problem solving mechanism seems to exist. Why not avail of it?
Brendan Burke MA(Phil).
Cork, March, 2006