Seeker630

I recently attended the graduation ceremony for one of my daughters at Michigan State University in E. Lansing, Michigan. I am the proud Dad of the kid who graduated with a 4.00 gpa in her particular college, #1 out of over 450 other students).

Near the beginning of the ceremony, one of the Professors who was on stage stepped up to the podium to get things started, and began with :

"Let us all now take a moment to reflect upon all the things which have been accomplished here",

At which point a number of people bowed their heads and appeared to pray (including the professor). I, being the atheist that I am, looked aroud at all the other families and friends that I could see, (there were about 2000 or so in attendance I think)and was absolutely amazed at how few people had their heads bowed or appeard to exhibit anything other than indifference or irritation. I mean the solid majority of those whom I could see from my seat were definitely not praying. Or at least so it appeared.

I found it encouraging to see that so many opted out of participating in this nonsense. Has anyone else had a similar experience lately?

Strelnieks

I have the impression the people didn't know what the speaker meant. They didn't know that that was the prayer replacement. They thought he would go on speaking. He didn't say "moment of silence".

If he had said, "let us pray", almost all the heads would have dropped.

Strel

Buffman

What a difficult and wonderful accomplishment. You have every right to be proud of her, but not as proud as she should be of herself.

I suspect the professor was attempting to be 'politically correct.' I don't see him stepping up and saying, "We ain't gonna be a-doin any sup-a-natchal prayin at this grad-u-ashun." However, if he had, I bet everyone's attention would have been on that stage.

I guess that what I'm saying is that the people at a college graduation ceremony aren't normally an average cross-section of American religiosity.