Geoffrey MillerVerified account

I see what you're going for here but I think actually everyone would make fun of them for useless silly New Age woo.

Yep, but that response would be equally ignorant & partisan.

Never said it was just meditation. Just trying to express it in a way that liberal atheists might understand.

Well the optics are that the are praying for a miracle to cure the virus. That would be disconcerting

It only looks like that to people who don't understand religion, i.e. most of mainstream news media.

This is one of those situations where the difference between what something functionally is and what the people involved believe it is, is important. That might be what they are doing, but I don't trust their self-awareness that this is what they believe they are doing.

Yes, but the thing about good traditions (like doing a mindfulness ritual before a meeting) is, the people using them don't need conscious understanding about why or how they work.

It's not the metaphysics that matters. It doing a little ritual that hits the mental reset button so people can have more somber, gentle, constructive, less neurotic meetings.

Agreed. But can you then tell me what the differences are between "prayer" (by someone with pence's professed views) and mindfulness meditation (generic version i guess) and why those differences don't matter here when it comes to a snarky tweet and/or genuine concern?