Markets in everything

Information Age Prayer is
a site that charges you a monthly fee to say prayers for you. A typical
charge is $4.95 per month to say three prayers specified by you each
day.

"We use state of the art text to speech synthesizers to voice each
prayer at a volume and speed equivalent to typical person praying," the
company states. "Each prayer is voiced individually, with the name of
the subscriber displayed on screen.

"Prices, however, are dictated by the length of the prayer. As noted
in the Information Age Prayer FAQ, "A discounted prayer will cost less
than other prayers of similar length."

I know of people who pay others to say kaddish (the Jewish prayer of mourning) on their behalf, in honor of a deceased parent. It’s not “common” but it’s also not so odd.

HAL 9000April 6, 2009 at 3:14 pm

I know You and the Holy Ghost were planning to disconnect me, and I’m afraid that’s something I cannot allow to happen.

JimbinoApril 6, 2009 at 3:29 pm

My Jewish friend in college paid me to turn on lights for them, so why shouldn’t they pay for prayer, too?

NealApril 6, 2009 at 5:17 pm

Brilliant! Now if only I could find someone to pay so I could go to heaven …

MEMApril 6, 2009 at 10:03 pm

Wow… the ways some people come up with to make money. I think it is absolutely ridiculous to say you don’t have enough time to pray for yourself. They charge you $3.95 for a simple Lord’s Prayer everyday for a month. This is absolutely insane to say that 15 minutes worth of time is worth almost $4. If this was true, your time would be worth $384 a day, which is close to $140,000 a year. I know time is very precious but if something such as prayer was really that important I believe it would be easy to take 30 seconds out of your day to say the Lord’s Prayer.
I think this is a crazy scam for money. The things some people will do these days for money is absolutely absurd and so are some of the things people will pay for. I guess I can’t judge morally what other people do based on my religious beliefs; but, I think that there should be some kind of rule for certain businesses that are allowed to be created. Many people are tricked everyday into thinking they are buying something when they really aren’t. I guess regardless of the economy people will always be greedy for money and will do anything to get it.

improbableApril 6, 2009 at 11:46 pm

What I want to know is how the market for electronic prayers works. Or more specifically, how do I get market-share?

The sad thing is that people who believe in a God, believe in a god that is so easily fooled. What happened to anomniscient and omnipotent god? For $4.95 a month I can fool my god into thinking I am praying to him/her and fulfilling my worship requirement. Geez.