Defiant Heretic

I saw an article in the newspaper about a successful double blind study about the power of prayer. Approximately 50% of the subjects that were prayed for recovered quicker than those who weren't.

NonHomogenized

"So, I've been praying to Joe for about a year now, and I notice something. I notice all the prayers I used to offer to god, and all the prayers I now offer to Joe Pesci, are being answered at about the same 50% rate. Half the time, I get what I want, half the time I don't. Same as god, 50/50. Same as the 4 leaf clover, the horseshoe, the rabbit's foot, and the wishing well. Same as the mojo man, same as the voodoo lady who tells you your fortune by squeezing the goat's testicles. It's all the same, 50/50." - George Carlin, "There is No God"

This was a "successful" study? Successful at what, proving that it makes no difference whatsoever?

Answerer

I think I mixed out the rate of infection with the rate of mortality.

Defiant Heretic

Well, I don't think they went right out and said it, but that was definitely the implication.

Proctors_Gambit

Ask yourself this.
If this was proof of the power of prayer, why is it so random.
Why would God choose to save some people from death, help others find jobs, help millionaire sports stars win a match and then decide to ignore pleas from millions of other people every day.

I hate to flog a dead horse but see article here...
Moors Murders

"The serial killings from July 1963 to October 1965 horrified Britain. The victims simply vanished -- Reade was abducted on her way to a disco, and Downey, the pair's youngest victim, was lured from a fairground.

Some of the victims were beaten, tortured and sexually abused before being killed and buried on a desolate moor in northwestern England, earning their killers the nickname, the "Moors Murderers." "

...

"Hindley lured the 10-year-old away from a fairground the day after Christmas 1964. The girl was sexually abused, tortured and forced to pose for pornographic photos.

Hindley recorded the abuse on an audio tape, which was played in court. Jurors listened to Lesley calling out for her mother and asking God to help her before she was killed. "


If God really can and does answer prayer but, even though he could have, decided not to answer the prayer of this little girl, is he really a God you want to worship?


-Gambit

Jabu Khan

People keep kickin this dead horse. U of A in AZ just won a grant to do another study on the "powere of prayer" thing what another study supporting it is supposed to do against the mountain of studies against it though I haven't a clue.

flurpy2

I think a valid way of testing the hypothesis of Christian Prayer is by analizing the life expectancy and health of Christians.

Surely, good health, and a long life is what most Christians as for themselves and for their brothers in faith.

Now in prayer does work, the life expectancy of people living in the USA or Britian must vastly exceed the life expectancy of the Japs.

Lobstrosity

Well a possible argument against this is that Christians really want to be in Heaven with God above all else, so a long life might not be what they truly want...

You know what would prove to me that prayer works? Sit someone (or lots of people, I don't care) down at a computer that's running the following code:

while (true)
{
print "1"
}

Now, have the person pray that the computer prints a seven (or some other predetermined number that's not one). If he succeeds in making a seven appear on the screen in the place of a one, he'll have my attention.

Oh, and I could always promise to give him some prize for making a seven appear--you know, so that God actually has some extra incentive to answer the prayers.

Tenspace

Good idea, but it wouldn't work. There are too many other factors that affect health and lifespan, which are drastically different per human population. For example, the "Japs", as you call them, can't stomach most dairy products, especially aged cheeses. OTOH, Americans eat a whole lot less rice than the Japanese.

This experiment, testing the efficacy of intercessory prayer, has been performed before, and quite accurately. The only reason so many people want more experimentation, is because they personally don't agree with the results so far.

Tenspace

thebeave

And I think you may find it to be true that Christians live slightly longer lives than non-Christians. And in fact, you may find that Mormons live the longest of all. Perhaps Mormonism is the place you want to be, hmmmm? Better convert now before its too late!

The reason I say Mormons have a likely long life expectancy is because they shun alcohol, smoking and tend to have tight-knit family structures, all of which are known to contribute to good, long lasting health. I suspect they avoid high risk behavior in general, compared to other groups. Prayer has nothing to do with it, other than its known calming, placebo effect.

You would have to eliminate all the other influences of long lives before you could attribute long-lived Christians to prayer. Diet, exercise, genetics, smoking, drinking, crazy driving, etc all have to be accounted for first. I doubt you could construct a scientifically sound and "bulletproof" study.