If you check out my blog, you’ll see some examples of recent prayer that’s working. I don’t want to link them because of the somewhat personal nature of my blog.
]]>I had actually read that post not too long before you linked to it. I would only point out that meditating on compassion is one thing and petitioning God for his direct intervention in the affairs of the world is quite another. The first has been shown to increase compassion, while in this case at least, the second caused the girl’s parents to ignore her “nausea, vomiting, excessive thirst, loss of appetite and weakness” that eventually caused her death.
Anna,
I tread carefully because this can be such a sensitive topic. There has been recent incident in my own family that people have been praying over. I have refrained from pushing my views on those members of my family who believe that prayer works because that would do little good. So if this is a sensitive subject for you right now, let’s talk about it another time. I’m going to respond in the following paragraphs, but you can choose to ignore my response.
The studies that have been done on the healing effects of prayer have shown no correlations between distant prayer (in order to avoid observing the effects of a near supportive environment) and improved medical outcomes. If this is true, why do we think prayer works?
A partial reason, I think, is because believers in prayer count the hits and forget the misses. It is a common human failing to remember the things that confirm our beliefs and ignore those that contradict them. In this case, believers in prayer will tend to remember the times that people got better after people prayed for them and forget the time that someone never got better.
Also, many illnesses naturally come to an end by themselves. If we pray to get over something, and then we get better, we may assume that it was because of the prayer, an example of a post hoc fallacy. We don’t usually conduct experiments to see whether or not our prayers worked. We don’t for example decide to not pray for someone to see if they will get better on their own.
I was convinced of the inefficacy of prayer when I was posed the question of why God won’t heal amputees. I still haven’t found a satisfactory answer to that question. The essay answers all of the objections that I could think of.
]]>Well said.
Would God really let my child die just because I forgot to pray for her safety this morning? Or would God let a woman die of cancer because not enough people prayed on her behalf? How many people are required before God would heal her? Five? Ten? Twenty? That just seems petty.
]]>How many people are required before God would heal her? Five? Ten? Twenty? That just seems petty.
I’ve wondered this as well, especially in light of my mother’s illness. So many people are praying for her, her name is on hundreds of Sunday School, temple, and church prayer rolls (from a plethora of denominations). Yet she still claims to need my prayers. And I wonder what would be different if she were the only one praying for herself. Would she feel unloved or unwanted and give up the fight? I think that for a lot of people it comes down to two things: 1) they haven’t thought through their philosophy of prayer and 2) when someone says they are praying for you, it brings a sense of solidarity. When people say they are praying for my son, I thank them. Just as I thank you for your hope for my mother and son. I hope for them as well. I really think that’s all anyone can do once technology and medicine have done the rest.
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