What were the prayers? Who were they offered to? Who were they offered by?
Studies differ, but a typical study would recruit Christian volunteers who are randomly assigned to pray for people undergoing a risky medical treatment.
If this seems too artificial, there are naturalistic studies as well. The first was done by Francis Galton over a hundred years ago. He showed that Kings did not live longer than their siblings, even though millions of people prayed for their health every day.
I'm not so much atheist, not so much agnostic -- I mostly don't care about the existence of a deity. However I can't but feel that efforts to prove or disprove the existence of most gods are so incredibly flawed that I can't believe anyone spends time on them. What sorts of controls can you even use?
The question of the existence of God or gods is not accessible to science. The question of whether prayer affects the outcome of football games, on the other hand, can be answered.
The question of whether prayer affects the outcome of football games, on the other hand, can be answered.
Prayer is a very big and vague word, but I haven't read the studies. If you say they cover all prayer, I have no evidence to offer that they do not.
It just seems unlikely.
The question of whether prayer affects the outcome of football games, on the other hand, can be answered.
There is a Red Sox joke in here somewhere, I know there is.
The question of whether prayer affects the outcome of football games, on the other hand, can be answered.
"Yeah, we were in the game.... Until Jesus made me fumble."
An Air France flight from Toronto to Paris has skidded off the runway and burst into flames. Sounds pretty dire.
That's gotta suck. I hope the casualties are way lower than expected.
Of course, in "I'm flying out of that airport tomorrow" news, I guess I'll try to get there a little early.
If you say they cover all prayer, I have no evidence to offer that they do not.
I would not make this claim. These studies were done in the same way that all studies of new treatments are done. As Madrigal noted some people (conservative Christians) claimed that prayer would result in medical improvements. Scientists set up the prayer intervention in the way that the proponents claimed it would work and used an appropriate study to see if it did work. It didn't.
We can always say that a different kind of prayer might work for a different problem, just as we can say that a debunked herbal remedy still might work in a different form for a different problem. But as the studies accumulate the argument gets weaker and weaker. That is the lovely thing about science.
An Air France flight from Toronto to Paris has skidded off the runway and burst into flames.
Yikes. An A340, which is almost as big as a 747 (comparable to a 777).
An A340, which is almost as big as a 747 (comparable to a 777).
Yep. Big trans-oceanic planes.
So lovely it hurts.
I would not make this claim.
I extrapolated from your dismissal of prayer to the dismissal of all prayer. If this is not what you intended, I apologise and retract my objections.
