Does praying work? (atheist, agnostic, quote, religious leader)

[Cheguevara]

Faith-Based Medicines

By RAYMOND J. LAWRENCE
Published: April 11, 2006


RESPONSIBLE religious leaders will breathe a sigh of relief at the news that so-called intercessory prayer is medically ineffective. In a large and much touted scientific study, one group of patients was told that strangers would pray for them, a second group was told strangers might or might not pray for them, and a third group was not prayed for at all. The $2.4 million study found that the strangers' prayers did not help patients' recovery.


Faith-Based Medicine - New York Times

[cg81]

No, "prayer" does not work. God works. And I'm sure He thought the scientific study was pretty funny!

Anyway, this reminds me how some people look at prayer, or God, as their personal magic genie that they can turn to in emergencies. For example, in an article related to the "rain prayer" thread, some kind of official made the comment similar to this, "What we have tried clearly isn't working. We need to try something else like have a public prayer."



IMO, there is nothing wrong with a public prayer.. just don't miss the point!

It's not "our prayer" that makes the difference.

[Huckleberry3911948]

for an agnostic or atheist praying would be as pointless as
me strapping a 3 foot surfboard on top of my car

[waiting]

Questions:
Who are you praying to and why?
Do you put God first?
Are you the servant or is God your supposed servant?
Do you pray in the outline of the Lord's prayer?
Do you have faith?
I just had two great prayers answered in my life, Thanks to GOD!!

[I LOVE NORTH CAROLINA]

Originally Posted by waiting

Questions:
Who are you praying to and why?
Do you put God first?
Are you the servant or is God your supposed servant?
Do you pray in the outline of the Lord's prayer?
Do you have faith?
I just had two great prayers answered in my life, Thanks to GOD!!

Good questions, I wonder how the strangers in the survey would have answered them.

[arguy1973]

Originally Posted by Bunky39

for an agnostic or atheist praying would be as pointless as
me strapping a 3 foot surfboard on top of my car

lol..sounds like a lot of wasted money to me for that "study"

[cg81]

Originally Posted by Cheguevara

In a large and much touted scientific study, one group of patients was told that strangers would pray for them, a second group was told strangers might or might not pray for them, and a third group was not prayed for at all. The $2.4 million study found that the strangers' prayers did not help patients' recovery.

But this also strokes out the theory that if someone is healed by a healing prayer, it is a result of getting in the right frame of mind by knowing people are praying for you.

So in other words, either it is or it isn't.

[noland123]

It is in God's time that prayers are answered not in man's time . I will agree with Arguy that 2.4 million was a lot of wasted money for that study.

[Cheguevara]

Originally Posted by waiting

I just had two great prayers answered in my life, Thanks to GOD!!

I'm sure you would find that there is a perfectly logical explanation...rather than divine intervention.

[arguy1973]

Originally Posted by Cheguevara

I'm sure you would find that there is a perfectly logical explanation...rather than divine intervention.

whats the logical explanation of a Tornado heading directly towards a house and then jumping back up into the clouds right before it gets to the house?