Is this proof that prayer doesn't work?

Question

How many children have to die in the name of god?

http://www.deism.com/harrison.htm

Answer 1

There was a study done recently about the effects of prayer on the sick. It pretty much concluded that prayer had no effect on the well-being and healing of people who went in for surgery. Basically half of the people were prayed for, half weren't. The results turned out the same, making it seem that the prayer made no difference.
Sorry that I can't give you specifics about who did the study, etc..., but I heard about it on the news.

But this one story doesn't prove anything. It's simply an isolated case. To prove or disprove something you have to look at many more cases. I'm sure there have been cases were only prayer was used and the person got better, but those cases don't usually make the news. And, since you're asking this in the R&S section, people are just going to tell you that god works in mysterious ways and that it may well have been his will that those kids die - even with medical treatment.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that prayer doesn't work, but this isn't the proof for it.

Answer 2

Look, this kind of pray is very sick...!!! It is not according to the Holy Bible. Christ there, makes miracles praying to show to the people that faith, if it really exists in us, it can make us manage everything ( "the impossible for human is possible for the God") we want and is according to the God's will.
What these people do ( where have you ever heard that Christianity is a science ?!!!! ) is to act against what is written in Bible. When the Satan tried to harm Jesus in the desert, He replied that Never put your God in into an ordeal! Also, on the Cross he did not tried to survive calling his angels as some soldiers tell Him to do if he was trully the Messiah.
Additionally, the different sciences were and are improving at the same time that Christianity spreads allover the world ( Orthodox or Catholic ) and Christianity never tried to stop the improvements of science if it was for our own good. So the best thing for these sick not-christians was at least pray but while the kids were at a hospital trying to be healed and not trying to cause a miracle ( like both Satan and the Hebrew soldier tried to do )! If it is God's will, the kids may had died but in a hospital not in this way...

Answer 3

Prayer does work but God also expects us to take care of our children including to take them to a doctor when necessary to give them the necessary medical treatments to keep them save and alive. Regretfully some people don't realize that God made these medical advances possible to help us help ourselves so they cause undo harm to innocent children and themselves even. These stories are so sad because all 3 would be alive now if their parents realized that God does expect us to do everything in our power (including seeking medical attention) in conjunction with prayer. And I know that prayer words because I have seen it work so many times in my life but only after I did what I could 1st and God then finished for me.

Answer 4

It is not proof of anything except that people will mis-interpret what they do not fully understand. There is always a tendency to take a grain of truth and twist it into a grotesque monstrosity.

No one should ever subject a child (or themselves) to this sort of "faith". It is not faith, but the wreckage of their inability to understand what faith really is.

They have not understood that God (in our limited comprehension/concepts) works through doctors, healers, medicine, studies, schools of thought...Prayer works (in our terms) by belief, so if these people believe in not going to the doctor, their level of belief had better be high, for it is the level (power) of the belief that does the work.

I do not believe Mary Baker Eddy's original teaching was based upon such monstrosity...I believe her teaching has been twisted.

Answer 5

those are sad cases of misguided beliefs. those who believe in 'faith-healing' or that they will be healed everytime they pray are putting their will up instead of God's. prayers like that dont work. if it were as simple as that, everyone will just pray to be healed. then what? they will pray that they will not die? so everyone gets healed and no one dies? God did not intend for people to live forever. sicknesses and sufferings have their purpose. one of which is to realize our mortality. death comes to us all whether we pray or not. that is why God is offering a better life than the short one we have now. it is not prayer that heals. it is God who heals, at His own time and choice. God doesnt owe any human anything. Life is but a privilege and not a right

Answer 6

That doesn't prove that prayer doesn't work. What it does prove is that the parents cared more about themselves than they did about their children.

If they really wanted their children healed, they could have gone to a doctor. It is common knowledge that modern medicine can treat the afflictions of each child you mentioned.

What the parents really wanted wasn't for their children to be healed. It was for a miracle. Healing from a doctor is mundane and boring, but healing through divine intervention would validate the parents' beliefs in their religious superiority. That is what they wanted.

Answer 7

I do not believe there is anything wrong with faith. I believe in the power of prayer. I just think that sometimes God wants us to use the brains he gave us. For instance go to the Doctor!
He gave us a great mind to figure things out, so perhaps that is they way he sometimes wants to heal us.

Gifts from God are amazing, and people (christians) need to realize that sometimes God wants to use the tool that he put in place long ago, our ablity to think, reason and solve, and ultimately create things that heal and can help others. IMHO

Answer 8

No it isn't proof, Prayers r the only easiest way to convey your msg to God, If u feel that more destruction is happenning then the reasons r different, this all is happenning just b/c of the acts of pplz. Have your faith in God.

Answer 9

The upside is that the faith gene is not getting passed down from them. Perhaps 1000 generations from now humanity will have evolved beyond faith.

The other classic disproof of 'the power of prayer', is that no-one with missing limbs or chromosomal problems ever gets healed.

Answer 10

Sadly, their parents are misguided. Why can't people see the fantastic advances in science, especially in medicine and genetics, as the answers to the prayers that they have been looking for? Scientific discovery is one of the greatest gifts that God has given to humankind, and it is sad and pathetic to hear of people who are so haughty and self-absorbed as to reject this precious gift.