If prayers really work, we should able to easily measure and therefore demonstrate that people who pray for something vs people that simply express their desire for something would get more of those asked for things. So you have people who pray and then you have other people simply write down that they want the very same thing. Those that pray ought to have a higher percentage of wishes fulfilled.
2006-12-14 06:40:22 · 23 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
I know prayer isn't the same thing as a "wish"; it's hard to find a proper word. What I mean is that the control group could simply say outloud "Gee I wish I didn't have cancer" wheras the test group says "God please heal me of my cancer". You'd think the latter one would be answered more.
2006-12-14 07:40:18 · update #1
NO. Prayers aren't answered simply because someone asks for something. It doesn't work that way.
2006-12-14 06:43:24 · answer #1 · answered by MyPreshus 7 · 1⤊ 6⤋
If it was a 'fight', we wouldn't be Christians. There's no purpose whatsoever arguing over scripture. The love of God is what convinces people.
Prayer does work for those who have faith in it and believe it does. So if you don't think it'll work... By golly, it won't.
I did a study before on this too:... take a look:
Reasons for unanswered prayers:
1. Wrong or selfish motives. (James 4:3)
2. Unforgiveness, hardened hearts in any relationship (1 Peter 3:7, Mark 11:25)
3. Sin or disobedience, walking in sin (James 5:16, Paslm 66:18, Matthew 6:33)
4. Pride. (2 Chronicles 7:14, 1 Peter 5:5, 2 Corinthians 12:7)
God could be answering a prayer you didn't ask for because it will help you in the long run... maybe your prayer would be ultimately BAD for you.
5. People don't pray together. Agreement is powerful. (2 Chronicles 20:4, Matthew 18:18, Acts 1,2,12)
6. Unbelief. ( James 1:6, Mark 11:22, 9:23)
Keep your eyes on God, not the circumstances around you.
7. We don't pray through (we quit)... (Luke 18:1-8, 11:5-10, Daniel 10:12, Hebrews 10:35)
Be persistant.
8. Pray according to God's will. (1 John 5:14) God's will is healing, favor, peace, salvation, strength, victory, blessings, the desires of your heart... (sounds good to me)
9. We DON'T PRAY (James 4:2)
...Jesus, the son of God, had to pray.
That's not copy-pasted.
2006-12-14 06:50:13 · answer #2 · answered by Doug 5 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Yes, but the experiments would be very difficult because it would be difficult to control all the external factors.
1. Weather for example can hinder the ability of our prayers to reach God.
2. Language is another problem since God only speaks English, Latin, and the romance languages.
3. Religious affiliation certainly affects whether or not prayers are answered. Certainly God is not answering the prayers of Methodists.
4. Purity of the pray-er is important. It is unlikely that any of my prayers are going to be answered any time soon.
5. Prayer Syntax is very important and many prayers are rejected out of hand simply because they are structured incorrectly.
6. Location of the pray-er is critical since God only answers prayer made in non-totalitarian countries and those countries where the majority of the population is christian.
2006-12-15 12:47:59 · answer #3 · answered by ? 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i do no longer see what the element could be. Prayer is one in each and every of those subjective adventure, and that i do no longer understand how precisely you need to establish a controlled test. maximum critically, there is not any thank you to tell apart an act that resulted from "the capacity of prayer" as against an act that ought to have ended up occurring with out the prayer besides. As for NDEs, as others have reported those have been replicated by way of different means and there are completely wonderful scientific reasons for what is going on. human beings's own anecdotes on them mean no longer something, as is the case with any form of anecdote.
2016-10-14 22:54:38 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think studies like this have been done. But this can't really be bottled into an experiment that can be trusted. You must remember that when God answers prayer, some supernatural event is occurring. In other words, the focus on the experiment knows that the experiment is occurring. Hisenburg uncertainty principal?
2006-12-14 06:47:46 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think that has been done and it showed no benifits to prayer. This is a good caution to any Christian who things prayer is simply asking for things, like God is a genie.
The best thing to pray for is a change in yourself and that might be demonstrable.
2006-12-14 06:44:27 · answer #6 · answered by Aspurtaime Dog Sneeze 6 · 3⤊ 1⤋
They have done the tests and guess what prayer has never had any effect. In fact people who knew they were being prayed for actually did worse.
2006-12-14 06:49:35 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
There are a lot of greedy and low down scum bags that are not religious and get everything they want. There are a lot of good Christians out here that could pray until the world blows up and die poor and with nothing at all, therefore I would not agree with your statement.
2006-12-14 06:46:11 · answer #8 · answered by Bee Biscuits 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I'm pretty sure it was done many times and it always shows that prayers are BS.
Think of it, how many amputees are out there? I'm sure many of them pray to God. And it would be in his power to grow their legs back. And he even promised in the bible he would do so (answer your prayer). And yet nobody ever grew his leg or even a finger back. So either god hates amputees or prayers are BS. Period. Case closed.
2006-12-14 06:47:05 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 1⤋
Actually our goverment(usa) is funding a multimillion dollar, investigation to test if prayer helps heal people. It was on dateline nbc. So far the tests actually show that prayer does help and that those who believe in a higher power and afterlife live longer. But seems like a waste of money, or maybe not.
2006-12-14 06:45:14 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 3⤋
Measure this. I needed a car. My wife goes to a church that we normally don't attend. She knows the pastor, but that is not our regular church. We have prayed for a car but he doesn't know that. He approached my wife and asked her if we have need of a car. Some man had donated it to the church and the church didn't need it. He gave it to us. If that wasn't enough, there was a note in the car that we would be needing title and tags and in the envelope was enough money to cover that. Now, is that an answer to prayer or just a figment of my imagination?
By the way, it wasn't a piece of junk. It was a nice honda accord.
2006-12-14 06:46:52 · answer #11 · answered by Fish <>< 7 · 3⤊ 2⤋