Does prayer work?

Question

If prayer works, why are there no documented cases of an amputated limb being restored to its original state through the power of prayer?

Answer 1

No, prayer does NOT work, and here is the proof...

http://www.dimaggio.org/Eye-Openers/prayer_does_not_work.htm

Answer 2

The restoration of an amputated limb even for a very righteous truly devout Christian would be a miraculous. Why do we not see miracles such as this? Firstly, it would have to be done to bring glory to God. If a person were on 60 minutes tonight, with photos of their amputated limb and then photos of the healed limb, there would be no glory for God. There would be speculation as to the authenticity. There would be rumors of fraud. There would be people would have lost two limbs or have cancer, AIDS, and thousands of other life threatening ailments and diseases screaming of God's cruelness for not healing them. The glory of God, the beautiful miracle would become a sordid farce.
Does prayer work? Yes indeed it does. It has saved my life countless times. Did it keep me from being disabled from a motorcycle accident, no but I'm still alive. I still have hope, and I still ride motorcycles. Prayer works.
I'll make a deal with you....
You pray for me and I'll pray for you. You may not believe it works but I know I do and if I can get some extra insurance like one little prayer for me I'LL TAKE IT!!

Answer 3

I believe there could be a small placebo effect. Only with personal prayer. Then again I have seen the studies where group prayer has been shown to make heart surgery patients have a lower recovery rate. The margins were small on this, but I chalk both cases up to the power of the human body

Answer 4

A simple but profound question. Now, I am a Christian and believe in prayer. I believe that there is more to prayer in it being about "changing" me; I think that prayer can change God too, but I won't explain how, because I can't. The God of the Bible is the God who is the One who allows himself to be affected by us - he came in Jesus to die for us.

As for amputated limbs, I have this feeling you got his from the "godhatesamputees" web site. All I can say is that I don't know of any documented cases of amputees being cured, and I have no responses to that.

Answer 5

That's a rather spurious evidenciary support of your contention that prayer doesn't work.

I would content that prayer does work IF and I mean a big IF YOU BELIEVE IT WILL.

Now, mind you, you can pray until the cows come home and not grow a new arm. Unfortunately we aren't lizards and don't regrow limbs. That is a simple scientific fact. If you pray to fly with no airplane, hangglider, etc., then you'll be pretty unsuccessful.

But let's imagine that you pray that you are able to DEAL with your amputated arm. You pray that your allies and the people you trust will love you and support you through this difficult time. You pray that you be given the strength to succeed despite your handicap. Then I think that your results will be a bit more positive.

FP

Answer 6

If anyone with the power of Jesus and His faith prayed it would happen. The reason we do not see this today is lack of faith in the person(s) doing the praying. I have seen a person healed of a type of cancer that kills in 2 weeks. This happened this summer. But it was not one person praying it was a group of people, some with the gift of healing and a priest during the Eucharist which invokes the power of God in a very special way. Prayer does work. It works for me, but not in the way that you have described. But under the right circumstances, it could happen, but 99.99% of Christians do not claim the power of Jesus.

Answer 7

We were created by a spiritual being therefore prayer is the only way to have a relationship with God. Prayers are more apt to be heard from someone who is righteous. If faith is great enough there is nothing Our loving Father will not do for His loving faithful
but ultimately it will be His will that will be done and not ours. He knows what is best for us.

Answer 8

You are confusing miracles with prayer. However I prayed for a child for two years and I now have a 16 month old son. There documented!!!!

Answer 9

Yes prayer works. The ones who have seen it and believe it--don't desire to proof it to the world--people must have faith enough for themselves to seek Him and allow Him to reveal Himself to them. The blind have been given sight, legs have grown, teeth have been filled, back pain has been relieved and addictions have been broken--all by the power of our Savior. You can believe what you want -but me and my family have been part of such miracles and I will never be ashamed of my Jesus.

Answer 10

Prayer has a slightly beneficial effect when the person being prayed for *knows* they're being prayed for. It has no effect at all when they don't. The little effect it does have is obviously psychological.