Are prayers getting answered an evidence for Gods existience?

Question

My freinds pray for things they want to happen and some of them happen for them. I do not pray at all but some of my hopes come true. My freinds regard them as power of prayer and I regard them as acts of chance. Who is right my freinds or me?

I had more chances of luck than my freinds

Answer 1

It is just coincidence. They don't get everything they pray for, just like you don't get everything that you desire. It is simply the laws of probability and chance. Those things that seemed to be an answer to prayer would of eventuated even without prayer. Just because they happened to also pray for these things doesn't mean that prayer caused the outcome.
Just like the above answer, I recently read about a long-term study based on evidence gathered from patients suffering post-op and also terminal diseases. What they have found is that those patients that are relying on people praying for them had slower recovery rates and also higher mortality rates. This is because a patient that doesn't believe in prayer actually has a higher sense of determination and stronger will-power and do not have a morbid "if it is God's will" attitude. This study showed that relying on yourself instead of God's will was more powerful.

Answer 2

And someone is supposed to be all full of wisdom like a guru or something and tell you if something happens as the result of a prayer or just by chance. If you could find evidence that prayers are getting answered then that would be evidence of Gods existence. You should pray only for things where there is about one chance in a hundred of them happening. Then if they start happening an unreasonable number of times you might assume that prayer might be being answered.

Answer 3

Prayers are really answered for two reasons
-Placebo effect
-Coincidence
What happens is that when say a person gets better, god gets the credit, and when they don't well god just said no. It does help a little in that a person is more likely to get better if they think something will help as well. That is why double blind tests are important.

Here is the most comprehensive one to date. There was no difference between the group that was prayed for and the group that wasn't. In fact, a slight statistical anomaly made it better to be in the control group. Prayer doesn't work and since religion predicts that it does, this is strong evidence that religion is wrong. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?ex=1301461200&en=4acf338be4900000&ei=5088

Answer 4

No, they are not.

But neither do I think its all a matter of chance. By turning your attention towards anything, wether in the form of prayer, hope, desire (or any other such term) its more likely to occur.

This doesn't mean that everything you try -- or even 50% of it -- is going to come out exactly as you want (and certainly 0% of the impossible); but by praying, hoping or just simply wanting something to come true will bring you closer to it.

For instance, its absurd to think that praying or hoping for world peace is going to magically make it happen; but in desiring that outcome, you are affirming your position.

Is a person that believes its all just random (so why bother) more likely to speak out against war or the person who turns his attention towards peace through prayer or hope?

Events happen because of human hopes and aspirations not because of chance.

While I am not a practicing christian, I do think that prayer is more likely to bring about something than hoping for it precisely because prayer is more focused (as would be meditation).

Answer 5

It's just the way things played out....look at your friend's position on the matter, "I pray for it, and if it's god's will it happens, if it's not, it doesn't" So what good does prayer do, if "god" is just going to do whatever he wants anyway? You have no influence, just the illusion of control that's so vital to humans...we have to control everything. Prayer has no more power than crossing your fingers. Things are influenced by two things: Probability, and outside interference (and by that I mean people, animals, REAL forces, not some "god")

Answer 6

If your friends have faith, they will accept that those things that do not happen are also an answer. Personally, I use prayer to guide me to what I myself should do. Praying only for some sort of gift is kind of shallow. But shallow people abound. I know a guy over 50 who still thinks that God intends for him to have a family. I'd give anything to convince him that God intends for him to see a psychiatrist to figure out why he can't keep a relationship together that long.

As for evidence of God's existence, there is only faith. Juvenile faith is like a kid begging for candy at the supermarket checkout. Mature faith asks for guidance and courage to do what's right. If there is evidence, it is that so many of us are guided by mature faith to do what's right FOR OTHERS, even if it requires a personal sacrifice.

Answer 7

Why don't you try a prayer and see for yourself? That should put an end to your 'rightness' question. (But then, another question: what will you think if the prayer you ask happens?)
Someone once told me "The answer's in the question.", and after reflection on this, I came to realize that they made sense. I find that statement to be true in every case. Hope you find what you're searching for, if in fact, you're really searching for anything...

Answer 8

Your friend is right.I have prayed for miracles, which no human could do,and God proved the miracle.Also many say prayer is not valid,I have watched on T-V at least five tests done by science ,one was a hospital all people same illness, same degree, given same meds.every day a group prayed over the patients on the right corridor.They all healed ten times faster.Science can not explain how pray works ,but they admit it does.

Answer 9

Matthew 7:7-11, says, "“Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.Or what man is there among you who, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will he give him a serpent? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give good things to those who ask Him!"

Who's right? Depends on what you believe. Maybe God is answering your hopes as prayer, and your regards you hopes as chance, but with God this is no such thing as chance, only faith and trust.

Answer 10

I hope your luck in chance hold out for you when you really need something big but if you are not dead or unconscious you can still call out for God at any time and He may come to your rescue. I would not be gambling with it as I never beat the odds.