Why do theists believe a study saying religion is good for kids, but not a study saying prayer doesn't work?

Question

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology/070424_religion_kids.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12082681/

Answer 1

Because they are very selective with their evidence. They will discount anything that disproves their theories, which supplies atheists with the evidence of their hypocrisy and lack of scientific method.

Atheism. You know it makes sense.

Answer 2

Very few people are willing to accept studies that challenge their pre-conceived beliefs. That goes for theists and everybody else too.


Look at the people responding to this question who believe in the power of prayer. These people did not even try to answer your question. They just "know" that prayer works, so they refuse to even listen to what a study might say about it.

But that is not to single those people out. If you produced a study showing that prayer works, then all the people who don't believe in prayer would probably have just as hard a time accepting that study.

So all this proves is that people are not scientific by nature.

Answer 3

Why do you group all theists together? I think all studies trying to quantify the effectiveness of prayer or the effect of religion are flawed The first treats God as an automaton who has to treat all prayers in the same way regardless of His will or motivation, while the latter is too ill-defined (what exactly is "good"?) to quantify.

Answer 4

Religion isn't the problem. It's when religion and politics mix. This is exactly were the bigotry starts. Propaganda is promoted that makes the ignorant believe there is a realistic enemy that needs to be "vanquished." For theists, it may be presented as non-theists, ect, ect.

It's not that the original teaching of these traditions was bad. It was twisted to fool stupid people.

Answer 5

They'll believe anything that furthers their agenda.

A good example is when the pope said that evolution wasn't really that unbelievable & most of it fell within the bible so it was perfectly feasable. Did the christian community embrace that? No, they make comments about the pope being possessed & things of that nature. Anything that jeopardizes their belief structure they shoot down, but anything that confirms their beliefs ..... Or even something that SOUNDS like it's logical to them (i refer once again to the "new life in peanutbutter" debate) they use it to strengthen their stance.

It's kind of sad, really. Grasping at straws hoping to find one that can hold up a church.

Answer 6

Because getting what you want isn't an accurate measure of whether prayer has "worked" or not.

Prayer is a communication between a human and deity - if the communication took place, then it worked.

Answer 7

Prayer isn't supposed to "work". Prayer is simply communication with the One Who loves us and Who does indeed work for our good.

Have you considered that perhaps some silly laboratory study praying for plants or other such nonsense just isn't on the same level as a lifetime of first hand experience with God answering prayer?
.

Answer 8

Why do atheists attack the news source rather than look at the article. I can show you lots of sources that says prayer does work. Can you show me one where religion is not good for kids.

Answer 9

Prayer does work, you just be patient and persistent. One more thing: God won't help you do something that is not good for your soul. Even if you don't see the reason right now, in the future you will understand why it didn't happen something you've prayed for. Or maybe it's not the time for that thing to happen.

Answer 10

They only believe what supports thier preconcieved notions.

Ex: Fossils found on top of a mountain - proof of flood. (Of course it couldn't possibly be geologic uplift, lol)
Fossils found anywhere else - proof the devil is trying to trick them.