(August 9, 2019 at 12:22 am)Fake Messiah Wrote: Prayers obviously don't work so why do religious still keep doing it? Are they insane because you know the definition of insanity according to Einstein: “The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again, but expecting different results.”
There was even that multimillion dollar experiment by religious people that ultimately proved how praying doesn't work. Maybe religious people haven't heard about it and that's why they still believe in prayer, but still they had to know when they saw how their own prayers don't get fulfilled.
Still here's Richard Dawkins' description of that prayer experiment:
Quote:the team of researchers soldiered on, spending $2.4 million of Templeton Foundation, money under the leadership of Dr Herbert Benson, a cardiologist at the Mind/Body Medical Institute near Boston. [...]
Dr Benson and his team monitored 1,802 patients at six hospitals, all of whom received coronary bypass surgery. The patients were divided into three groups. Group 1 received prayers and didn’t know it. Group 2 (the control group) received no prayers and didn’t know it. Group 3 received prayers and did know it. The comparison between Groups 1 and 2 tests for the efficacy of intercessory prayer. Group 3 tests for possible psychosomatic effects of knowing that one is being prayed for.
Prayers were delivered by the congregations of three churches, one in Minnesota, one in Massachusetts and one in Missouri, all distant from the three hospitals. The praying individuals, as explained, were given only the first name and initial letter of the surname of each patient for whom they were to pray. It is good experimental practice to standardize as far as possible, and they were all, accordingly, told to include in their prayers the phrase ‘for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications’.
The results, reported in the American Heart Journal of April 2006, were clear-cut. There was no difference between those patients who were prayed for and those who were not. What a surprise. There was a difference between those who knew they had been prayed for and those who did not know one way or the other; but it went in the wrong direction. Those who knew they had been the beneficiaries of prayer suffered significantly more complications than those who did not. Was God doing a bit of smiting, to show his disapproval of the whole barmy enterprise? It seems more probable that those patients who knew they were being prayed for suffered additional stress in consequence: ‘performance anxiety’, as the experimenters put it.
those are not prayers.
Jesus Christ gave the one and only example of a christian prayer. if it does not follow the out line he gave it is known as a petition. God is not obligated to petitions as he has promised to answer prayers. While all prayers are answered petitions are answered based on his time table and predetermined will.
Why do Christians petition God? because somethings are there for the asking.
