RE: Prayer Studies
May 17, 2014 at 7:29 am
(This post was last modified: May 17, 2014 at 7:42 am by Heywood.)
(May 17, 2014 at 6:21 am)BlackMason Wrote: Hang on, not so fast. What if a prayer study s done on people that don't believe in god. An experiment done on people that will indicate their religious affiliations among other information. That can ensure their friends don't pray for them. I'm talking about a study of this nature being done in a country with low religious statistics in their population like Norway and such.
Norway is at peace. People in the United States and in other countries pray for world peace. How do you know that if people weren't paying for world peace, Norway would still be at peace? There is simply no way to have a control group which isn't being prayed for because while people pray for specific people, they also pray for all people in general.
Further you have no way of controlling God's actions. Suppose I pray for my dying father. God is egalitarian and bestows some "grace" on my father but also gives an equal amount to everyone else with the same condition even if they have no one praying for him/her. If prayers offered up for individuals have a benefit for all of humanity....you have no practical way of testing this.....yet prayers would have power and benefit.
(May 17, 2014 at 6:05 am)jesus_wept Wrote:(May 17, 2014 at 5:46 am)Heywood Wrote: I said in post 1, sentence 1 of this thread that I don't believe in the power of prayer.....so why should I want to say they could work?
You said in post one, sentence one that you're not a big believer, which implies that you do believe. It certainly doesn't state you dont believe in prayer.
I would bet that if a person is dying from cancer. Prayers will not change the outcome. I don't believe prayers work. I see no need for God to cure a person from cancer just because someone prayed for that person. I said I am not a big believer....not because I believe....but because I could be wrong. Maybe prayers do help people.....I don't think they do....but I'm not going to go out and say for certain that I know they don't help.
(May 17, 2014 at 6:57 am)Bad Wolf Wrote: Well of course prayer studies are invalid. With a being like god you can claim absolutely anything to get you out of trouble. Its a nice and easy way to evade contradictions or problems. But the problem we have now is that praying and your god are un-falsifiable claims and these are utterly useless to science. If you have no way to test for something, if you cannot demonstrate it, then what possible justification can you give for believing in it? Personal experience? Anecdotes? Not good enough.
I have no problem with your statement provided you are consistent and scoff everytime someone shows you a prayer study. If you take the stance above....and then take the stance that science proves prayer doesn't work.....I'm afraid you're a nincompoop.
