Does Prayer Really Work? Does God Even Care?

[Michael]

Thump. I think if you look at what the experiment was testing then the design was good. It asked and answered one small specific question and was appropriately controlled for that question (I very much doubt it would have passed peer-review otherwise). Anyways, I wasn't going to add any more, but I just wanted to address that specific point on controls.

Just as a complete aside, you may be a little surprised to know that some more modern scientific methods have no specific control group. The statistics behind these experiments are a little more complicated, but these experiments often have the most powerful designs, and avoid a statistical 'flaw' of more traditional designs where one control group can have too much weight in an experiment. Though people are often introduced to scientific experiments with the idea that you change one thing at a time, and have a control group, in practice the more sophisticated designs actually break both those rules. One relatively straight forward example is 'response surface design' ...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_...ethodology

[Eel_LahjicK]

Yes, prayer works. It is exactly as helpful as 'hoping'. I've long been hoping that Taylor Momsen would show up at my house carrying a wrestling mat and a bucket of custard. The results have been disappointing (to say the least) and I don't imagine that formal prayer would have improved them any.

Boru

Regular Taylor or goth Taylor? If I didn't have a choice, I wouldn't be disappointed either way. "Oh Lord, heaven knows we belong way down below!" The Pretty Reckless - "Heaven Knows" (Taylor Momsen)

[Thumpalumpacus]

Thump. I think if you look at what the experiment was testing then the design was good. It asked and answered one small specific question and was appropriately controlled for that question (I very much doubt it would have passed peer-review otherwise). Anyways, I wasn't going to add any more, but I just wanted to address that specific point on controls.

Just as a complete aside, you may be a little surprised to know that some more modern scientific methods have no specific control group. The statistics behind these experiments are a little more complicated, but these experiments often have the most powerful designs, and avoid a statistical 'flaw' of more traditional designs where one control group can have too much weight in an experiment. Though people are often introduced to scientific experiments with the idea that you change one thing at a time, and have a control group, in practice the more sophisticated designs actually break both those rules. One relatively straight forward example is 'response surface design' ...

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Response_...ethodology

Okay, I'll go do some more reading, thanks.

[ShaMan]

PRAYER WORKS! Praise report! My wife was sick and her church friends prayed for her. Then, after nine days days, many trips to the store for meds and tissues, a few sleepless nights, lots of hot liquids, cool baths and more prayer, she was miraculously healed by Jesus!