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Does God Answer Prayers? Research say NO!

Prayer\'s Power to Heal Strangers Is Examined [washingtonpost.com]

Things like this sometimes question my faith.

I dare say that you are not the first nor the last to ask this question.
the first thing we have to remember is that`God is Sovereign as well as Eternal. He is not going to answer every prayer as each of us would like, as if we all had our own way, there would be chaos. God has a plan for each of our lives and before He formed us in the womb, He knew each of us, and had a specific plan. now,I myself think that God's plan for my life can really stink to high heaven, and I have told Him so, but that ain't gonna change His mind. there are other times, I say "wow" and shake my head in disbelief when I get a blessing that I had no idea was coming. so it is for each of us. one can ask "what about Hezekiah, when he prayed to God to spare his life, and God granted him fifteen more years? God was more than likely going to do that anyway, as He had a specific plan for Hezekiah's life, but wanted him to realize that he was dependent on God, and just because he was a king, he had to realize that he was a mortal just like the rest of us. again, so it is for each of us. if a person dies despite of prayers, it appears that that person's time was up, and that person had been a part of God's greater plan, and that part was fulfilled.
yes, one can raise the issue of suffering, and what part does that play in God's plan. believe me, I know. I have to deal with rheumatoid arthritis that has limited my typing to one finger on each hand,my job abilities are limited, I am losing my TennCare, I am tired a lot, and I walk like someone forty years my senior. plus, I have partial complex siezures, and after a twenty year remission they are coming back. of course, I think that bites,and I don't know why it's happening, and prayers don't seem to be doing a blessed thing, but I have to realize His Sovereignity over my life. so do each of us.
Much Love,
Jonn

I am convinced God answers prayers. The answers never seem to be quite what I asked for, and I have even thought at times that the answers were God's idea of a joke. In retrospect, by trusting God and following those answers, things have turned out better than I expected.

Definately! He answered the prayers of 6 million Portuguese just last May...

[Linked Image]

More seriously though, a neighbour of ours once quoted a verse to my mother which was very encouraging to us at a time when the family was going through difficulties:

God does not always anser yes
To everything I pray
Sometimes he says "No my child
I have a better way."

There is no way to logically explain faith, but I know from personal experience again and again that God does answer prayers and especially when I earnestly pray for others have I seen these prayers answered.

No doubts about that whatsoever.

But sometimes it isn't the answer we thought it would be. :rolleyes: Sometimes, however, it certainly is.

God, being Love, sees a bigger picture than we do. He sees what has been, what is, and what is to be. He sees the heart too, where we often look only on the face.

God allows our free will and choice too. We can get into a place where we block our own prayers by a sinful life, action, or attitude. Without repentance...our communication with God(prayer effectiveness) can be diminished...but that is always our choice. Jesus stands at the door and knocks..We need to open it.

Blessed be God.

Mary Jo

RayS:

Don't pass over this crucial point:

What is in question is not specifically the efficacy of prayer, but the manner of its efficacy. Is He calling us to pray openly and in communion? Is this connected to His giving us a church and parish life, rather than simply calling us individually to the desert? How these things work is a mystery, but the evidence is that they do, in fact, work.

Dear Ray,

Things like that article never affects my faith. I always look at what happens, and then try to find God's reasoning.

As an example the saying that the good die young. They do but why? Now John Bosco said that it is because they live among sinners. What he means is that they are in a relatively pure state and by living with sinners they will (in time) end up either grave sinners themselves or will suffer dearly because of their contact with them. God takes them when their soul is the purest.

As for my prayers, they do get answered but never exactly the way I wanted.

In Christ,

Zenovia

I don't mean to knock on anyone or say that anyone's gullible, but look at the methodology of the study. The only thing you can conclude of the study is that 187 [748 divided by 4] patients who were prayed for by strangers of various religions did not show any measurably better rate of recovery. The study says nothing less, but also NOTHING MORE.

The whole idea of the study and its presumed purpose (can we prove that prayer helps due to the psychological healing power?) is steeped in narrow empiricism (of the post-enlightenment variety) and religious relativism that it says nothing to me about my faith.

Sounds to me like a study that errs on the side of "tempting God" (while at the same time at best assuming that some distant god is the god of all religions, or even worse assuming that prayer is effective only because of its psychological effect). Do you really think that you can prove in a scientifically controlled setting that anonymous prayers - be they Muslim, Christian, Buddhist, or Hindu - will improve the lot of a patient to a statistically significant degree?

Not in my view. But I have known people who have visibly benefited from prayers, sacraments and pilgramages. I don't care about the innuendo obtained by these study results. In the end, I cannot prove there is a God, to say nothing of the Trinity. I cannot prove that the Eucharist are anything more than a piece of bread dipped in wine - and I'm sure scientific examination would prove it as such to anyone sacreligious enough to do so.

However, for the doubting who look for miracles (or superstious, according to some) there are a host of documented eucharistic miracles to read about. There are also plenty of incorruptible bodies of saints in various states. No one's going to get me to believe that the latter are hoaxes.

Fascinating. What does this mean?

Why not? Do you reject medical research entirely? Do you think that the efficacy of drugs, surgicial procedures, etc. can be tested?

I would say this study went a long way towards proving medically that prayer does heal..

Page 7D
Prayer effective as painkiller?
90% in poll say it works well; expert says it's all in the mind

By Anita Manning
USA TODAY

Americans have found a no-cost painkiller they say is as effective as prescription drugs: prayer.

More than half of those who responded to a USA TODAY/ABC News/Stanford University Medical Center poll released Monday say they use prayer to control pain. Of those, 90% say it worked well, and 51% say �very well.�

Among a dozen therapies, including bed rest, massage and herbal remedies, only prescription drugs were as successful as prayer in easing pain: 89% report that such drugs work well and 51% say �very well.�

This comes as no surprise to preachers and doctors who say they have seen the way personal faith can influence a patient's reaction to all kinds of pain, psychological or physical.

�Prayer enables you to take your mind and place it in a new perspective,� says family doctor Harold Betton, who also is pastor of New Light Baptist Church in Little Rock. By focusing on prayer, he says, believers reduce stress and gain control over pain.

He says he's not suggesting anyone should expect miracles, �but you need to utilize what people have: their faith. Let your faith and prayer intercede, and your perception of pain decreases.�

Why that might work is open to debate. Columbia University psychologist Richard Sloan says it has more to do with the power of distraction than the power of prayer.

�If you try to distract yourself by focusing on something else � prayer or something else � I do think it works,� he says. �I don't think it's anything special about prayer. It's any kind of mental activity that serves to distract you from the pain-producing circumstances.�

Hundreds of papers have been published on the possible link between faith and health, but scientifically, �it's very hard to measure,� says John Tarpley, professor of surgery at Vanderbilt University.

Pain, in particular, is subjective and can be influenced by a variety of factors that are difficult to assess by scientific standards.

�What we have to worry about is the difference between showing association and causation,� says Tarpley, who teaches a class on spirituality and medicine at Vanderbilt.

For some deeply religious people, pain can be redemptive, but faith also can carry an extra burden.

�In African-American belief, (often) pain is part of what we are expected to endure,� says Glenda Hodges, director of a course in spirituality and medicine at Howard University's College of Medicine.

The feeling is that �if Jesus endured it, I should be able to handle it,� she says. �So if I'm not able to handle the pain, there must be something wrong with the spiritual connection I have with God.�

But �it doesn't work that way,� says Harold Koenig, professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Duke University. Faith and medicine �work beautifully together. Just praying alone doesn't work as well as if you're (also) taking your morphine.�

Koenig and colleagues reported last month in the Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease that among sickle cell patients, those who go to church at least once a week had the lowest pain scores.

�People who are more involved with religious organizations seem to be able to cope with stress,� Koenig says.
http://www.usatoday.com/printedition/life/20050510/bl_sidestrip10.art.htm

But I don't need any study to tell me prayer works.

I am a walking miracle - I am only living because of prayer. Besides the other conditions I have suffered with, we were in a bad accident and the corrid artery on the left side of my neck was cut. The only reason I am here is Divine intervention.

Also here is a link concerning Matthew from my post in Prayer. The only he has from the accident is short term memory loss, and with therapy they think he will recover that -
https://www.byzcath.org/cgibin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=7;t=002044#000000

I was leaded to this thread by a person. This is a really challenging thread . I will strive to express some thoughts regarding this topic.

Please, have patience with me. My English is poor, I am aware of this, and I belong to another cultural environment. And my inner spiritual education is grounded on the Holy Scriptures, the Fathers of the Church, the Fathers of the Desert, on Philokalia.

A personal testimony, I am hard ill with my heart. In my early childhood I was about to die twice, once I inserted (at my 5 years) a steel wire (used by a welder) in an electric panel of high voltage watching how the thick metal melts before me. Second time, I was on a mountain road, with a group of colleagues (at my 12 tears). I know only that a friend pulled me back and I saw a great white wall in the front of me. It was a huge transportation and long vehicle, at about 15''. Why did not I die?

I have read the article from Washington Post with care and a dictionary near me. I must recognize that this is very strange to my thought.

Rob Stein says: "according to a large, carefully designed study that casts doubt" How was this study carefully designed? Where is the methodology? Designed on what principles? Where these principles were used before? With what results? Were these results validated by the whole medical zone? I love the maths much and I cherrish the exactity.
In the world of astrophysics there are many theories regarding the development of our universe. Many scientists are sure that the universe will collapse, or will expand at infinit, etc. Have they an irrefutable proof? No way, only suppositions, and words. Crafty assembled.

"Prayer is presumably a way of addressing God" so says Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence, director of pastoral care at New York Presbyterian Hospital. Only a way?

The prayer is seen like a help, a way. But it is more. The prayer is a reciprocal relationship between the man and God. It is a matter of love and cry. It can't be measured watching the pain of 748 people. It is a matter of communion and community and reciprocal knowledge. Your need is my need, your tear is my tear, your sorrow is my sorrow. And we pray...we are redeemed together, because we are called to love each other. Only in love we can enter the Kingdom.

The prayer must not be seen like a painkiller, like an aspirin or so, which can be bought with money from the first pharmacy. There is no TV Prayer Channel on which we can commute, when we like, using the remote control sitting in our comfortable armchair. Channel 1 with Fox News, Channel 2 with Movies, and Channel 3 with God.

God is not an object, which can be studied. Even the matter cannot be studied 100% with accuracy. Remember Heisenberg's principle.

All is a matter of repentance, for we are born in sin, live in sin. Why the most of people are ill with the heart? Because of our style of life. We have tens of sorts of cheese in supermarkets (for instance), we like to watch wrong TV shows on our sofa, or smoke, drink, worry for nothing. We worry for obtaining a new model of cell phone, or laptop, or new car, but we forget about our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, the second person of the Most Holy Trinity.

Where is the name of Christ in this study named Mantra II? Only once it is named the term of Christian, but never Jesus Christ.

I think that this article ia a false agenda. Why USA did not accept Kyoto's treaty, although it is oviously that our planet's ecology is in danger? And a lot of people live in sorrow every day, with less than one usd per day.

The prayer is something very serious. It is about our life. We exist through the mercy of the Most Holy Trinity. In the beggining it was the Word, but same time the love. Only from Love we exist.

This so-called study is a nothing. The weak souls can doubt after reading. But a true Christian, or a serious person, who reasons and thinks, passes over this.

Or let us think about that book of Brown, "Da Vinci Code". The authour says that it is fiction, but I am afraid that many weak souls will be affected by this.

We have to discerne, by our reason we can't grasp God like an object. There is a cataphatic knowledge, but also one apophatic.

The MIT (music, imagery, touch) treatment can be helpful for body and mind. But the prayer only, by the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ, heals our souls and rises us in a dynamic love from this vain world to the Kingdom of God. Two wings: prayer and mercy, and always with love in our chests, praying ceaselessly:
Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the Living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

And even if we die of heart, or other, but we are on the path to the Kingdom, we will be redeemed.

Indeed we must change our minds, to live in metanoia. This is the repentance. The real humbleness.

I add a symbolic story: Once it was a right man, John (let us say). He died and went to Paradise's gate and knocked. 'Who is there?' asked our Lord. 'I am John'. 'And what do you want?' 'I want to enter the Paradise.' 'What great deeds made you?' 'I did good for the poor people, I was married, I had 5 children, with mercy for all.' 'You can't enter.' said our Lord, 'Come after a while'. John despaired, thought better, and recame. 'Who is there?' 'I am your humble servant, John.' 'Go and think more.' John began to tear very deeply and after a while he recame at the Big Gate, and knocked again. 'Who is there?' asked our Lord Jesus Christ. 'You are,Lord!' answered John 'Come in, John, you are welcome.' answered our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are nothing by ourselves, and if we do not change our mind, if we do not live according to our Lord's commandments, then the gate will remain closed. So I am afraid.

This love for God and all the people is a commandment, not an option, not another TV channel, ready to be taken like an object. We may reach the state of love praying with humbled heart for our sins and for all the people.

We are different as persons, but one as human nature. One. And our Lord Jesus Christ, Son and Word of the Living God, wants us all together in the Kingdom.

Let us pray for all, even for the strangers, for the sinners, for the poor, for the rich, for all. Doing so we all sing our song of love to God, we all dance ,a dance of the souls, leading us straight to the Kingdom.

This study is only a gathering of words, but not here it is the Life. The Life is in the Holy Communion, is in our love for all, is in us.

And where is the Life, also it is the Kingdom.

May our Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on us. Amin.

In the Risen Lord, Marian

This is the best post I have read in years.

-ary

Dear Little Brother Marian,

Well, you make me very glad I encouraged you to read and post on this one. Glory to the Holy Spirit who guides and inspires us!

And we who read your post can understand your English because as it comes from your heart...we resonate with the words.

Thanks for letting me know about your post this morning by your p.m. which showed up in my email box. Otherwise I hadn't planned on going to the forum today. Am glad I did because this post and others here go so well with the scripture readings in my church's Liturgy today. [Parable of the treasure in the field and the precious pearl of great price] Indeed, parables of the Kingdom...

And thanks for your prayers yesterday. My daughter, Mary Katherine, and her family landed safely at the airport and are now all home and fine. Peace prevails and Nana Jo is happy.

I know the Holy Spirit guided you as you told me you would pray before posting.

Oh, I appreciate your sharing about what happened to you when you were younger. God, indeed, is Love!

And, yes, I agree that our relationship with God as part of Kingdom living is what it is all about as we walk in faith and trust. Amen!

Thanks to Ray S. for posting such a challenging topic!

In Christ, +

Your friend,

Mary Jo

narrow empiricism - the idea that the only thing that we can know is what we can scientifically prove.

religious relativism - all religions are functionally equal. Thus, Muslim prayer is the same as Hindu prayer is the same as........

No. I am the son of a scientist; though that route is not for me I understand and appreciate it. In fact, I did pretty well in biology and statistics in school.

Medical research is critical. If you wanted to test the efficacy of a drug, you take a statistically significant sample of people (minimum 30 or so) of as much homogeneousness as possible. You give half of them the drug, you don't give anything to the other half. If there is a statistically significant number of people who show improvement after taking the drug, then yes you've basically proved for all intents and purposes that the drug works.

My problem with this survey is that it really doesn't prove anything of interest. My "theological" objectiations are:

1. it treats prayer as a kind of drug. This is a wrong way to think about prayer.

2. it covers the whole gamut of prayer, seemingly regarding Hindu devotions as the same as Muslum devotions. This treats all religions as equal and evaluates them solely in terms of a process (prayer) that acheives a desired output (healing). This is a very wrong way to think about prayer.

3. People are asked to pray for people they don't know so they can test for a survey whether prayer is useful. This sounds like tempting God to me.

Marian and I seem to be saying the same basic thing.

Looking at the survey in terms of basic logic inherent to the scientific and research process:

1. The only conclusion one can draw from this study is that "prayer, defined as a mixture of devotions from major world religions on behalf of people unknown to the pray-er, does not have a statistically significant effect on the healing rates of patients". No less, no more. Again, this is really not a surprising conclusion.

2. the conclusions "prayer doesn't work so religion is false", to say nothing of "God does not answer prayers", "there is no God", or "there is no triune God" are all conclusions that cannot be drawn from this study. Each of them are major logical leaps not supported by the study.

[begin unsolicted, opinionated, and possibly incorrect spiritual comment]

Frankly, if someone begins to draw any of the conclusions of "2" from this survey, I think they're not only exhibiting bad logic, but are viewing religion and prayer in a completely wrong manner.

[end unsolicted, opinionated, and possibly incorrect spiritual comment]