Science proves that prayer doesn't work ... maybe makes things worse ...

Prayer without faith is worthless. It's should also be known that the prayers answered are those shared with two or more believers with unshaken faith in what is being asked for.

It says a lot to me here that so many in this thread show their lack of belief in the power of prayer. Whether you believe in God or not is your one-on-one relationship with God to determine. Science may as well be Satan as it can't prove or disprove anything related to God.

I have beaten cancer twice through the power of prayer. I know firsthand that prayers are answered. Always approach God through our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Be specific about what you are praying for, pray only once, especially if asking for a healing, as to pray the same prayer over and over is indication that you really didn't believe the previous prayers, and have faith that God will answer your faithful prayers. Yes, it works.

 

I need to do a study of if Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner is less tasty without the traditional prayer. Perhaps it tastes like garbage? I dont know.

 

Yeah, and I saw the hypothesis that people who think god is going to heal them may put in less effort to recover. I think it's also possible that, for some people, knowing others are very worried about them may result in additional pressure or stress. Either way, that is dealing with how patients process information given to them rather than establishing any inherent negative or positive powers with prayers themselves.

 

Also Nocebo Effect is a powerful player and likely causes atheists to die sooner, never mind Christians.

 

If a Christian says “God answers all prayers and my prayer is that I will win the lottery tomorrow”, sure.

 

I don’t conceptualize God as an invisible sky wizard, but I do believe that Jesus had blond hair and blue eyes. Yes, that may be inconsistent.

 

The fact that it was shown to make it 7% worse uncut the methodology of the test. Selection bias caused 7% error… it could easily be 30% error too. Test is junk. No offense.

 

That's cuz you didn't pray for this:
Tantalus Device

Never fear, I haven't received mine yet either.

 

Most Christians don’t read the Bible. That’s something you could test as well.

 

“Pray when driving. Pray when fighting. Pray alone. Pray with others. Pray by night and pray by day. Pray for the cessation of immoderate rains, for good weather for Battle…Pray for victory. Pray for our Army, and Pray for Peace.”
- General George Patton

Spoiler

Broke his neck while riding in the back of his limousine, an activity he unfortnately left off his detailed list.

 

So you didn't undergo any treatment for your cancer and it went away because you prayed?

 

In this case, it may have resolved because he eschewed unnecessary and potentially harmful treatments. But how would we know on way or another that prayer wasn’t a factor ?

 

What if someone is out there praying that other people's prayers go unanswered?

 

What if ? There’s a lot of conjecture on this thread in any case.

 

I often pray the libbies remove themselves from government altogether.
I also pray that they stick to entertainment as that’s what they’re actually good at.

 

I too, have experienced answered prayers. One in particular involved one of my children. It took several years and a move from one state to another, but the aggravating physical problem he had, and doctors had no answer or solution, was healed through the information given to me by an evangelist who knew of other children with the same problem.

It was enuresis, still wetting himself and his bed in the middle of the night. He felt no full bladder urges and had no control but he learned the preventive practice of going to the bathroom at regular intervals during the day before he wet himself. When he was 5 years old, and having just learned I was pregnant with our 3rd child when our 2nd was only recently out of diapers, I broke one night at his bedside. The taunts he received from his young friends when he wet himself, the nights and mornings dealing with wet bedding, and other burdensome problems, including living in a house soon to be too small and financial pressures sent me to my knees by his bed one night. Through my tears and my frustration I let it go and cried out, "God, I can't handle this any longer; you're going to have to do it for me."

Now my older 2 were a challenge to raise. Three years apart in age, the older one loved to pick on his sister, once snatching her then current favorite doll and renaming it 'Blast Off', he repeatedly tossed the soft bodied doll into the air in a keep away scenario. She in turn, intentionally taunted him and looked for ways to get him into trouble. These and many other typical, aggravating juvenile behaviors added to the frustration.

The morning after my cathartic prayer I took them to a local state park for a hike and a picnic where it dawned on me my children were being remarkably kind towards one another and solicitous in their unusually quick responses when asked to do something I requested. It was a wonder; a small miracle. At first I thought it was a scheme my young, and not-so-angelic, children had hatched up, but for the fact there was no evidence they were doing so. It was genuine and near miraculous. These precious little darlings could not possibly be mine; I did not know these children.

The cooperative spirit lasted but one day and one dry night, with the return of their usual sniping the next morning. Nonetheless, I was encouraged, more so in the light of my remembered prayer when less than 2 weeks later Trucker returned home after his daily commute into NYC to tell me he had been offered a new job with a paper manufacturer he had designed a compensation plan for the previous year. They were pleased with his plan and wanted to hire him as their benefits manager to run the program for them, with a big boost in income. It solved two of the things on my mind the night I had fallen to my knees at my son's bedside. Our increased household income relieved the financial pressures we experienced in moving to the NYC area, and moving to another state allowed us to move out of a house inadequate in size for our growing family into a larger home with wooded acreage.

Our new home was an old house that needed painting so I had three fairly close estimates, but going against my usual practice to take hire the painter with the lowest estimate, I decided to take the middle estimate. This estimate was given to me by a two man partnership, they called Covenant Painters. The guys were around the age of Trucker and me and were clean cut, personable, respectful, self confident, likeable, and got on well with our children, now numbering 3 having moved from Jersey to Connecticut when he was 2 weeks old.

The two of them, Logan and JT, started work on painting the front hall and 3 rooms, a job they expected to complete in 3 days. But they spent the 5 work days in one week and 2 more days the second week, because I started listening to their conversations and the Christian teaching tapes they played one after the other. I asked questions, as what I was hearing was more insightful than any Christian sermon or teaching I had ever heard or participated in to that point of my life. That 10 day interval, distanced by several months from my tearful bedside cry out to God was confirmation our lives had been changed by that prayer. The trajectory of our lives had been changed.

Further confirmation arrived some months later when Logan and JT arranged for a church planting evangelist to come to our small Connecticut town to discuss the possibility of establishing a non denominational church under the authority of a Florida based shepherding ministry that was discredited shortly thereafter. But his presence brought to conclusion the final, or first concern that had driven me to my knees that unforgettable night. It had been suggested to me this evangelist also had a healing ministry and could pray over my eldest for his problem. When he was told what the problem was, he said he would do so, but wanted me to know what he was about to tell me was not a 'word of knowledge' (Christian terminology), but he thought the problem could possibly be an allergy to milk as he knew of several other children who had a similar problem and were 'cured' when taken off milk. No doctor had ever mentioned an allergy, much less an allergy to milk.

With nothing to lose by taking him off milk we decided to try it for 3 days, but after receiving this information and removing milk from his diet that same day, he never again had the problem. All this happened within 24 months after my cry to God, saying 'I can't handle this anymore. You are going to have to do it for me.'

There have been other answered prayers over the last 4 decades. Possibly coincidence? Sure, but answered nonetheless.

As for the question on whether praying multiple times for the same thing may be a hindrance to healing, I think this may be more an instruction to carry the prayer with you within your heart, never ceasing to abandon the intention of the prayer. In 1990 Trucker and I went through a separation lasting 4 months. It was a stressful time but I was determined our marriage would not fail. So I prayed, standing on the promise of Ecclesiastes 4:12 and each time I consciously uttered the words audibly, or in my head, I never said or thought 'Amen.'

Paul's instructions on continuous prayer are found in Romans 12:12 ... be constant in prayer
and I Thessalonians 5:17 ...pray without ceasing

Psalm 34:1... I will bless the Lord at all times; his praise shall continuously be in my mouth

Song of Solomon...I slept, but my heart was awake

I like what the Orthodox Church has written about this ... The Orthodox Faith - Volume IV - Spirituality - Prayer, Fasting, and Almsgiving - Unceasing Prayer.


"When praying with a set rule of prayer, the spiritual teachers tell us to put our whole mind and heart into the meaning of the words, not merely “saying prayers,” which is not prayer at all, but genuinely praying through personal attention and fervor. They tell us to allow our mind not to wander from the words of the prayer, but to use the given words as the basis of our own personal devotion, even allowing our mind to go beyond the given words to our own words, or to no words in the prayer of silence, if the Lord leads us this way. They also tell beginners—and Saint Dimitry of Rostov says that we are all beginners, no matter how advanced—never to go back and repeat prayers done poorly. They tell us rather to put ourselves at the mercy of God, and to try to do better the next time. This method reduces the possibility of thinking that God hears our prayers according to the perfection of our performance and not according to the greatness of His mercy, and safeguards against both pride and despair. It gives humility and hope, and keeps us always forging ahead (cf. Lk 9.62, Phil 3.13–15).

"Thus when one finishes his rule of prayer, however well or poorly he has done it, he should say “Amen,” and go about his business of living in Christ, remembering God and doing His will until the next time comes for the rule of prayer to be done. Then he should do it as well as he can, beginning all over again.

"The second way of interpreting the teachings about unceasing prayer is that men should actually pray with conscious awareness at every moment of their lives, and even in their unconscious selves while their bodies are sleeping. This understanding of “unceasing prayer” was developed in the monastic tradition, but then spread rapidly throughout the whole membership of the church. It became very popular in recent times, mostly through the appearance of the book by the anonymous Russian peasant called The Way of the Pilgrim."

"The method of “unceasing prayer” is to have a brief prayer verse, usually the Jesus Prayer (see next section), which is repeated over and over, literally hundreds of times throughout the day and night, until it becomes perpetually implanted in the heart as a “bubbling spring,” a continual presence in the soul calling out to the Lord (cf. Theophan the Recluse, 19th c., The Art of Prayer). It is often, but not necessarily, connected with one’s breathing, so much so that it is uttered “with every breath” (Saint Gregory the Theologian; Saint John Chrysostom). It begins by being said vocally, silently with the lips, and then it becomes wholly mental. The claim is made that one can continue this “unceasing prayer” even while engaged in the normal activities of life, while reading or writing, and even while sleeping, thus the “body sleeps,” but the “heart is awake.” Then, whenever one’s attention to the affairs of life cease, or when one awakes from one’s bed, one finds that the prayer is continuing itself."