Comments on: “Scientific” Studies on Prayer’s Effectiveness

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By: Jeremy Langill

Jeremy Langill — Fri, 29 May 2009 01:02:16 +0000

I am sympathetic to the position that applying a “scientific” methodology to something like prayer is misplaced. The question becomes, by what rubric or set of criteria can a person empirically demonstrate actual results. That a group of people either fared better or worse based on the amount of prayer (or lack thereof) they received cannot be causally linked to prayer in any definitive sense. At the end of the day, even the group of patients prayed for that fared worse were still prayed for–and the believers who prayed for them might still claim that the prayer given was beneficial.

By: John Selbak

John Selbak — Mon, 25 May 2009 16:27:22 +0000

For anyone who is interested in reading the article from Christianity Today, here is the link: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2009/may/27.43.html

By: jillangill

jillangill — Mon, 25 May 2009 08:37:38 +0000

The idea of scientifically studying the effectiveness of prayer is interesting to me. Even though I understand the deep need to know if prayer matters or works, it seems a little absurd to try and assign cold numbers to something so full of variances and factors, most of which are mentioned in this post. I also feel like it’s presumptuous for the creators of this study to think they’ve covered all the bases and accounted for every factor, when the biggest factor of all is way beyond our control or understanding: what was God’s purpose for each of the people being prayed for?

Whether or not you believe we can change God’s mind through earnest prayer, His will plays a significant part in this study and it seems like that aspect was ignored a bit.

I’d be interested in reading this article. It does make sense to me that fervent prayer for a person we actually know and care about would be different than praying for someone when we didn’t have a personal stake in their well-being. Would God realize he was being tested in a way? Also, I’m not sure how the Spirit’s intercessory groans on our behalf would work for a study.