If prayers actually have an effect on illness, or a person's well being, happiness, or success, why don't…
- major corporations enlist their thousands of employees to pray together each day for ingenuity or inspiration against the competition?
- hospitals gather all their staff together in the chapel each morning and pray for all the days surgical procedures to go well?
- government agencies allocate millions of dollars to research the benefits of praying for success in combat, or to determine if prayer could help the homeless, or feed the hungry?
- Agencies like NASA begin each day with a nationwide satellite beamed prayer session urging the safe return of shuttle missions, or even for the Mars Rover to start responding again?
- Depts like the NOAA forgo severe weather reports and just broadcast messages telling everyone to pray for hurricanes to weaken, tornadoes to abate, blizzards to disappear, droughts to end and global warming to reverse itself?
What’s wrong with all these people??? Science obviously isn’t helping them. How can they ignore the power of prayer?
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18 comments
Godless on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
A nice change from "Why Won’t God Heal Amputees".
Brendan G on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
This should be fun …
rezany on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Because God can’t hear they’re prayers, only Jesus can. They have to be right with Jesus first.
pcheesewhiz on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
If the power of prayer is so strong, why didn’t you just pray over this isuue instead of asking this question?
Jan P on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
The ignore it because they don’t have physical proof right in front of them and they want to see to believe…Jesus said that we’re more blessed because we believe without seeing….I read somewhere about a hospital (I think at a bible collage) that had a staff just to pray for the patients and staff 24/7. I can’t remember which one though.
uhohspaghettiohohs on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
im guessing that the answer you wanna hear is:
Prayers dont help.
chapelite_av on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
It used to be that way, until the atheists got theirs. People used to look out for others, instead of Number One.
Many US Presidents would call for national days of prayer for a variety of issues, such as war, famine, or disaster.
Hospitals that are run by churches often have prayer calls for the issues you described.
The problem is, many people of faith have been scared into silence by the likes of the ACLU.
ignoramus_the_great on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Oh, I get the point. What you are actually saying is that prayer does not work. You are saying that when you ask God for something he does not respond. The Bible says otherwise, so you are saying that the Word of God is a lie. Just wanted to make sure I got you straight.
Know what I’m going to do now? I am going to sign off of these answer pages and go and pray. Thanks for reminding me.
smilingfaces on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
In order for prayer to work effectively in each area that you named their must be a spirit-filled believer(s) interceding. Also faith plays the greatest role in having positive results. I’m pretty that their are people who are praying in all of the places that you have listed but unfortunately all sicknesses, unhappiness will always be here. We live in a fallen world.
Tu Nga on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
The effect of prayer is not to avoid the negative, but to reetablish the positive aspects of existence.
What is the use of health for a sick man to drink alcohol, to take drugs, to rob people after his recovery?
No religions promise the cure of physical diseases; they promise the cure of all ills beginning with the recovery of a heathy life. Religion do not call for the eternity of the body; they call for the repentance of the soul, because this is true eternal life.
shortiep25 on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
I don’t really understand your question but uhh I’ll try and answer:
In the USA we have freedom of like everything. You think that trying to get all these people to use prayer to solve our problems will solve them? Well your right, it might solve some of them (if that is God’s will), but these people will be mad because they will feel like their rights are being taken away and that they are being forced to do something they don’t want to. This will cause more problems than it will solve. It will divide the country more than it already is and, more than likely, make more people hate God. .even though they should be loving Him and thanking Him.
In addition, God might not want these problems to be fixed. If you know anything about the Christian faith then you should know everything happens for a reason. Its like a cake – lots of ingredients go into making a cake. These ingredients don’t taste very well by themselves (taste eggs -GROSS / taste flour – SICK / taste cake mix – DRY / taste milk- BLAND) but when you put them together and bake them the outcome is oh so sweet. Life is the same way. Don’t look at the bad problems or certain parts of life. Look at the big picture – how everything comes together in the end to make you a stronger, wiser, and more caring person for God, humans, and the world.
GOD wills something to happen. You don’t know what he has instore for you. .just wait. 1 Thessa. 5:16 – 5:18
Wookie on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
These are all fantastic questions. God wants to work in our lives. He desires that we would do all of these things. After all, the Bible is packed full of His desire to be a part of our lives and His desire that we should seek Him in our time of need. He has even told us that we could level mountains and stop natural disasters if we just had the faith of a mustard seed.
Unfortunately, though, we live in a fallen world which more and more seeks to deny His existence. We (humanity) get caught up in our own self-importance and believe that we no longer need Him. Isn’t it funny how the more "civilized" and "advanced" we as a human race become, the more problems and less civilized we really become? What amazing things could happen if we all believed in His power and acted like we believed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
jon on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
It’s simple, for the most part science doesn’t acknowledge GOD.
Also GOD is a Bad name, oh you can say it, just don’t say it
to loud people might refer to you as a religious fanatic. Then
there’s the matter of Idolatry, that’s what’s wrong with "all these
people". All we can do is pray ourselves for them, and us, and
all the needy………GOD Bless
Hey, Ray on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
-God doesn’t side against people. You can ask for prosperity, not downfalls. Besides, if two competing companies are praying, why should God pick sides?
-where prayer happens doesn’t matter. also, they need to be performing surgery, not standing around. Prayer can be done in motion, and even with eyes open if neccessary. I’m not a heretic, I just don’t believe that not closing your eyes in an emergency is disrepectful.
-why should God take sides for the military? and faith without works is dead. God usually works through people, so if you want to end world hunger, send food! build shelters!
-people pray for astronauts whether they know it or not. and anyways, what purpose would the Mars Rover serve?
-some natural disasters are consequence. you build your city with a dyke, it breaks, you get flooding. Some are judgement, like when God warns people something’s going to hit and repentance is severely needed. prayer has calmed tornadoes before. Global warming can be reversed if it’s waited out. God made the earth self-sustaining.
cuz a lot of them are closed-minded atheists
Spacebunny on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
Religious aims and scientific aims are vastly different. If you pray for the safe return of a shuttle, you might just get a disaster that lays bare extreme abuses in the system of administration that oversees the construction of the shuttle and thus save the next shuttle on the line from falling prey to the same flaw that destroyed the one before…a safe return of sorts, but delayed, and not an answered prayer in the way a strict scientist would define it.
It amuses and perplexes me that some scientists have this distorted view of what prayer is supposed to do and what its purpose is. It sounds like this question is asking "why is our every desire not instantly granted in every detail when we pray for something?" If it was, prayer would be witchcraft. It would be a one-to-one correspondence of a person’s expressed wish to a direct outcome with no ambiguous interceding force (i.e., God). Or, it would mean that God is our servant and not vice-versa. I do not even profess to be Christian, and yet I can see the glaring flaw and fallacy in this argument. Of course something as inexact and unpredictable as prayer cannot be substituted for scientific method and precaution in everyday procedures. It isn’t suited for such a use.
But, of course, this is all in good fun. I couldn’t resist putting a few cents in anyway! Cheers!
patricia on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
If two or more come together with the same prayer IT WILL BE DONE< The power of prayer is grand, and I am a living example of it, What ever I have ever ask the Lord I have received not right then but God has always been own time, The Lord blessed me today with a great report from my doctor, when one specialist says surgery and God said no surgery He healed me, Trust in the words of God, He heals he calms he gives compassion, And etc: It hurts my heart for a lot of people to deny Him, the Power of prayer is powerful! and He has blessed me so much, God bless the USA and Israel and all…I love the Lord Jesus Christ with all my heart mind and soul and I give Him Thanks and Praise…And if we all came together own what you are speaking of it will be done no doubt in my mind…If the world would come together and pray the Lord would come …their is more people of the anti-Christ, then I have know their was …
dora_chan on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
To certain extent, sincere prayer (regardless which religion) have an effect to an illness, well being etc…
However, healing essential come from our mind,
not from our body, it is important to understand the nature of our mind.
Healing our mind is crucial, because otherwise our problems, which are beinningless, become endless. We may use medicine or some other external means to heal a particular disease, but the the disease will reture unless we heal our mind.
hope_rises on August 15, 2010 at 9:25 pm
God hears the prayers. But it doesn’t mean he is going to answer it the way you necessarily want it to be answered.