Prayer
I find it intellectually offensive that anyone would believe in the power of prayer to do anything. You should find it offensive too.
Some religious ideas are debatable, for instance whether or not there is a god. No one will ever be able to disprove that, making it unfalsifiable. Luckily for us, prayer is not one of those things. Prayer is a specific action which hopes to bring about a specific result. As such it is measurable in a scientific way.
There has been many scientific studies conducted on the power of prayer. None of them indicate that it has any effect on anything. Which makes sense, when you think about it. If there is a god, and he knows everything, he doesn't need you to tell him what to do, does he? He's going to know what the best thing to do is, and arrange for that to happen. I mean, how exactly would prayer work?
Angel: Hey God.
God: Angel. What's up?
Angel: There's this guy - Johnny Terminally-Ill, and he's dying.
God: So? People die all the time.
Angel: Yeah, but this guy has people praying for him.
God: Really?
Angel: Really.
God: How many people?
Angel: It qualifies for a Stage One Miracle Cure, sir.
God: OK then, do it.
Angel: But .. er ..
God: What?
Angel: Well he's kinda old .. it won't be long before he's in this situation again...
God: Well all we can do is hope that he doesn't have as many people praying for him in the future.
Angel: Yeah. Otherwise he'll never die.
God: LOL.
Does that look stupid? I certainly hope so.
Some religious ideas are debatable, for instance whether or not there is a god. No one will ever be able to disprove that, making it unfalsifiable. Luckily for us, prayer is not one of those things. Prayer is a specific action which hopes to bring about a specific result. As such it is measurable in a scientific way.
There has been many scientific studies conducted on the power of prayer. None of them indicate that it has any effect on anything. Which makes sense, when you think about it. If there is a god, and he knows everything, he doesn't need you to tell him what to do, does he? He's going to know what the best thing to do is, and arrange for that to happen. I mean, how exactly would prayer work?
Angel: Hey God.
God: Angel. What's up?
Angel: There's this guy - Johnny Terminally-Ill, and he's dying.
God: So? People die all the time.
Angel: Yeah, but this guy has people praying for him.
God: Really?
Angel: Really.
God: How many people?
Angel: It qualifies for a Stage One Miracle Cure, sir.
God: OK then, do it.
Angel: But .. er ..
God: What?
Angel: Well he's kinda old .. it won't be long before he's in this situation again...
God: Well all we can do is hope that he doesn't have as many people praying for him in the future.
Angel: Yeah. Otherwise he'll never die.
God: LOL.
Does that look stupid? I certainly hope so.