S00000000 - MY conclusion of the matter is this - since we cannot even predict the outcome of an election, it would be an exercise in folly to speculate and prove in advance what the outcome would be if prayers stopped working. It is all talk. The only real measure would be to gather the facts after such an event has occurred. Then we can debate the football game after the game has finished - even then there would be arguments. Again - are we talking immediate impacts or long term impacts? It is an exercise in folly to even go there. As a teacher - I would say the exam question is a poor question. At best,it is an exercise in imagination.
I'm sorry to hear you're not interested in exploring the question further, Firestorm. You were starting to provide some interesting answers.
By posing the hypothetical question "what would the effects be of prayer ceasing to happen?" we have identified what you believe the effects of prayer to be. You think that God responds to prayer by providing some tangible benefits to humans. Well, if those benefits are provided, then they can be measured. It may be a complicated process, but it's certainly theoretically possible to identify differences between Christians and non-Christians which could only be accounted for if God existed and was answering prayers?
We would, for example, expect to see statistically higher rates of good luck, recoveries from unexpected illnesses, and even genuine miracles, when we compare Christians to non-Christians.
Do we?
So I'll finish with this prayer example.
Going a little farther, he fell with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if it is possible, may this cup be taken from me. Yet not as I will, but as you will.”
The answer ( or was it no answer? ) to that prayer has resulted in a third of the World Population being Christian. The answer to prayer is a matter of life and death. I would say that is very significant.
One third of the world population isn't very impressive. Given that this is God we're talking about, of course.
You know, this reminds me of something I read on the Slacktivist blog. Written by Fred Clark, an evangelical Christian, quoting a visitation pastor in hospital:
L.B. The Visitation Pastor
"...most dying people want to pray with the chaplain. And they don’t want weak-ass prayers either. They don’t want you to pray that God’s will be done. …
I threw myself into it. I prayed holding hands and cradling heads. I prayed with children and old men. I prayed with a man who lost his tongue to cancer. I lent him mine. I prayed my ass off. I had 50 variations of every prayer you could imagine, one hell of a repertoire.
I started noticing something. When the doctors said someone was going to die, they did. When they said 10 percent chance of survival, about 9 out of 10 died. The odds ran pretty much as predicted by the doctors. I mean, is this praying doing ANYTHING?"
Well, according to you, Firestorm, prayer does do a lot of things. And of course, God may or may not intervene at any particular time. But it's basic probability. When you're praying to God, you have a chance of God answering you. When you're not praying to God, or if you're praying to the wrong god, you have zero chance of an answer from God.
So, when examining trends over time, we should be able to detect patterns which can only be explained by God answering prayers. The odds shouldn't be running as predicted by the doctors if someone is praying for you, because God answers prayers sometimes.
Or does He?