Prayer.

[Tree of Life]

Can it do so in a manner that rises above random chance and confirmation bias? I do recall that the governor's efforts were... less than effective.

Prayer is not predictable like laws of nature. God is a person and not an impersonal law. So prayer does not work like a science experiment or a magic spell. Yet there is Scriptural evidence to demonstrate that God does respond to prayer and prayer can affect change in the world. But even when prayer does not affect change in the world it always affects change in the one praying.

 

[Davian]

Prayer is not predictable like laws of nature.

But in the studies I have read, prayer is predicable. It functions at the same level as chance.

God is a person and not an impersonal law.

The only 'persons' that I am aware of are living, breathing, excreting organisms, subject to entropy and all that. What do you mean by "person"?

So prayer does not work like a science experiment or a magic spell.

The governor would disagree. Perhaps not, in retrospect.

Yet there is Scriptural evidence to demonstrate that God does respond to prayer and prayer can affect change in the world.

Stories of evidence are not really evidence.

But even when prayer does not affect change in the world it always affects change in the one praying.

Sure. Gods do not need to be real for that to happen.