Prayer (A Reprisal)

In my last post, I closed by indicating that prayer doesn't work. I pointed to a previous post whereby I attempted to argue against the four common beliefs presented by the religious when it is shown to them that their prayers fail.

I feel like that was insufficient. I want to be absolutely explicit when I proffer the claim that prayer just does not work. And so I'm going to point out a few more quick things.

The problem is that the anecdotal evidence offered up by the proponents of prayer are, at best, confirmation bias. At worst, extreme arrogance. In between lie statistical probability, coincidence, and pareidolia.

Arrogance? How dare I! And yet, to declare the "power of prayer" works simply because you prayed for, and received, a promotion, or a good parking spot, or that special toy for Christmas is genuinely offensive to the millions upon millions across this globe whose prayers for clean water, or food, or medicine are ignored.

Those people pray, too. They may pray to the same god as you do, or to different gods. And yet the kind, benevolent, and loving god which blessed you with a little extra whipped cream on your mocha has turned his/her/its back on the disheartening cries of a mother pleading for food for her child. God looks away and hums when a teenage girl is being gang-raped. And god seems to love damning the poor to poverty, while blessing the pastor with abundant riches. Is it ironic that the poor who, in their naivete, give their last dollar to the pastor, because he promises blessings from god?

Complete bullshit.

Confirmation bias I say? Yes, absolutely. We tend to forget all the prayers that go unanswered. Why? Because so many of us suffer so little in life, we can afford to forget the little inconveniences that slip by.

Coincidence? There are billions of people on this planet, and billions of things going on each minute of each day. Pure coincidence can -- and does -- happen, quite frequently.

Pareidolia? Our brains are hardwired to find patterns, to search for meaning. We look for hidden symbols and answers in everything.

Statistics? 10 out of 10. If a radio show selects the 99th caller to win tickets to the circus, then 1 out of 100 callers will win. Someone is bound to be that 1 person!

And while I could easily turn this post into a huge dissertation citing examples and research and studies and science, I'm not going to. Anyone interested in furthering their understanding of why prayer does not work can start with the Wikipedia article on Efficacy of Prayer. If that isn't enough to get your brain gears working, then always remember: GIYF (Google Is Your Friend).

And finally, let's meet Bill: an average middle-aged Baptist church-goer from the Appalachian hills of eastern Kentucky. He has cancer. He prays daily to his god for healing, during his chemotherapy sessions. He visits his doctor once per month, and is sure to take his pills every day during his morning devotional. At church, he asks for the prayers of the congregation, for healing from his god. The cancer goes into remission. Who gets the credit? Hint: it ain't the doctors, and it ain't the medicine.

"Oh," but you say, "that's because god was working through the doctors and the medicine!"

Seriously? So what about all the people who are in the same situation, but don't survive? Did god forget to work though those doctors and those medicines? Or maybe it is part of some great plan -- perhaps the same plan where millions on this planet suffer and die in horrible, disgusting conditions?

Like I said, complete bullshit.

Until next Monday,
Frank