Scientific Efficacy of Prayer and the Resulting Theological Questions

I recently had a conversation with some people on Facebook, because I get sick of these, "We need to get back to prayer and God" f#cking posts. Anyway, just linking to a relatively extensive examination of how effective prayer is. It's pretty long, but thorough and fair. Worth the time when you have it...

Prayer and healing: A medical and scientific perspective on randomized controlled trials

I'll just post some snippets for consideration and pondering. These are some of the theological considerations that would need to be considered to really explore the efficacy of prayer from a scientific perspective...

1. If the number, duration and frequency of prayer are important or if the number of persons praying is important, does God, like a businessman, market boons based on the currency value of the prayers? Or, will God pay attention only if those who pray are sufficiently bothersome?

2. If the type of prayer is important, is God a bureaucrat who is more likely to consider petitions that appear in the prescribed forms?

3. If the addition of vows and sacrifices is important, is God somebody who can be flattered or bribed into granting a boon?

4. If the level of fervency or intensity is important, does God distinguish between “please”, “pretty please” and “pretty please with ribbons on it”?

5. If the practical content of and petitions in the prayer are important, how does God make decisions about what is and what is not a reasonable request?

6. If the faith or conviction of the persons who pray is important, does God value the beliefs of the petitioners more than the merits of the petitions?

7. If the personal characteristics and qualities of the persons who pray (or the persons who are being prayed for) are important, are some people more equal before God than other people? Religions portray God as being compassionate; what sort of compassion is displayed by the selective favoring of an experimental over a control group?

8. If the entity to which the prayer is directed is important, do different Gods have different portfolios? Are some Gods more approachable? Do some Gods ignore some prayers? If the religious affiliation of the person who prays is important, what becomes of the other religions of the world and those who follow such religions; will their prayers remain unanswered?

9. If the magnitude of response to the petitions is total, then all prayers should result in miraculous or near-miraculous benefits. This, clearly, almost never happens. Thus, does God work on percentages; that is, if the petition is for an elephant, does he sanction a mouse? Or, are his responses only subtle ones? If so, how does he choose on the outcome measure to improve?

Another important considerations...

"No study, for example, has examined whether prayer can result in the disappearance of medically proven tumors and metastases, reversal of traumatic paraplegia or revival from a state of brain death. It would seem that the results of such studies could be more convincing than the results of studies on wound healing or successful pregnancy. Could it be that those who pray believe that God has or sets limitations?"

https://whywontgodhealamputees.com/

"...religion is based on faith and not on proof. This implies that, if God exists, he is indifferent to humanity or has chosen to obscure his presence."

As far as some actual or perceived benefits of prayer go, yes, we are a social species and there ARE all sorts of psychosocial benefits available to us as such. So in that way the benefits of "prayer" are a confirmation of our interpersonal connectedness, but not of supernatural intervening, and believers tend to mistake it for the latter through confirmation bias.

Well, if I wanted to make a theological prayer about efficacy I'd probably put it like this (but you know me to be what some would call a moderate Christian):

Praying is exchanging with God like you would with a human being, normally you are not expecting to control and handle people you interact with, you are hoping they will listen and care to your pleas and they might provide you with insight or downright find you unfair. As with a regular discussion there are instrinsic advantages that are psychological, but it's hard to ensure every discussion will net material or noticeable advantage.

Originally posted by Bentley
Well, if I wanted to make a theological prayer about efficacy I'd probably put it like this (but you know me to be what some would call a moderate Christian):

Praying is exchanging with God like you would with a human being, normally you are not expecting to control and handle people you interact with, you are hoping they will listen and care to your pleas and they might provide you with insight or downright find you unfair. As with a regular discussion there are instrinsic advantages that are psychological, but it's hard to ensure every discussion will net material or noticeable advantage.

So to me it sounds like you're at least treading close to the "meditation" aspect of prayer. I think for purposes of discussing this topic, prayer should be defined as "a solemn request for help addressed to God or an object of worship." (from the dictionary). Meditation is something different: "think deeply or focus one's mind for a period of time, in silence or with the aid of chanting, for religious or spiritual purposes or as a method of relaxation." To me they are two very different things that are attempting to accomplish two different things. So they should be kept separate. No one doubts (or at least should doubt) the benefits of meditation. There's all sorts of scientific evidence that it lowers blood pressure, alleviates anxiety/stress, etc, etc.

But my point for starting this topic was to discuss whether or not prayer in the sense that I defined above is substantiated and could it ever really be explored effectively and what does it say about said "God" or deity or supernatural entity to isolate certain variables.

One of my points above is that when people know people who care about them are praying for them it may actually lend some psychosocial benefit because we are such a social species. But that sort of benefit gets mistaken for supernatural intervention, which is obvious confirmation bias.

There are several aspects of prayers that are not related to asking for help. You can say thanks for what you get, seek consolation or forgiveness, but for the purpose of this thread let's stick to requestig help.

In Christianity the main element you're likely to hear regarding prayer is "ask and you shall receive" which in Luke follow up the parable of a man that bothers his friend in the middle of the night with a request. Clearly the point of that story is not to be a ***** and just ask for free stuff, but about the nature of being good and God's generosity compared to ours. If you would pray so God hurts you and does wrong to you or to someone ese, then you wouldn't be served because he will not do something mean to his children, so prayer is never exactly limitless.

In catholicism it's admitted that miracles come from God when they push people towards a life of virtue. The sheer impossibility of getting cured or the fact it might come for a devote prayer is not enough to propel an act to the status of a proper miracle. So prayers being listened to only really makes theological sense when it's linked with the idea that God is good for his children.
And this is always linked to virtue: we care about God being good to us so we can be good to each other ourselves.