You hear time and again that prayers have an enormous power. They heal nations, bring people together and save lives, or does it? The question of whether prayer has an effect was looked at in a study in 2006. From a Washington post article called "Prayer Doesn’t Aid Recovery, Study Finds."

The new $2.4 million study, funded primarily by the John Templeton Foundation, was designed to overcome some of those shortcomings. Dusek and his colleagues divided 1,802 bypass patients at six hospitals into three groups. Two groups were uncertain whether they would be the subject of prayers. The third was told they would definitely be prayed for.

They gathered three groups, two catholic and one protestant. The research is setup, one group is prayed for and knows it, one is prayed for and doesn't know it and the final is not prayed for. What were the results? Well, the two who didn't know whether they were prayed for did, as one would expect, about equal, 52 percent had complications. The ones who knew they were prayed for had a complication rate of 59 percent. The ones who knew they were prayed for did worse? How could this be? I thought that prayer were the answered requests of an all loving God? Why didn't they answer these patients requests?

According to Mark Farley of the Catholic Education Resource Center they were answered. In an article, "Does Prayer Work?" He purposes that all prayers were answered by God. We just didn't necessarily like the answers.

But perhaps the study’s biggest flaw involves how the results were interpreted. Christians know that there are three possible answers to prayer: “Yes,” “no,” and “wait.” The Harvard study measured only the “yes” answers. But just because we don’t get the answer we’re looking for does not mean God is not listening or answering.

Oh! God answers the prayers by either saying yes,no or wait. Of course. Now I would like to take a step back from the realm of sarcasm and into the realm of mockery. God answers in yes, no and wait? That is a patently stupid claim. That is too say only the brain dead and children should be convinced by such a claim. The reasons I say this is because that claim has no way of being made false. I could get the same results by praying to any of the Greek God's or my dog or to the laptop I am writing this on. What power does this demonstrate? No power, it just asks you to avoid the prayers that are ignored. This type of thinking is at it's base a surrender to ignorance.

I understand the desire to want to have a fatherly figure looking down on us, protecting us, but to suspend logic to the point some people have is incomprehensible. Not only is it offendable to logic, but it is also unhelpful in life. If one goes through life seeing all actions as a triumph of God, then you become a victim in life, a passer by if you will. Take charge and don't settle for the whim of a nonexistent God. Take the responsibility on yourself. If your life is shit there is a chance that it is at least part your fault, so if you don't like your life than change it.

See my main blog at blogs.usd.edu/atheism.