Could Science Disprove Sectarianism? (page 3)

hillary_step

Slightly off-topic, but my puzzlement with the matter of prayer is more a logistical one.

Most of the worlds six billion people believe in God. Let us say for example that half the world pray just once each day to God. Three billion prayers each twenty-four hour period. Twenty-one billion prayers each week, eighty four billion each month, month in month out that God has to personally listen to and judge their worthiness or lack of. If these three billion people pray twice a day, that makes 168 billion prayers per month that need to be attended to.

Now, even if JW’s are the only true religion, it still is a very heavy burden of work in heaven. Six million prayers, a conservative twice a day is twelve million per day, eighty-four million a week, 336 million a month, over 4 billion a year..

In order for God to listen and answer tens of thousands of prayers *each second* time would need to be slowed to such a degree that he is then able to act, especially in the case of emergencies, to answer the prayer.

Perhaps those of us who believe in the power of prayer can tell me how this works logistically, because frankly it boggles my wee mind.

HS

hawkaw

After reading H_S's post I now know why my thought process as a teenager took me into geoscience specializing in hydrogeology, geomorphology, sedimentary petrology and pedology instead of certain other university specializations dealing with religion.

hawk (P.Geo at large)

nilfun

Could be, Panda, could be

One reason why I am reluctant to discuss what happened to me is
because some may sieze upon these kinds of experiences as proof
that there is a god who answers our prayers; another is because others may
dismiss what happened to me as just a bunch of hooey.

I agreed to her request because I had absolutely nothing to lose,
and at the very least, that kindly nun would have been made to feel
helpful.

Really, I don't know what it was. All I can really be sure of is that it was quite a
beautiful moment (of many) in my life.

Valis

I'm sure the JWs who refused blood were prayed over good and plenty...hmmm. no answer there...just a spot on an Awake magazine...tsk tsk..It also does not suprise me that "doctors" like Depak Chopra have their nose all up in this subject.. If you knew someone was praying for you I could see how it would have a positive effect on your mental outlook, which in turn helps you physically. Just like when we leave get well posts here for someone, it reinforces the fact that people are thinking about the intended person and wishing well, hopefully it does them some good. No more, no less.

http://abcnews.go.com/sections/Downtown/2020/Downtown_010813_remotehealing_feature.html

and I'm with Sixie on this one....I'm sure all the starving people in the world benefit from prayer on a daily basis...

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

metatron

Believing that prayer works convinced me that God is not a single personality sitting on a throne.

There's a cute cartoon that shows God answering prayers as phones: "Hello, this is God, can you hold?"

metatron

Valis

so metatron, you believe in some kind of metaphysical force that is created by prayer or one that responds to the supplicant?

Sincerely,

District Overbeer

Analysis

We have all heard of the Placebo effect of control groups taking sugar pills. So I think some would say Science has already proved the power of prayer and hope.

proplog2

There may be psychosomatic benefits of prayer for some people. But to actually raise this idea to the level of "belief" in God/Prayer you would need a statistical correlation very close to 100%

It's the same thing with psychics. When you find one that can predict with near 100% accuracy and the prediction is unambiguous needing no clever explanations you may have tapped into something.

I wonder if x-jw's who no longer believe in God or pray have an increase in anxiety. There does seem to be a health advantage of "throwing your burden on Jehovah". But I imagine telling yourself "tough-shit" when things get rough might be effective too.

metatron

Affirmative, Overbeer

If you can accept synchronicity as real ( as close as some skeptics can get) Then prayer isn't much of a jump.

metatron

Could Science Disprove Sectarianism?

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