There ya go.

Really? That's it?

Should I continue this conversation? Is there anything to be had or learned here? The internet is a tricky place and it could be my mood tonight, but I feel that this seems to be headed down a volatile path. I don't mind talking about it but I will get tired of dealing with comments that aren't making much of an effort to do some quick thinking on their own.

The implication in this is more that this is a stupid, dead horse, argument circle that everyone has been around a few times. The implication is not that you aren't thinking or that you should be writing small essays on prayer. This is just a big rabbit hole and I get the feeling that no one really wants to go there again.

Talking anyway...

If I asked any Christian I know if they prayed for a brand new car in their driveway tomorrow morning they would probably give an answer like, "Well, it could happen, but it's not very likely." I don't see this as dodging experimental evidence before the test has happened. More than likely they already tried something like that when they were kids and it obviously failed.

My expectation of the experiments on intercessory prayer is that it would do about as well as a placebo. (I am guessing we are talking about prayer for health issues.) Perhaps a little better than placebos, but I don't know the positive affects of visitors on patients. For some reason, I assume that being stuck alone in a hospital is bad for the average person's mood which would probably affect their recovery. What I would find more telling is the affect of prayer without the patient hearing about it. In this case, I would expect no significant difference.

But I still ask God for stuff. It makes me feel better and it helps me think about the stuff as a problem to solve. It is a way for me to acknowledge that stuff. "God" could be replaced by a different term, and if I reject Theism it probably will be, but for now prayer has a use. I don't see it the same way everyone sees it, but even in the case of a Traditional Christian, I don't think it is a good example of someone making up excuses for an invisible dragon before the experiment happens.

As much as I believe in the power of people to delude and lie to themselves, this is a hard stretch for me. Again, I am not saying its impossible. I just haven't seen it. It could be all around me, I suppose, but I still don't see it.