Intercessory Prayer Twister

Hemant Mehta at Friendly Atheist found a disgusting and disingenious 'interpretation' of the results of one of the most well-known empirical studies of intercessory prayer known as STEP (Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer). I covered this study previously and noted that the results released in 2006 demonstrated no difference in recovery for patients prayed for compared to those who received no prayer. The results were clear cut here, there is no advantage to being prayed for. God, it seems, does not care who gets prayed for. Or does he?

This new article from Christianity Today, though, offers a rationalization I’ve never heard before. You can tell they’re really straining to find a silver lining…

Ironically, STEP actually supports the Christian worldview. Our prayers are nothing at all like magical incantations. Our God bears no resemblance to a vending machine. The real scandal of the study is not that the prayed-for group did worse, but that the not-prayed-for group received just as much, if not more, of God’s blessings. In other words, God seems to have granted favor without regard to either the quantity or even the quality of the prayers. By instinct, we might selfishly prefer that God give preferential treatment to those who are especially, deliberately, and correctly prayed for, but he seems to act otherwise.

True to his character, God appears inclined to heal and bless as many as possible.

So the fact that the prayers had no effect on the sick? Don’t think about that, say Gregory Fung and Christopher Fung, the authors of the article. Instead, they want you to consider that prayer works because the un-prayed-for people didn’t die a horrible death.

Yet again, religious folks choose to interpret solid science as a function of God's mysterious ways rather than accept that they are simply wrong about their assumed supernatural powers.