Guest Opinion: Divine intercession doesn’t stand a prayer
By Dr. Gilbert D. Shapiro
Arizona Daily Star, Tucson Arizona May 2, 2007
In 1988, President Reagan signed a bill into law that made the first Thursday of May a National Day of Prayer. Our government continues to ask its citizens to petition for divine intercession on behalf of America.
Humanist groups, such as the Center for Inquiry Community of Southern Arizona, take issue with this federally sponsored event that endorses and encourages intercessory prayer.
Sidestepping the questionable constitutionality of this divisive law, which promotes belief over nonbelief — a violation of the First Amendment's establishment clause — I would suggest that our government at least acknowledge that claims supporting the effectiveness of intercessory prayer have been invalidated through scientific testing in rigorously controlled Duke University (2005) and Harvard/Mayo (2006) studies.
This administration's continued promotion of prayer, in light of these results, highlights its longstanding and established disrespect for science in general and for the scientific process in particular.
While religionists often question science's ability to test for the efficacy of prayer, they ignore the most obvious reason that proves praying is useless — thousands of years of human suffering. Indeed, our world would have had an entirely different history and character if praying worked.
Questions for prayer apologists: Why have lifesaving and pain-easing modalities such as vaccines, antibiotics and anesthesia/surgery been developed only within the past 100 years? And why are they even necessary? Why pray to alleviate a suffering that could have been divinely prevented in the first place?
The silence to these questions is deafening. Human suffering, has gone on uninterrupted for thousands of years despite billions of prayers for supernatural intervention.
On Sept. 11, 2001, I wonder why the prayers from the faithful atop the World Trade Center went unanswered as they determined that jumping 100 floors to their death was their best alternative at that horrifying moment. And what about the prayers from millions of people worldwide who were witnessing that unfolding tragedy?
We should also not forget that on that same day and every day since, according to aid agencies, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 children have died worldwide from preventable and treatable illnesses as they and their parents also prayed for help.
Reality speaks volumes about the efficacy of prayer.
Ironically, it has been only through the recent efforts of scientists that much human suffering has been alleviated. Indeed, will the Earth be saved from global warming by lips that pray or by minds that think? It is not surprising that 93 percent of the 2,000 members of the National Academy of Sciences reject intercessory prayer.
At its core, prayer is superstition — a request for a miracle — a supplication to a supernatural entity to change the course of events by violating natural laws. While remarkable occurrences have always taken place in our world, no miracles have ever been scientifically confirmed.
Since both science and history have provided solid evidence that praying has not resulted in any divine interventions, why do so many people continue with this irrational behavior?
Five common answers are that people: remember the hits and forget the misses; interpret silence as a "no" that is really in their best interest; conclude that a positive response will happen in the future if they wait; feel good that they are surrendering their hopes and sense of security to a supposed higher power; or justify suspending critical thinking and analytical skills when it involves religious activities.
The Center for Inquiry Community of Southern Arizona urges you to honor the National Day of Reason which will also be celebrated Thursday.
Write to Dr. Gilbert Shapiro at .
