> Is God real, or is he imaginary? It is one of the most important
> questions in America today, because this question lies at the heart of
> the American culture wars.
> If God is real and if God inspired the Bible, then we should worship God
> as the Bible demands. We should certainly post the Ten Commandments in
> our courthouses and shopping centers, put "In God We Trust" on the
> money, pray in our schools and eliminate the theory of evolution from
> every curriculum. We should focus our society on God and his infallible
> Word because our everlasting souls hang in the balance.
> On the other hand, if God is imaginary, then religion is a complete
> illusion. Christianity, Judaism and Islam are pointless. We should
> eliminate God from our society because God is meaningless. Belief in God
> is nothing but a silly superstition, and this superstition leads a
> significant portion of the population to be completely delusional.
> But how can we decide, conclusively, whether God is real or imaginary?
> Since we are intelligent human beings living in the 21st century, we
> should take the time to look at some data. That is what we are doing
> when we ask, "Why won't God heal amputees?"
> If you are an intelligent human being, and if you want to understand the
> true nature of God, you owe it to yourself to ask, "Why won't God heal
> amputees?"
> Why won't God heal amputees?" may seem like an odd name for a Web site.
> The reason for choosing it is simple: this is one of the most important
> questions that we can ask about God.
> The question, "Why won't God heal amputees?" probes into a fundamental
> aspect of prayer and exposes it for observation. This aspect of prayer
> has to do with ambiguity and coincidence.
>   Watch the video
> To help you understand why this question is so important, let's look at
> an example. Let's imagine that you visit your doctor one day, and he
> tells you that you have cancer. Your doctor is optimistic, and he
> schedules surgery and chemotherapy to treat your disease. Meanwhile, you
> are terrified. You don't want to die, so you pray to God day and night
> for a cure. The surgery is successful, and when your doctor examines you
> again six months later the cancer is gone. You praise God for answering
> your prayers. You totally believe with all your heart that God has
> worked a miracle in your life.
> The obvious question to ask is: What cured you? Was it the
> surgery/chemotherapy, or was it God? Is there any way to know whether
> God is playing a role or not when we pray?
> Unless you take the time to intelligently analyze this situation, it
> looks ambiguous. God might have miraculously cured your disease, as many
> Christians believe. But God might also be imaginary, and the
> chemotherapy drugs and surgery are the things that cured you. Or your
> body's immune system might have cured the cancer itself.
> When your tumor dissappeared, in other words, it might simply have been
> a complete coincidence that you happened to pray. Your prayer may have
> had zero effect.
> How can we determine whether it is God or coincidence that worked the
> cure? One way is to eliminate the ambiguity. In a non-ambiguous
> situation, there is no potential for coincidence. Because there is no
> ambiguity, we can actually know whether God is answering the prayer or not.
> That is what we are doing when we look at amputees.
> Think about it this way. The Bible clearly promises that God answers
> prayers. For example, in Mark 11:24 Jesus says, "Therefore I tell you,
> whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and
> it will be yours." And billions of Christians believe these promises.
> You can find thousands of books, magazine articles and Web sites talking
> about the power of prayer. According to believers, God is answering
> millions of their prayers every day.
> So what should happen if we pray to God to restore amputated limbs?
> Clearly, if God is real, limbs should regenerate through prayer. In
> reality, they do not.
> Why not? Because God is imaginary. Notice that there is zero ambiguity
> in this situation. There is only one way for a limb to regenerate
> through prayer: God must exist and God must answer prayers. What we find
> is that whenever we create a unambiguous situation like this and look at
> the results of prayer, prayer never works. God never "answers prayers"
> if there is no possibility of coincidence. We will approach this issue
> from several different angles in this book, but Chapters 5, 6, 7 and 8
> are particularly important:
> · Chapter 5 - Why won't God heal amputees?
> · Chapter 6 - Why do you need health insurance?
> · Chapter 7 - Why can't you move a mountain?
> · Chapter 8 - Why do bad things happen to good people?
>   Watch the video
> The fact that prayers are never answered when the possibility of
> coincidence is eliminated meshes with another fact. If we analyze God's
> responses to ambiguous prayers using statistical tools, what we find is
> that there is never any statistical evidence for prayer. In other words,
> when we statisically compare prayer to coincidence for explaining any
> situation, they are identical. For example, this article points out:
> One of the most scientifically rigorous studies yet, published earlier
> this month, found that the prayers of a distant congregation did not
> reduce the major complications or death rate in patients hospitalized
> for heart treatments. [ref]
> It also says:
> A review of 17 past studies of ''distant healing," published in 2003 by
> a British researcher, found no significant effect for prayer or other
> healing methods.
> No valid scientific study has ever found any evidence that prayer works.
> See this page for details.
> You can see the same effect in the following prayer. Let's assume that
> you are a true believer and you do believe that God cures cancer. What
> would happen if we get down on our knees and pray to God in this way:
> Dear God, almighty, all-powerful, all-loving creator of the universe, we
> pray to you to cure every case of cancer on this planet tonight. We pray
> in faith, knowing you will bless us as you describe in Matthew 7:7,
> Matthew 17:20, Matthew 21:21, Mark 11:24, John 14:12-14, Matthew 18:19
> and James 5:15-16. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.
> We pray sincerely, knowing that when God answers this completely
> heartfelt, unselfish, non-materialistic prayer, it will glorify God and
> help millions of people in remarkable ways. If God cures cancer, then
> this is an easy prayer for an omnipotent, all-loving God to answer.
> The fact is, what this prayer does is remove ambiguity. As soon as we do
> that, we see the true nature of "God." There is no way that a
> coincidence can answer this prayer, and, sure enough, the prayer goes
> unanswered.
> If you look at the data, you can see exactly what is happening here:
> · When we pray to God about any non-ambigous situation, God never
> answers the prayer.
> · When we analyse any ambiguous prayer using statistical tools, we find
> zero effect from prayer.
> In other words, every "answered prayer" truly is a coincidence, nothing
> more. "God" doesn't "answer prayers" at all. The belief in prayer is
> pure superstition. Non-ambiguous prayers (like those of amputees) show
> us, conclusively, that the whole idea that "God answers prayers" is an
> illusion created by human imagination.:

 

> Is God real, or is he imaginary? It is one of the most important questions
> in America today, because this question lies at the heart of the American
> culture wars.
> If God is real and if God inspired the Bible, then we should worship God
> as the Bible demands. We should certainly post the Ten Commandments in our
> courthouses and shopping centers, put "In God We Trust" on the money, pray
> in our schools and eliminate the theory of evolution from every
> curriculum.

 

> > Is God real, or is he imaginary? It is one of the most important questions
> > in America today, because this question lies at the heart of the American
> > culture wars.
> > If God is real and if God inspired the Bible, then we should worship God
> > as the Bible demands. We should certainly post the Ten Commandments in our
> > courthouses and shopping centers, put "In God We Trust" on the money, pray
> > in our schools and eliminate the theory of evolution from every
> > curriculum.
 

> Is Don Really Real?  Rumor has it that he's Really Kiddin'