Prayer as Magic
  by William Edelen

The study of religion among primal peoples shows that many believed in "magic," defined as the belief that supernatural forces can be controlled, influenced and manipulated by executing a ritualistic formula, either physical or verbal. We still, today, in a more fashionable way, utilize superstition, prayer wheels, magic, sacrifices and elaborate doxologies to induce God to favor our requests, grant our wishes and perform miracles upon demand.

I am asking -- Can something called "God's Will" really be changed by requests from the earth? And if so, what kind of a capricious, chaotic universe would this be? What kind of chaos would it be if the eternal will of an eternal God with an eternal design could be changed as this design was subjected to a barrage of requests to make things different?

Just read the headlines of the tabloids in the grocery store check out line: PRAYER CURED MY CANCER, or turn on the television channels and watch the ultimate con men with their "healing" stage shows.

Finally, to their everlasting credit, the prestigious Mayo Clinic has thrown the weight of their name and reputation behind the task of educating the public by exposing the phony claims as to the relationship between religion and health, claims that are in well read national magazines as well as tabloid journalism.

A study at the Mayo Clinic, conducted between July 1997 and October 1999, and published in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings, said that: "researches found that intercessory prayer had no significant effect on a patient's medical outcome after hospitalization. We found that prayer had no effect on rates of death, heart attacks, strokes and hospitalizations."

The research was described as a "single-center, double-blind, controlled trial. Researchers could find no scientifically significant differences between those who prayed and received prayer and those who did not."

Those of you in my age group will remember Eddie Rickenbacker, a big name in military aviation. He and his crew crashed in the South Pacific. After finally being rescued, he said that day after day they all uttered desperate prayers for rescue. A ship finally did appear and rescued them. They gave all the credit to prayers and to God who heard their prayers.

Do you know what bothered me terribly when I read their statements? I thought, with aching heart, of all of the thousands of good men who desperately croaked out words of urgent appeal to God through parched and anguished throats and whose answer was to be devoured by shark and barracuda, or to die from starvation or drowning.

Were they less good, less virtuous, less sincere than Rickenbacker? There is always a massive clergy cop-out when asked these questions. The usual pathetic answer is this: "Well...God heard their prayers and his answer was no...it will be a learning lesson for someone."

Or, if you really believe that God heals those at so called "sacred shrines" such as the waters of Lourdes, then what about those who do not have the money to make such an expensive trip to these places?

Would a God of love and mercy be so capricious? Who could believe such nonsense?

"If God is God......he is not good......If God is good......he is not God......Take the Even......take the Odd......(From the Pulitzer Prize play "J.B." by Archibald MacLeish.)

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