Expert: Griff Ruby - 12/19/2009

Question
QUESTION: Hi, Mr. Ruby,

I have a question about prayer.  Numerous times in the New Testament Jesus speaks of the tremendous power of prayer.  For instance:

In Matthew 7:7 Jesus says:
Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.

In Mark 11:24:
Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.

John 14:14:
If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

Yet, whenever one prays for something that is concrete and unequivocal, such as restoring the limb of an amputee (something obvious that can be easily observed and not open to "interpretation") or completely eliminating a disease, not just in an individual but throughout the world, for example, praying to eliminate cancer totally throughout the world, those prayers are NEVER answered.  It's strange, because Jesus assured us that "nothing will be impossible for you," "If you ask anything in my name, I will do it," "if you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."  Why are prayers that involve unequivocal things (in other words, things that could not be related to coincidence or chance) NEVER answered?  

Thank you very much.
Bruce


ANSWER: Back in the First Century when all these things seemed to be happening more than they seem to happen now, people generally understood that a prayer for such a thing is a request made to God to please help them in whatever the thing being prayed about was.  This is in no way anything like those who today seem to think such promises of God constitute some guarantee that God will automatically carry all of them out, as if it were God's job to be ordered around by us.
I am not sure it is fair to assert that all such requests are never met, but the fact is that they admittedly are quite rarely met with anything dramatic or spectacular (which these sorts of requests you list would one and all be), such that on what rare and few occasions they are so met they can truly be called miracles.  If miracles happened every time people asked for them they would not be miracles but merely the normal common outworking of the Universe.
By all evidences, God elects to pretty much allow the Universe to proceed naturally in accordance with the natural and physical laws that define its existence, and to intervene in such a requested manner only most rarely and sparingly.  As why He does not do more, I can only venture a guess.  Suppose He did do more, indeed everything He was ever asked.  Perhaps you think this would make a perfect world, as people could just pray for hunger and poverty and disease to go away, or for people not to have to work, or for everyone to have ESP of every possible sort, or for stupid choices people make not to have any bad consequences, or for all dead persons to be brought back to life, or even for no one to ever die in the first place, etc.  I don't know about you, but to me it seems that such a Universe would seem fake, a mere fantasy.  And how long before people begin praying for bad things to happen to each other, or else praying for contradictory things, such as this group praying for baseball team A to win while that group prays for baseball team B to win at the same exact game?  And imagine the absurd overpopulation it would cause if everyone who ever lived were still alive!  Oh, but then I suppose one could just pray that the earth be made a zillion times larger, and somehow without acquiring any more gravity.  It seems to me that even the very physical laws would become null and void in such a scenario, and utter chaos would be the result.
Indeed, a nondeterministic answer to prayer seems to me something of quite an evidence that God is personal and not merely impersonal like some law of physics.  You let go of a ball some distance over a surface in a positive gravity (and with nothing else, e. g. strings, magnetism, or electrostatic forces acting upon it), and it SHALL fall.  Gravity has no choice.  Being impersonal it always works exactly the same way every time.  But today God can answer a prayer He does not answer yesterday, because God is a rational and personal being capable of making choices as to how He will act, and what response (if any) He chooses to give to each and every prayer of every sort by any and every person.
In my experience, subtler prayers, for things that do not require dramatic violations of the laws of physics or medicine etc., tend to have a far better track record for being actually met with providing the thing requested.  For example, something could happen which is absurdly unlikely as any mere coincidence but not physically impossible might occur to meet the actual need.
For example, I recall once praying for gas, well after all the gas stations were closed.  At the actual time I ran out, I was lucky (?) to have just enough momentum to coast into a closed gas station and park at a pump.  But then within mere minutes a worker at that gas station happened to be stopping in to get some gas for himself (and he had the keys to the pump) on the way with a date to a prom somewhere, and with the pump already opened for himself he sold me some.  So you see, there is nothing impossible about that, but what do you thing the odds of that happening through mere chance would have to be?  It did actually happen to me once, and that would be by far most likely the only time that ever happened to anyone anywhere or at anytime in all of human history.  It came along, and even in a most timely manner, when it was truly needed.  And such a need brings in one other thing.  True prayers are for things truly needed, not merely for whims or selfish wishesm, or merely to test God's ability to answer prayers or work dramatic miracles.
So, to wrap up, I too do still have some deep prayers that await response, but all I can have while I wait for these prayers is trust that the right and best thing for all concerned will happen.  This is basic to the human experience.  I hope this helps!


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Ruby,

I think you hit the nail on the head when you said that “the Universe would seem fake, a mere fantasy” if prayer were always answered.  Obviously, as you point out, people would inevitably have competing prayers, which would create chaos.  But the point that prayer is NEVER answered in situations that could unequivocally prove the existence of God seems very telling, and if you really think about it, should be very uncomfortable for believers.  Prayer is NEVER answered in situations that could not possibly be also explained by simple coincidence or chance.  For instance, your experience with the gas attendant seemed like an amazing occurrence and quite fortunate for you, but could have easily been a coincidence, no matter how bizarre.  I’m sure there have been many times that you and millions of people prayed for a similar type of assistance that never appeared.  Those negative instances do not stand out in a person’s memory, but they occur all the time.  In reality, prayer NEVER occurs in a way that could not be easily explained by chance or coincidence.  The regrowth of a limb after an amputation; the elimination of disease or hunger throughout the world; the careful, cushioned landing saving everyone in a car that just drove off a cliff in the Grand Canyon, allowing all to walk away from the accident; any incident that would defy the laws of physics in any way; prayers for these types of things are NEVER answered.  You stated that “gravity has no choice.” But God is omnipotent, and in fact is the creator of Gravity.  So answering a prayer that requires going against gravity should be no impediment whatsoever.  By the way, you referenced “positive” gravity.  I wasn’t aware that there was such a thing as positive or negative gravity.  Was this reference a quote from Star Trek?  In one episode (the title was “Court Martial”), Mr. Spock speaks of dropping a hammer on a planet with a positive gravity.  

You stated that “today God can answer a prayer He does not answer yesterday, because God is a rational and personal being capable of making choices as to how He will act, and what response (if any) He chooses to give to each and every prayer of every sort by any and every person.  That statement seems like your own opinion.  I don’t know how you know these facts, but Jesus stated quite clearly what his intention was.  

In Matthew 21:21 Jesus says:
I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only can you do what was done to the fig tree, but also you can say to this mountain, 'Go, throw yourself into the sea,' and it will be done. If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer."

In Matthew 17:20 Jesus says:
For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.

In John 14:14 Jesus says:
If you ask anything in my name, I will do it.

In James 5:15-16, Jesus says:
And the prayer offered in faith will make the sick person well; the Lord will raise him up. If he has sinned, he will be forgiven. Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective.

I am a medical doctor, and I’ve seen hundreds if not thousands of faithful Christian people facing a terminal illness pray for help which never comes.  For the one in a million case that “seems” like a miraculous cure, there are millions who suffered and died.  Scientific studies show unequivocally that prayer groups have no effect whatsoever on the healing of sick people.  It seems absolutely clear that prayer is NEVER answered outside the occasional chance occurrence or strange coincidence.  In addition, when a person prays for a cure for his illness, why not pray for a cure for all the people in the world who have a similar illness?  Jesus assures us that “I will do it.”  You said “True prayers are for things truly needed, not merely for whims or selfish wishes, or merely to test God's ability to answer prayers or work dramatic miracles.”  That’s not what Jesus said.  He did not put criteria or restrictions on the type of prayer, and if anything, states that “anything is possible.”  Based on this, isn’t it obvious that there is no such thing as a divine answer to prayer, and that what religious people believe about prayer is delusional?

Thanks very much.
Bruce

*****


ANSWER: You are correct about the "Star Trek" reference to a "positive gravity" (though I must admit I cannot imagine how a "negative gravity" could ever come about - that expression has always kind of bothered me - picture a repellant planet?  How would such a thing not instantly burst into powder?)
Miracles are not about fixing the immediate situation.  True, every person who is missing a limb could use a new one, and what a boon it would be to be that "one in a million" (but I thought you said "NEVER" - can you really say that you have scanned the whole of human history and know the intimate details of the life of each and every person who has ever lived?) who actually does have that needed limb grow back.  But something of that sort only happens for a much bigger reason than the need of that person for a new limb.
Instinctively, intuitively, we all sense there must exist some sort of right and wrong.  While one might admit that one's exact perception of this inner sense can be in some small ways adjusted by cultural experiences, or even outright nullified by one's own criminal choice, the bare fact of the thing tells us that there is, somehow, some sort of accounting for our lives.  Guilt is no mere feeling to be psychoanalyzed away, but rather the sober realization that we have done wrong, that we have harmed, and that in all justice some harm is rightly owed to us.
The existence of this perception of ours as much assumes the existence of some sort of "God" to do this accounting as much as the existence our lungs assumes the existence of air.  How absurd for a being to have lungs and there is no air at all, anywhere.  No matter how much evolutionary forces may well have had a role in the exact structure of our physical being, such truths, even such simple truths as 2 + 2 = 4 are not merely evolved but eternally and really true, and behind all that would be a personal Creator, willing that there should eventually one day be intelligent and rational sentient beings, capable of meditating upon eternal truths, and truly as independent being capable of making their own choices between one good and a different good, or even between good itself and bad.
It is one thing to notify, but quite another to overwhelm.  The latter hinders choice, but the former enables it.  A posted speed limit sign is meant to inform you of a speed that you may travel on that road safely, give or take a variety of conditions.  But a police car on your bumper with his red light on has just made up your mind for you.  By all evidences, God by and large seems to much prefer that things run their natural course, without intervention, especially dramatic interventions, though the bare existence of matter itself, and still with much energy not as yet dissipated (eternal matter from eternity would have long since entered a state of total entropy), is itself one unavoidable great intervention, so obviously at least a few along the way are needed.  The miracles of the Gospel served to put the whole world on notice that (as we all kind of inner-sensed), there really is a God who really does hold us accountable.  Perhaps, given such considerable time and distance that separates us from those times, if we humanity forget that sufficiently, more miracles may eventually come to be needed, but woe to him who deliberately spreads such ignorance, even merely to try to force some miracles, for such an action itself is supremely dishonorable, whatever the motive.  Think of Pharaoh pressing for a miracle - well he got it, and drowned his whole army in the process.  How many mother's sons died thereby?  After such a thing even Pharaoh could be lynched, and his name effaced from Egyptian history.
All of this also overlooks that "praying for" something specific is only one small portion of what prayer is all about; there is so much more.  Much of it has to do with our own growth and character development, for with prayer we align our whole inner being or self with whatever noble aspirations we know to be right and good, even if difficult, and thereby make ourselves suitable companions to humanity and to the Creator.  There is a whole world of what Faith has to offer, as it expects of us only what is rightly and justly expected of all, and the Creator most certainly does desire that things be bettered, just by far preferably though means more humble than some dramatic miracle.  Perhaps many of your own patients see your work in their lives as a miracle, for surely it is more than they could have worked on their own (or else they would have no need of consulting you or anything).  Just because you in your medical expertise may know all (or most) of how it actually happened doesn't really make it any less miraculous to those you have helped.  So let's not sell those "coincidences" and unlikely but obviously not physically impossible events short.  There may well be more to those than mere chance.  For millennia people prayed for health, and in time certain people responded to the call of God to learn of how health can be restored from various conditions of disease and injury, and now here you are, an answer to your patient's prayers.  Don't sell what you do short.  There is more to it than meets the eye, even your medically trained expert eye.
So never say never.  Even if utter dramatic miracles are as rare as the one cent magenta of British Guiana, issue of 1856, they necessarily do exist, and probably quite a few more than that.  And much more exists that remains miraculous to most of us, especially because we prayed for it, and now here it is.


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Dear Mr. Ruby,

When I said “one in a million,” I was referring to an amazing cure that was unexpected, but I wasn’t referring to a miracle.  Strange and unexpected cures do occur, but they are within the realm of medicine, no matter how peculiar.  The one thing that NEVER occurs is an event that is obviously miraculous, that cannot be explained in any way by the laws of the natural world.  For instance, a person may be cured of cancer, even after reaching an advanced stage.  But a limb has NEVER regrown in an amputee, no matter how much prayer is administered.  It’s not a matter of conjecture.  It has simply never occurred.  There is no question that prayer helps people in terms of feeling at peace, giving themselves certain types of psychological grounding, etc.  But prayer is demonstrably ineffective when statistical or scientific methods are used.  In other words, prayer represents the greatest and most powerful example of the “placebo effect” in the world.  People pray and it gives them some comfort or self-awareness, but that’s all in their imagination.  Prayer does not do anything that each person doesn’t produce in his own imagination.  That is in direct contradiction to all the things Jesus said about prayer.  

You stated that “miracles are not about fixing the immediate situation.”  However, throughout the Bible, that’s exactly how miracles always appeared.  Jesus walked around healing the sick, restoring withered arms, causing the blind to see, killing a fig tree by cursing it when it didn’t produce figs for him (despite the fact that it wasn’t the season for figs, and despite the fact that killing a fruit tree is a sin as clearly stated in Deuteronomy), calming the stormy winds, on and on.  Miracles were always used to fix the immediate situation.  You stated that, “by all evidences, God by and large seems to much prefer that things run their natural course, without intervention, especially dramatic interventions.”  But that’s not at all the way it appeared throughout the Bible.  I believe you are simply rationalizing the fact that prayer demonstrably does not work.  When it comes to prayer that asks for anything that would truly defy the laws of Nature, it never occurs.  One might point out the miracles in the Bible such as splitting the Sea of Reeds, etc.  Let’s see it happen nowadays.  It never does.  You said that "utterly dramatic miracles are rare, but they do exist."  But they don’t.  An amazing cure of cancer in an individual is an amazing cure, but not a miracle.  The cure of everyone in the world with cancer at the same time?  THAT would be a miracle.  But it won’t happen, because prayer doesn’t work.  Whatever happens in response to prayer is always a coincidence.  If the occurrence is in accordance with the prayer, it’s hailed as a miracle.  If it’s not in accordance, it’s quietly forgotten.  When you accurately look at all the results carefully and truthfully, the results always follow the laws of statistics.  Look at what I’m saying in an unbiased way, and I’m sure you’ll agree.

That issue of Jesus killing a fig tree is very curious.  One would naturally ask why Jesus would purposely sin by killing the tree.  It would also be natural to ask why, as “God,” Jesus would not simply cause the tree to bear fruit at that time, rather than strike out with hostility and bitterness.  What’s even stranger about this event, since Jesus was “God,” and therefore omniscient, he should have known that the tree was not in season and therefore not seek fruit from it at that time.  Why would he be angered by the tree, his own creation, and lash out at it with such vengeance?  There are other things about Jesus that are hard to understand.  In his life, Jesus did some proselytizing and philosophizing.  But if he were really God, and really wanted to help Mankind, why didn’t he do anything truly magnificent, beautiful and lasting on Earth for Mankind rather than squandering his “power?”  For instance, he could have simply made a statement outlawing slavery.  Think of all the suffering and human degradation that he could have eliminated if he had just said, “Slavery is forbidden.”  Millions upon millions of people’s lives would have been immensely and immeasurably improved. He could have chosen some women to be among his Apostles, thus having a huge effect on women’s equality and sexism.  He could have made statements against nuclear proliferation (of course, as God, he would have foreseen what was coming centuries later).  He could have warned Mankind about the future development of AIDS.  He could have warned against the future development of anti-Semitism, the Nazis, and the pogroms.  He could have taught Mankind about proper sanitation in order to avoid water-borne infections such as cholera and dysentery or the horrible scourge of tuberculosis. He could have eliminated smallpox or plague, thus saving Mankind from untold suffering throughout the middle ages.  He could have given the people of Israel the knowledge to start a technological society, teaching about chemistry, engineering, and medicine.  He could have laid down a template of governance that would have ended monarchies, dictatorial regimes, and warlords forever.  Any of those teachings would have given Mankind unimaginably improved lives and reduced suffering.  But he didn’t do any of that.  He could have made his message in the Bible so overwhelmingly clear, the proof of his godliness so obvious and compelling, that everyone in the world would immediately believe and follow his teachings, rather than fragmenting into dozens of bizarre and often warring factions. The Bible could be so overwhelmingly lucid and unarguable that everyone on Earth would accept these teachings, and then the world would be a wonderful and peaceful place.  But as you know, it’s not like that at all.  

Therefore, isn’t it obvious that, in reality, God is imaginary, and that people have been fooling themselves with magical, childish thinking all throughout the ages?

With best regards,
Bruce

*****


Answer
You seem quite bitter about it all.  Perhaps some very important prayer of yours went without the desired response.  So since it was denied then you would deny it for everyone else.
Do you have a wife?  Assuming you do (or for the sake of this example, pretending that you did), how would you know that she really loves you?  All of those shows of love and affection could after all be merely selfishly motivated.  How do you know that the minute you die she would not throw away or cash in all that is yours and pretend you never existed?  Alternatively, if you feel reasonably confident of her love, what do you think testing that love would do to it?  Therefore how can you know that she really does love you, even if she really did, if the only way to find out for sure is to destroy that love?  How do you know that your friends or anyone else really cares about you?  You don't, at least in some absolutistic sense that you require proof of miracles.  But to make life work out for you, you must assume that your wife really does love you, that your friends and others really care about you, and that everyone's claims about what you mean to them can be simply taken at face value for what it is, and indeed such a course might actually engender such actual results that people really do come to love and care about you, whereas continual suspicion and ever testing their love and support of you can only destroy that love and caring.
Maybe God cares about you and maybe not, but I think it quite safe to say that God is more likely to care about you if you believe He does than if you refuse to believe it and constantly challenge Him to prove it.  I think you have tried to define miracles out of existence.  If ever a limb did grow back in some extraordinary case, I think you would investigate and find some perfectly natural reason why this particular person's limb would grow back, ruling out the fact that the person (or someone) may have prayed for that to happen.
A person prays for something, and often times it comes about, but then you come along and point out that the way it came about was totally natural, as if the prayer for it had nothing to do with it.  And if the thing does not come about, how much easier!  Another ignored prayer!  See, praying doesn't ever do anything!  It seems to me that such an attitude kills gratitude for everything that God, Life, Everything, Whatever-you-wish-to-call-it-all has done for you in life.  You see the sore thumb that's hurting from having been accidently hit with the hammer and forget the other nine digits that are still doing just fine, an easy and common enough mistake to be sure, but a mistake in life nonetheless.
You talk about the advances in science and technology, and in governmental systems, not realizing that the reason these things exist is only the self-sacrificing attitudes of those who made them all possible.  What good does it do you to die for some noble ideal if you won't be around to enjoy the results of it?  So why not instead simply cop out and take the cowardly way out?  At least that way you might live instead, and perhaps even in some comfort, and once you are dead what difference will it make to you that the world is a worse place for your having lived in it?
God doesn't come to tell us something we don't know about how we are supposed to live, He comes to call us seriously to live as we already know we ought, in that He promises some sort of accounting for how well we did that, and demonstrated to the satisfaction of the ancients and practically everyone else (even if not to you) that He has the power to make good on all that.  You don't get some enlightened democracy (or whatever) instead of some corrupt warlord despot merely because someone comes along with a bright idea.  You get it because large numbers of people are willing to lay down their lives for something they know to be right, even knowing that all the honor we can heap on their graves will avail them nothing.  You get it because they trusted God enough to reward them somehow in His own fashion and on His own scale, damn whatever can happen to them in this life.
If they all died in vain (as you would have it) then all the science that has come about since has also done so in vain.