The power of prayer? What a load of cobblers!
A few months ago I'd been chatting to someone about the power of prayer. We were both coming from opposite directions ie. she believed in the power of prayer, I didn't. Now, there are several studies out there that each put forward their claim for prayer working, or not working. Surely both claims can't be true? By default, one must be true, the other false. The claims made by the various reports seem to be influenced by the investigating body producing the report. Believers in prayer always find in favour of prayer, and vice versa for the non believers.
I thought it would be interesting to discover how much time people spend in prayer.
I limited my study to Great Britain
Christian church figures state that 6% of the UK population regularly attend Sunday services. 6% of the UK population is roughly 3,684,840, so thats quite a few people plodding to church on a Sunday.
Now, lets assume that in the standard church service there is five minutes of prayer. From services I've attended this figure feels about right. So we have 3,684,840 people each praying for five minutes. This equates to 18,424,200 minutes, which in turn equates to 307,070 hours, which then equates to 12,794 days.
12,794 days is roughly 35 years, give or take a few days. 35 years!
So there we have it. Every Sunday from the churches of Great Britain there will be an accumulation of around 35 years worth of prayer. This doesn't take into account people praying away from church so, in reality, the figure would be much higher but impossible to measure.
The point is this (and remember, my figures are for the UK alone, the prayer total for the entire world would be much, much higher) If prayer works, and church-goers are praying for 'good' things, this world should be a utopian paradise by now.
OK, I know this is proof of nothing, but I think it's interesting all the same.
