Results Of An Atheist Prayer Experiment

By on November 16, 2012 in News 46

What happens when nonbelievers pray to God for 40 straight days in the hope that the Almighty will reveal Himself? The U.K.-based Premier Christian Radio organized just such an experiment, and, amazingly, two participants had religious awakenings, although nothing special happened to anyone else. Premier Christian Media writes:

Seventy one atheists and agnostics signed up to take part in the Atheist Prayer Experiment. Each person was asked to pray for a few minutes per day for forty days during September and October 2012. They were praying for God to reveal himself to them.

Of the 71 who signed up:

• 2 have reported that they now believe in God (Kendra and Kelly).

• 2 failed to take part in the experiment.

• 52 have said they did not receive any revelation of God’s existence through prayer. Some of these stopped praying at an early or later point in the experiment, or failed to pray on some days, and some prayed for the entire duration.

• 15 have not yet reported back with their results as yet.

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  • Borgar

    The eventual effectiveness of “prayer” presupposes that the praying subject actually has established some connection with the “higher powers” that be, which is the main reason why experiments like these are pointless exercises. If a future caveman finds a lightswitch from a former civilization, he can continue to fumble around with it as much as he likes, and nothing will of course happen, unless he understands the theory behind the phenomena of electricity, and builds himself an electric generator, establishing juice in the wires.

    • Kevin Leonard

      One of my spiritual teachers said that the way most Christians pray to god is like using a telephone without plugging it into the wall.

      • greenawasteven

        pray tell, what is the correct way to pray to a non-existent deity?

        • Kevin Leonard

          First off, you have to actually be willing to look for the outlet wall.

          • Calypso_1

            If you are going to play with such analogies isn’t a solar powered wireless set a better notion for the average concept of prayer/psycho-spiritual telepathy.

          • Kevin Leonard

            haha! YES!

          • Artor

            And there has to actually be one there. Been looking for a while; it doesn’t seem to be there.

          • Jin The Ninja

            that’s the thing about metaphors.

    • http://twitter.com/RayButlers Ray Butlers

      I think this kind of rhetoric is missing the point. the power is in the person praying, not in an outside entity.

      • Borgar

        Inside/outside is a phantasm of the human mind.

        • David Howe

          okay….maybe you should start putting food on your body instead of into it.

  • Xian Factor

    If Atheist dont beleive in God why should God believe in Atheists?

    • http://www.facebook.com/eric.fischer.73 Eric Fischer

      Maybe because there is sufficient evidence to prove the existence of atheists?

      • Xian Factor

        They’re are no Autheist in foxholes.

        • Calypso_1

          Wrong

          • Xian Factor

            I hope you injoy warm whethar, because where your going there will be plenty!

          • Calypso_1

            I see you are a proponent of climate change. That’s an unusual juxtaposition considering your other stated opinions.

          • Xian Factor

            If Atheistsm is such a powerfull religion, how meny times has Richard Dakins walked on water? lol!

          • Calypso_1

            I care nothing of Dawkins or his experiences with water in general.

            How many times have you walked on water? I have done so on quite a few occasions and no religion was required.

          • Xian Factor

            That’s how I would answer the queston if I were you. To admit that Jesus walked on water allthetime when Dawkins never did wood be a bit imbarrassing!

          • Calypso_1

            That has no relation to what I just said. I do not believe you are in anyway capable of answering a question in teh wey thet I wood. Furthur mor you seem to bee equatering me with an authotheiesta simply because I refouted your statemint about Foxhowl atheeists which is demonstratotably false. Further Further mor I must bring intoo questin yur knowledge of the Christin Biblio Scrpture as Jesus did not in fact walked on the warter allthetimes. I feel know imbaresmint whatsoevr related to anything related to Dawkins as I stated above I car nothings about Dakens. Nor, either or unto the facts that no embares ensues when I think aboot any mythoreligious strictures. As too thinkings abouts ardents ignorences of religionists that is a farr mor cemplexical mexture I musty admits especials with the nausea.

          • Andrew

            Atheism isn’t a religion. Dawkins could walk on water if it was frozen.

        • DeepCough

          What’s an “Autheist?”

          • Calypso_1

            Gold is God?

          • Andrew

            Someone who believes autistics are holy.

          • ishmael2009

            LOL @ “Xian Factor” obvious troll is obvious. C’mon people, seriously doubt this guy is genuine. It’s someone claiming a position they don’t believe in themselves to troll with. Nicely done as well.

          • bobbiethejean

            BBBBBBBBAAAAHAHAHHAHAHAHAH! Omg lol.

          • Xian Factor

            Someone going to HELL.

        • Matt Staggs

          @4c0a09d87f107421bbb584611c9377eb:disqus

          • DeepCough

            “autheism: a combination of autism and theological belief which makes for a real Assburger of a believer.”

  • Gregory Wyrdmaven

    So…(chuckle)…so let me get this straight…(heh heh)…just a minute…(HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAH)….ahem. So…atheists use the same prayer techniques of contemporary Xians…expecting any results? My deity how extreme can Spiritual Incompetence become in the Western World?
    When the Xian loonies all move to Texas and Alaska and secede from the Union and I dunno, start owning slaves and burning witches again…can they take the Atheists with them?
    Fiat lux.

  • Calypso_1

    Let’s retry this with control groups using the methodologies of other spiritual systems as well. I hypothesize a similar rate of revelation for other systems with a moderate increase in those using deep meditative techniques and a near 100% rate of revelation for those using entheogens.

  • Ricky Jazzercise

    In my youth I was a Christian and did all the Christian rituals. Prayed, went to church, etc. – hell, I was even an altar boy. None of that made any impression on me whatsoever and I eventually abandoned it. Then I tried psychedelic drugs. Worked. Then I tried astral projection. Worked. Then I tried sigil magick. Worked. You see where I’m going with this. “the way most Christians pray to god is like using a telephone without plugging it into the wall” – Exactly.

    • druniversalis

      “No one has understood the Magical Will better than Loyola.”-Aleister Crowley

      Saint Ignatius of Loyola has a whole system of discernment of spirits (including the Examen and Spiritual Exercises) which is more powerful than any other method of divination and obtaining magical effects known to me (and I’ve tried a lot). This is a method of prayer that works, but is more obscure than a Rosary, say. Just because nobody exposed you to the prayers that were effective doesn’t mean that they don’t exist.

  • Ape

    It’s 2012….are we still banging on about this religion shit?

    But seriously….is it really such a large part of US public discourse as Disinfo leads me to believe? Because it’s really just a peripheral topic over in the UK.

    • ishmael2009

      From what i can work out about US politics, Christianity is like a flag to them, it’s a way of distinguishing class. Which is why the same people that delight in mocking Christians are also those who defend Islam. It’s not about whether you believe in a deity as such, it’s an indicator of whether your roots are white working class (therefore Christian, probably Republican) or white upper-middle class (therefore atheist, probably Democrat). The upper-middle class Americans seem to love ridiculing the working class.

      • Randel

        Not true, we only ridicule the “stupid” working class people ;)

        We also smoke lots of pot, but only because it brings us down closer to their level. I mean we wouldn’t understand each other otherwise.

    • bobbiethejean

      Ooooooh, you have no idea. You basically can’t get elected to public office over here unless every other word out of your mouth is god and you spend 3 days a week in a “proper” Christian church. Oh, and people have legit been fired for not being Christy enough.

      • Randel

        I wish that wasn’t true, but unfortunately it is.

      • Erin

        I was once fired for not being christy enough.

        • bobbiethejean

          I’m not surprised. : Sad.

    • http://www.facebook.com/eric.fischer.73 Eric Fischer

      Roughly 1/4 to 1/3 of regular voters here will vote for whatever Republican candidate is best able to convince them that they are seeking political office because God told them to.
      Yea, it’s a pretty big deal.

    • Calypso_1

      That is why Jesus has abandoned you to hoards of Moslem infidels.

  • bobbiethejean

    Ya know, I’ll be impressed the day prayer actually accomplishes anything provable. The bible says prayer can move mountain so let’s see some mountain-movin! Until then, it’s just simple chance.

  • InfvoCuernos

    I have always held the opinion that it might be in your best interest not to attract the attention of the big invisible skydaddy, with prayer or anything else, as he doesn’t seem to have much of a conscience according to his own accounts. Remember what he did to Job? or JC? or any of the many followers of his faith sighted in the bible? Nope. I will keep my prayer band dark and not transmit. If we could just get those a-holes at SETI to quit broadcasting now…

  • http://2012prophecy.net DM I.M.Cango

    I prayed to God and he answered. He said it was all Bush’s fault.