Regarding the Power of Prayer, or Did the People on the Titanic Forget to Pray?

"Oh, they built the ship Titanic to sail the ocean blue,
And they thought they had a ship that the water couldn't go through,
But the good Lord raised his hand, and said that ship would never land.
It was sad when the great ship went down."
                                                Children's song "Titanic"

“Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minutes to hours?”
                                                Gordon Lightfoot, The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

Prayer is an important facet of belief in God, particularly from the interventionist view of God.  Personal testimony regarding the power of prayer is quite common.  Many people deeply believe in the power of prayer, and believe that they have observed response to prayers in their own lives.  Occasionally, a post circulates on Facebook like a chain letter, urging friends to type “Amen!” if they believe in the power of prayer.  And thousands of “Amen” responses follow.  Guideposts and other religious writings are full of stories of prayers answered – a recovery from illness, a lost relative found.  A quick Google search lists stories of answered prayers: “Money Owed”, “Lost in the Mountains”, “Locked Out”, “My Broken Foot”, “Glasses in the Ocean”, “Class Ring”, and so on.  There are many stories of prayers answered, for life problems, large and small.

But what about the converse?  What about prayers that are not answered, especially in circumstances more dire than a lost pair of glasses?  Why would God choose to answer a prayer to find a pair of glasses, but neglect to save people from natural or man-made disasters?

In essence, does anyone suppose that the people on the Titanic forgot to pray?  

When Jews fleeing the destruction of Jerusalem were besieged by the Romans at Masada in 74 AD, and ended the siege with a mass suicide, does anyone think they didn’t pray? 

When Mongols attacked the religious center of Vladimir, Russia in the 1300s, about three thousand Orthodox Christians took shelter in the cathedral and were killed there, in front of the icons.  The cathedral still stands, and you can walk on the same floor where they were slaughtered. Does anyone think that they forgot to pray? 

Does anyone believe that Jews ordered into gas chambers during the Holocaust didn’t pray? 

When Nazis systematically lined up and shot 120,000 Ukrainian Jews, Roma, Russians and families of resistance fighters at the ravine called Babyn Yar in Kyiv, does anyone think they didn’t pray? 

When 150 newly elected black legislators were besieged in a Louisiana courthouse by a white militia in 1873, the courthouse was set on fire.  The legislators were massacred as they fled the building.  Does anyone think that they didn’t pray?  

When the Allies fire-bombed Dresden, killing 150,000 German civilians, does anyone believe that the victims didn’t pray? 

During the 9/11 attack on the World Trade Centers, dozens of people were trapped on the roofs of the buildings, and suffered from blistering heat rising from the fires below.  There were helicopters within sight, unable or unwilling to land because of the updraft from the fires.  One by one, the people gave up hope of rescue and jumped to escape the heat, falling 1300' to their deaths.  Does anyone believe that they forgot to pray?

The endless horrors of history continue today, both of man’s making and by natural disaster.  And at no point is there systematic evidence of physical rescue beyond what we might expect from random events.

So it goes (with a nod to Kurt Vonnegut) for every disaster or massacre of religious people in history.  For certainly, among the thousands of victims, there must have been many innocent, faithful and devout followers of God, who prayed with all diligence for mercy and protection which never came.  From this, can we conclude that God will ease our suffering, cure an ailment, help us find our car keys, score a touchdown or be on time to an appointment?

Communal Prayer

Another important aspect of Christianity is common prayer.  We pray in church, and we pray at meals.  Prayer brings us together in a meditative moment, and we communicate to each other our gratitude at the good things in life and our joy in each other’s presence.  It can be a good thing.

A common practice in modern American Christian churches is to join together in prayer for members of the congregation and their loved ones who are sick, or in some life crisis, or recently deceased.  I don’t mean to disparage communal prayer.  It is a way of communicating to each other our care, to provide comfort to friends during loss and to build a sense of community.  But I find it odd as a way of communicating with God.  I especially find it odd when people solicit prayer for someone through social media, as though gathering more prayers will somehow prod God into action.   Is that how people think prayer works?  Does God tote up the number of people praying for someone, and answer those prayers ahead of someone alone, without friends, and desperately praying for themselves? 

Is prayer like “Horton Hears a Who” by Dr. Suess, where it is necessary for every Who in Whoville to plead for a response, until the smallest Who’s loud “Yop!”  is sufficient to attract the attention of God?  I don’t think that’s how prayer should work.  If God is all-knowing, all-loving, and all powerful, the smallest prayer should be equal to a million prayers.  And in any case, prayer itself should be unnecessary – God should already know.

Conclusion

It seems to me that the power of prayer is literally survivorship bias, writ large.  Those who survive speak about the power of prayer, and those who do not survive are not heard.   It seems to me that either God’s answers to prayer are incredibly capricious, without regard for devotion, merit, evil or innocence, or they do not exist.  I do not choose to believe in a capricious God.   

There is little consistent evidence for answers to prayer by a merciful, interventionist God.