Does prayer work?
Artykuł pochodzi z pisma "Guardian"
Julian Baggini
Tuesday July 25, 2006
The Guardian
There was laughter in the Polish parliament last week when the ruling Law and Justice party suggested that MPs should literally pray for rain. But it was no joke, and more than 20 passed on the request to the almighty in the parliamentary chapel. The sniggerers should have known better: Poland is a Catholic country and only a few years ago the late Pope John Paul II called on Catholics to "ask the Lord fervently to grant the thirsty earth the coolness of rain".
But still everyone seems to find praying funny. Even the devout Tony Blair smiled when asked by Jeremy Paxman if he had prayed with his fellow believer George Bush, as though no Christian would do anything so silly. In fact, according to a BBC survey, more Britons regularly pray than never do.
Intercessory prayer - praying for God to intervene - can sound a bit daft. As a teenage me put it to a preacher: why would an all-wise, all-loving God not bother to help people in need, just because not enough people had asked him to? He knows what's best already. "That's a good question," he said, before offering the bad answer that we should just pray because Jesus said we should.
Even if we can't see why intercessory prayer should work, can we test if it actually does? There have been various attempts to do so, and none of the properly scientific ones have shown that it does. Since billions have already asked God for world peace nicely enough, and that has failed miserably, we should not be surprised.
No experiment will ever persuade believers that prayer doesn't work anyway. They can always claim that God would consider prayers offered as part of a test impious, null and void. Also, even if you think if you don't ask, you don't get, no one believes that if you do ask, God will always oblige. Since that means that getting what you ask for is evidence prayer does work, but not getting what you ask for is not evidence that it doesn't, demonstrating prayer's inefficacy is impossible.
Of course, you could believe that prayer isn't about asking for stuff but about building a relationship with God. Whether that kind of prayer works or not can never be tested, and those who are convinced it does have all the evidence they want already.
actually- faktycznie, rzeczywiście
almighty- wszechmogący
attempt- próba, usiłowanie
claim- twierdzić
consider- uważać za
convinced- przekonany
daft- przygłupi; stuknięty
devout- pobożny
evidence- dowód
fail- nie powieść się, zawieść
fervently- gorliwie, żarliwie
grant- udzielać, przyznawać
impious- bezbożny
inefficacy- nieskuteczność
intercessory- wstawienniczy
intervene- ingerować, interwenować
miserably- nędznie, marnie
null and void- nieważny; pozbawiony mocy prawnej
null- nieważny, niebyły
oblige- zobowiązywać;być zobowiązanym
relationship- relacja, związek
request- prośba, życzenie
sniggerer- prześmiewca
stuff- rzeczy
survey- badanie, sondaż
various- różny, rozmaity
void- pusty, próżny
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