Talk:Escape hatch
[edit] "These range from testing the power of prayer (which invariably fails when tested fairly and rigorously)..."
how is it even possible to test ~the power of prayer~? okay, you could test the explicit proposition "if you pray, all of your wishes will come true" - which we hopefully understand is often straw-manning the core/monolithic message of All People Who Advise Others To Pray - but for how long is the obvious evidence debunking that going to sway anyone who would be credulous/desperate enough to take it seriously in the first place? the only even vaguely definable 'result' of prayer (assuming it's safe to set aside the midden of theological tropes) is in whatever byproduct might accrue from the focus the pray-er puts on their goal/crisis/whatever-the-fuck they're praying about, and whether that focus translates into confidence, anxiety, optimism, calm, dread, whatever (whether such a byproduct is helpful/misplaced/etc. under the circumstances is of course another matter entirely). what i'm saying, i guess, is that the parenthetical seems like a pointless (and not even witty) 'stab' at prayer unless it cites an actual study that began with a coherent premise ("prayer has some kind of measurable influence on something"? sorry if this shouldn't be a headscratcher)... 184.78.166.161 (talk) 06:17, 24 February 2014 (UTC)
- A simple Google brings up this as top answer and this as a Wikipedia article all about it. But you couldn't be bothered to google for yourself, eh? Placeholder (talk) 10:08, 24 February 2014 (UTC)