Prayer

When an event occurs in the past, evidence is usually available. Diagnosticians will determine if identifying a cause is relevant to the current situation. If they determine that the root cause of the event is not relevant, they will not look into it, and they will admittedly move on without an explanation for the event's occurrence. If the root cause is relevant, they will investigate, test to produce more evidence, and hopefully diagnose the root cause accurately. Whether the root cause is ever identified or not has no bearing on whether the event was explainable or not. Also, considering the probability of error, the explanation given may not necessarily be accurate.

In other words, lack of an explanation does not equate to the event being unexplainable. Likewise, the certainty of the explanation given is in no way equal to the validity of that explanation.

The only answers to prayers I have ever heard about all have alternate explanations that can be derived from the evidence available from the event.

In other words, I have been unable to differentiate any answer god has given to prayer from the other potential causes for the event that followed the prayers.

The argument provided by some Christians in favor of believing god answers prayer goes something like this: A scientist producing accurate results in a lab is a trained and qualified expert of her field. Her senses are finely tuned to observe and find what she is looking for. Likewise, it is important that we thoroughly train spiritual sense to observe the work of god in and around our lives. Only then can we expect to differentiate his loving kindness from among all the other possible explanations.

This argue contains an important misrepresentation of the scientist, however. Revealing this distinction presents a significant contrast between the scientist and the believer. The scientistic, if she really is a qualified expert, has not trained herself to see what she is looking for, but has been trained to account for all of the available evidence, and to consider the explanation that best fits that evidence, whether or not she expected or desired that explanation.

Maybe god is answering prayers. I can not refute the claim that he is answering prayers for precisely the same reason that I cannot confirm that he is answering prayers. There is simply no evidence that can be objectively differentiated from other causes of the event.

So, in spite of evidence lending to a natural cause, and in the absence of any distinct evidence pointing to a supernatural cause, I must decide for myself whether or not to put my faith and confidence in god as the root cause of any event that follows a prayer.