Efficacy of prayer

The efficacy of prayer is about the outcome of prayer requests. This topic has been discussed in many fields such as theology, philosophy, history, medicine, and psychology. Numerous religious traditions have complex understandings of the nature, function and expectations of prayer. For instance, within Jewish and Christian traditions there are diverse interpretations of prayers as requests for miraculous outcomes and also requests for relatively mundane outcomes. Some religious communities question whether the efficacy of prayer can be reliably measured or be meaningful since sacred texts such as the Bible have diverse situations and teachings such as stating that God shall not be coerced (Deuteronomy 6:16 - "You shall not put the Lord your God to the test"), some prayers for healing have been purposely rejected by God before (2 Corinthians 12:7-9 - Apostle Paul's thorn in the flesh), or specific conditions would have to be met before prayers can be heard (having guidance by the Holy Spirit). In Christianity, there is an emphasis for the need for guidance from the Holy Spirit as to what needs to be prayed for and have taught that "God can not be coerced."

Philosophically, there is controversy on this topic which involving basic issues like statistical inference and falsifiability as to what it may mean to "prove" or "disprove" something, and the problem of demarcation, i.e., as to whether this topic is even within the realm of science at all.

The efficacy of prayer has been the topic of various scientific studies since Francis Galton first addressed it in 1872. In recent decades, studies on prayer have become notable in medicine. According to the Washington Post, "...prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies." Recent medical studies on prayer have generally shown mixed results when it comes to healing from illnesses. The largest study, from the 2006 STEP project, found no significant differences in patients recovering from heart surgery whether the patients were prayed for or not. The patients who knew they were receiving prayers did experience slightly higher recovery complications, possibly due to chance and the added anxiety or pressure caused from the expectations from the prayers. However, one of the authors of the study emphasized that this study did not say anything about the power of prayer itself. Dr. Fred Rosner, an authority on Jewish medical ethics, and others have expressed doubt that prayer could ever be subject to empirical analysis.

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