http://www.humanreligions.info/prayer.html
By Vexen Crabtree 2023
Daily prayer is most common in Central America (77%), Africa (75%) and The Caribbean (74%)1. The least prayerful countries are China (01%), UK (06%), Austria (08%), Switzerland (08%) and Czechia (09%)1. Does prayer work? All of the larger studies on prayer, and the well-controlled ones, show that prayer has no effect on the world. The largest study, ran mostly sensibly by a Christian think tank, found to their own embarrassment that not only did prayer have no effect on cardiac patients but that by telling one of the groups that they were being prayed for, they made their recovery worse by making them worry more.2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9.
| Area | Daily Prayer (2018) %1 | Countries, Highest & Lowest | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Africa... | 75.4 | S. Africa (52%), Tanzania (56%) and Rwanda (62%)1 Nigeria (95%), Senegal (88%) and Algeria (88%)1 | |
| Asia... | 51.5 | China (01%), Vietnam (14%) and Russia (18%)1 Afghanistan (96%), Iraq (87%) and Iran (87%)1 | |
| Australasia | 18.0 | Australia (18%)1 Australia (18%)1 | |
| Europe... | 25.4 | UK (06%), Switzerland (08%) and Austria (08%)1 Azerbaijan (76%), Turkey (60%) and Kosovo (54%)1 | |
| North America | 65.5 | Canada (25%), Mexico (40%) and USA (55%)1 Guatemala (82%), Honduras (78%) and Costa Rica (78%)1 | |
| South America | 54.1 | Uruguay (29%), Chile (39%) and Argentina (40%)1 Paraguay (82%), Colombia (73%) and Ecuador (63%)1 | |
| The Middle East... | 67.3 | Israel (27%), Lebanon (51%) and Turkey (60%)1 Iraq (87%), Iran (87%) and Palestine (78%)1 | |
| World | 49.0 | China (01%), UK (06%) and Austria (08%)1 Afghanistan (96%), Nigeria (95%) and Algeria (88%)1 | |
| Daily Prayer (2018)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | %1 | |
| 104 | Afghanistan | 96 |
| 103 | Nigeria | 95 |
| 102 | Algeria | 88 |
| 101 | Senegal | 88 |
| 100 | Iran | 87 |
| 99 | Djibouti | 87 |
| 98 | Iraq | 87 |
| 97 | Niger | 87 |
| 96 | Indonesia | 84 |
| 95 | Guinea-Bissau | 83 |
| 94 | Chad | 83 |
| 93 | Philippines | 82 |
| 92 | Paraguay | 82 |
| 91 | Guatemala | 82 |
| 90 | Cameroon | 82 |
| 89 | Mali | 81 |
| 88 | Liberia | 80 |
| 87 | Morocco | 80 |
| 86 | Kenya | 79 |
| 85 | Zambia | 78 |
| World Avg | 49.0 | |
| q=104. | ||
| Daily Prayer (2018)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | %1 | |
| 84 | Palestine | 78 |
| 83 | Honduras | 78 |
| 82 | Costa Rica | 78 |
| 81 | El Salvador | 77 |
| 80 | Jordan | 76 |
| 79 | Ghana | 76 |
| 78 | Azerbaijan | 76 |
| 77 | Nicaragua | 75 |
| 76 | Dominican Rep. | 74 |
| 75 | Colombia | 73 |
| 74 | Egypt | 72 |
| 73 | Congo, DR | 69 |
| 72 | Panama | 69 |
| 71 | Mozambique | 68 |
| 70 | Puerto Rico | 67 |
| 69 | Tunisia | 67 |
| 68 | Pakistan | 67 |
| 67 | Botswana | 66 |
| 66 | Uganda | 66 |
| 65 | Ethiopia | 65 |
| World Avg | 49.0 | |
| q=104. | ||
| Daily Prayer (2018)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | %1 | |
| 64 | Ecuador | 63 |
| 63 | Rwanda | 62 |
| 62 | Brazil | 61 |
| 61 | Malaysia | 61 |
| 60 | Turkey | 60 |
| 59 | Bangladesh | 57 |
| 58 | Tanzania | 56 |
| 57 | Bolivia | 56 |
| 56 | USA | 55 |
| 55 | Kosovo | 54 |
| 54 | S. Africa | 52 |
| 53 | Lebanon | 51 |
| 52 | Peru | 51 |
| 51 | Moldova | 49 |
| 50 | Tajikistan | 48 |
| 49 | Venezuela | 47 |
| 48 | Romania | 45 |
| 47 | Armenia | 45 |
| 46 | Croatia | 41 |
| 45 | Argentina | 40 |
| World Avg | 49.0 | |
| q=104. | ||
| Daily Prayer (2018)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | %1 | |
| 44 | Mexico | 40 |
| 43 | Chile | 39 |
| 42 | Georgia | 38 |
| 41 | Portugal | 38 |
| 40 | Japan | 33 |
| 39 | Bosnia & Herzegovina | 33 |
| 38 | S. Korea | 32 |
| 37 | Slovakia | 31 |
| 36 | Greece | 30 |
| 35 | Ukraine | 30 |
| 34 | Uruguay | 29 |
| 33 | Poland | 29 |
| 32 | Israel | 27 |
| 31 | Serbia | 27 |
| 30 | Uzbekistan | 26 |
| 29 | Canada | 25 |
| 28 | Belarus | 25 |
| 27 | Kyrgyzstan | 24 |
| 26 | Spain | 23 |
| 25 | Italy | 21 |
| World Avg | 49.0 | |
| q=104. | ||
| Daily Prayer (2018)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | %1 | |
| 24 | Kazakhstan | 20 |
| 23 | Netherlands | 20 |
| 22 | Ireland | 19 |
| 21 | Finland | 18 |
| 20 | Latvia | 18 |
| 19 | Russia | 18 |
| 18 | Australia | 18 |
| 17 | Norway | 18 |
| 16 | Hungary | 16 |
| 15 | Albania | 15 |
| 14 | Bulgaria | 15 |
| 13 | Lithuania | 15 |
| 12 | Vietnam | 14 |
| 11 | Sweden | 11 |
| 10 | Belgium | 11 |
| 9 | France | 10 |
| 8 | Denmark | 10 |
| 7 | Germany | 09 |
| 6 | Estonia | 09 |
| 5 | Czechia | 09 |
| World Avg | 49.0 | |
| q=104. | ||
| Daily Prayer (2018)1 | ||
|---|---|---|
| Pos. | %1 | |
| 4 | Switzerland | 08 |
| 3 | Austria | 08 |
| 2 | UK | 06 |
| 1 | China | 01 |
| World Avg | 49.0 | |
| q=104. | ||
#christianity #prayer #religion
Does prayer work? The effectiveness of prayer is one of the reasons people give for being religious5,10. There have been many small-scale investigations into whether or not prayer works - most of them by believers, and most of them using poor research methods or unsuitable statistical techniques. Christian publishers and evangelical journals produce volumes of stories of prayers that have been answered11 - always in the affirmative - by God. The most basic next step would be to compare these to how many have not been answered, in order to see if it is mere luck that some events go favourably. Don't forget that "people speak confidently about the power of prayer, but in war both sides pray for victory"12.
All of the larger studies on prayer, and the well-controlled ones, show that prayer has no effect on the world. The largest study, ran mostly sensibly by a Christian think tank, found to their own embarrassment that not only did prayer have no effect on cardiac patients but that by telling one of the groups that they were being prayed for, they made their recovery worse by making them worry more.2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9. Aside from individual effects, because of the large volume of prayers that occur in the world, their cumulative effects should be statistically observable. But no such evidence can be found. Prayer doesn't help individual patients, and, it has no effect on overall national welfare rates13.
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But why, if there is a God, wouldn't prayer work? It makes very little sense, and there is no way to imagine, that actually prayer serves a function in the plan of a perfect God. The next section explores this problem in depth.
Of all the many courses of action or inaction, a perfect God always picks the best one. This appears to makes prayers ineffectual. If one prays for a friend to miraculously recover from an inoperable brain disease, what will happen? The prayer cannot make a difference, because, God has already picked the best course of action. If the prayer is successful, it's because God was already going to move that way. If it was unsuccessful, then, God has a better plan. It seems that to pray for God to act is to doubt that God already knows best14,15.
For more, see:
#christianity #prayer #religion
In Matthew 6:5-6 Jesus says you should pray in private so that others cannot see, behind closed doors, in secret and not in public. All four gospels describe Jesus as practicing what he preached: always praying in private or sometimes just amongst the disciples. Matthew also says that Jesus instructed that prayer not be repetitious, with 'much speaking' 'as the heathens do'. The criticism is made many times of those who bring attention to their own prayers: Prayer should be private. These instructions occur in no less than 18 places in the New Testament. Christians who make vocal their prayers for others are rebelling against God's wishes, as are those who prayer in repetitive chants or routines, something which is fairly common in Christian liturgy in most of Christendom.
There are many more versus about praying in the Bible. The author of Timothy urges that Christian men "in every place" pray for other people (1 Timothy 2:1,8). According to Jesus if Christians have just a tiny bit of faith, their prayers will come true, including such miracles as moving mountains and trees. For an example from each gospel, see Matthew 17:20, Mark 11:24-25 , Luke 17:6 and John 14:14. Critics do not have to do much work to find that these verses seem to be untrue. They are contradicted by the infamous unforgivable sin of 1 John 5:16, wherein it says that there is no point praying for others to cease committing deadly sins. There are contradictions and absurdities in what the Bible says about prayer. Not only that, but as God acts perfectly, it seems that prayer cannot change anything in the world: God is already going to save the sick, remove a cancer and end poverty. This is why in 1 John 5:14 it says God only listens if we ask what is already in accordance with its will. To pray is to doubt god's perfect choice of action. Forgetting that God is all-knowing, Philippians 4:6 says you should let all wants be known to God, in prayer. The 100 verses that describe prayer are relatively incoherent, and most don't reflect Christian practices today.
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#argentina #australia #christianity #islam #prayer #religion
The Qur'an is explicit when it comes to prayer in ways that the Christian Bible is not. There are definite reasons to pray: Qur'an 17:79 offers a bribe: pray often, more than is required of you, and Allah might "raise you to a position of great glory". Aside from that, the vast majority of the verses in the Qur'an about prayer are about technicalities - frequency, timings and posture. For example Qur'an 2:238-239 says that the "middle prayer" (presumably, of the 5 daily prayers) is the most important. Qur'an 5:6 reiterates typical superstitions about cleanliness and washing before prayer (more so if you've touched women recently). It seems that when God spoke to the Hebrews it was insistent upon the minute specifics of animal sacrifice, but, it revealed to the writers of the New Testament that such textual literalism was an error, and distracted from the proper relationship with God. But, hundreds of years later, God is again getting involved with the minute particulars. Despite the attempts to be clear, there are many uncertainties as to how Muslims should pray and there are many different customs. Some complications arise from basic geography: the Qur'an was written by folk who thought the world was flat, so instructions like "face Mecca when you pray" seemed simple enough. But what about Muslims in Argentina, Alaska or Australia? To pray facing Mecca means angling yourself against the floor in a very strange way. Some Alaskan Muslims pray facing north, the shortest curved line to Mecca. Others pray facing South-East, the simplistic way you'd face if you use the Mercator map projection whilst forgetting that the world is more or less spherical. The entire spectacle of reading lengthy Muslim scholarly debate on how and when to pray is a worryingly pointless use of Human time in a literalist endeavour that is largely avoided if you admit that the authors of the Qur'an didn't quite manage to be clear, and the minor details aren't really the kind of the thing the ruler of the Universe should really be caring about, given the violent and immoral state of the world at large!
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