Philosophy / Natural Theology • Existence of God • Intermediate
Argument from Petitionary Answered Prayer
Primary question: Do documented cases of apparently answered petitionary prayer, especially prayer for healing, provide genuine evidence for a personal God who acts in the world?
Argument map
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Common mistakes
Don't say
Citing Keener's case collection as though it were a controlled scientific study.
Instead
Recognize it as a testimony compilation with some documented cases, which is weaker evidence than a randomized trial but stronger than casual anecdote.
Don't say
Ignoring or hiding the STEP study's null and negative results when presenting this argument.
Instead
Foreground STEP as the strongest counter-evidence and explain honestly why it constrains any claim to strong evidential force.
Don't say
Treating any recovery following prayer as proof of divine action.
Instead
Apply regression to the mean, base rates, and selection effects first, and reserve the argument's weight for the harder residual cases.
What would change my mind? — Christian position
A well-designed, pre-registered, blinded trial showing a robust, replicable effect of intercessory prayer on an objective medical outcome would substantially strengthen this argument.
What would change my mind? — Skeptical position
A rigorously verified case of instantaneous reversal of an irreversible, well-documented organic condition immediately following a specific, timed prayer, with no plausible misdiagnosis, would be difficult to dismiss as chance or bias.
Why does this matter?
The argument matters because petitionary prayer is one of the most widespread lived religious practices, and honestly weighing its evidential status, rather than either dismissing it out of hand or overselling it, models how a cumulative case for theism should treat mixed and contested empirical data.
For further study
Primary and secondary sources on both sides of this question. Reading the strongest opposing case is part of the work, not a concession.
Miracles: The Credibility of the New Testament Accounts — Craig Keener
Two-volume compilation of contemporary healing testimony alongside a defense of the historical plausibility of biblical miracle accounts.
Testing Prayer: Science and Healing — Candy Gunther Brown
Careful scholarly treatment of field studies on prayer for healing, including the author's own Mozambique pulse-oximetry research.
Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) — Herbert Benson et al., American Heart Journal (2006)
The largest and most rigorous randomized controlled trial of intercessory prayer, finding no benefit and a slight negative effect.
The Existence of God — Richard Swinburne
Situates religious experience and answered prayer within a broader Bayesian cumulative case for theism.
Thinking, Fast and Slow — Daniel Kahneman
Explains cognitive biases, including regression to the mean neglect and confirmation bias, relevant to evaluating anecdotal claims.