In a very revealing article by self-professing atheist MSNBC writer, Elizabeth DeVita-Raeburn, she suggests that there are indeed physical benefits for the praying faithful. Of course, in her particular situation, her personal fulfillment is found through yoga (even after suggesting a continuing envy of people who believed in God). In wrestling through her own questions of God and faith, however, she poses a very compelling question concerning the possibility that her parents' rejection of God might be in error:
I felt continually torn between a desire to emulate [my parents'] biting disdain of all things religious and my fear that we were missing out on something important. After all, my religious friends and their parents didn't strike me as stupid. What if my parents were wrong? Someone had to be in error, and I very much didn't want it to be us. Because if it was us, what magic, what advantage, what peace of mind were we potentially giving up?
Is there power in prayer? The Bible unequivocally contends that there is (James 5:16). And even for those who question the veracity of Scripture, science seems to confirm it as well. For me personally, I gave up on the idea of coincidence a long time ago. There got to be so many instances of veritable divine intervention that to deny them proved irresponsible. 
UPDATE: The power of prayer transcends science into the arena of politics. As a recent cover article for TIME magazine seemed to suggest, the Democratics are attempting to "level the praying field." It appears they learned an important lesson about the impact of the evangelical voting bloc from the 2004 election. I just hope their attempts at spiritual fervency prove genuine. I'm still holding my breath. :)
I am flabbergasted that you can read that article and think that it supports your argument. The fact that you equate yoga with prayer shows just how little the 'religious' aspect of the activity matters.
I bet if we did a study on people that like to relax and listen to jazz for an hour every week, we would find the same thing. Correlation is not causation.
Posted by: Resident Atheist | October 01, 2007 at 01:11 AM
One other note; please pardon my directness.
If you looked for 'veritable divine intervention' with the same myopic view that you read that article, then it's no wonder you found evidence to support his existence.
Posted by: Resident Atheist | October 01, 2007 at 01:14 AM
Resident Atheist, I find your comments interesting on a couple of levels. First of all, I did not say that yoga is the same as prayer. I don't believe it is. My focus in that article was primarily the observations she made about the health benefits of prayer. In fact, she made a distinction between the times she has prayed in the past and her current involvement in yoga. I simply highlighted her comments about yoga, because I found it understandable that someone like her who has rejected prayer (because of a non-belief in God) would look to some other alternative to find personal fulfillment. That you would think I would equate the two shows just has little you understand my views of prayer. (Perhaps I need to put up more posts on the subejct.)
As for my suggestion of divine intervention, I would not let one's lack of belief in God define another person's personal experiences with God, any more than a Christian's belief in God should define anyone else's experiences with atheism.
Posted by: John | October 01, 2007 at 09:14 AM
John, as you know there has been some significant changes in my life in the past week. Last night I was at the end of my rope dealing with the problems I am facing from family that lives in the same house. My heart was racing, I was shaking and I was scared in fear I would say the wrong thing to someone. I used to have a bad temper and I don't want to re-visit those emotions. I called your house and Jean told me you were at the conference, which I had forgotten about. I went ahead and told her what I was going through at that time and she asked if she could pray for me over the phone, I agreed. After the prayer a sense of peace overcame me that was totally amazing and totally God.
Bottom line; prayer is awesome.
Thank God for you and your family.
Posted by: Greg | October 03, 2007 at 01:26 PM
In my attempt to be concise, I believe I have confused you. I do not believe you equate the act of praying with yoga on a spritual / fulfillment level. However, the fact that you acknowledge that the scientifically proven benefits of prayer are the same as those experienced by people who do yoga, goes to show how little the spiritual aspect of the activity matters. The fact that you choose to interpret this as 'Science says there is power in prayer', shows that you have an agenda. Particularly since that statement implies more than the simple health benefits that were stated in the article. It hints that science has somehow proven that prayer works, when the article stated precisely the opposite.
Finally, I think it is completely legitimate to challenge other peoples' perceptions of what are or aren't godly experiences. Anybody that wants to really try to understand the truth should not fear a challenge to their ideology. I suggest that you may have been biased in your search for evidence. Any good scientist would review their method of data collection to see if that's true.
Posted by: Resident Atheist | October 05, 2007 at 09:11 AM