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Christians (and anyone): care to participate in a prayer experiment?
I'd like to run a simple little prayer experiment. Here's the deal:
at 5:00 PM Pacific Standard time today, I'm going to put on a hat. The hat will be one of 8 colors: red, blue, black, white, tan, green, orange, or yellow. By simply guessing, you have a 1 in 8 chance of being right.
What I propose is that you pray (to whomever you pray to) and ask to be told the color of the hat that I'm going to put on, then put your answer here. I won't look at any answers until I put the hat on. Then I'll tabulate the results. Random guessing, with enough samples, should result in 12.5% of you having the right answer -- if more than that get the right answer through prayer, that would indicate prayer might just have some actual power. I'll report the results honestly, and not cheat in any way. I'm really interested to see how this could come out. I chose getting an answer about the color of a hate because you won't be asking for anything selfish, or anything that harms anyone.
So, what do you say? Will you participate in a little experiment?
When you post, please put the color you've chosen, whether or not you prayed, and to whom you prayed. Thanks.
I put on the RED hat. I really didn't look here before choosing, and I chose red by googling "hat," and choosing the first number between 1 and 8 I saw there (which was 1, so red).
For those who said it's not valid to "test" -- why not? The bible is full of places where a believer prayed for a "miracle" to convince non-believers. You don't think your god would like me, an atheist, to publicly state that prayer has merit? I'd think, if he's real, he'd love to have me say that...
Results:
9 answers, 1 right (mitz was *so close!*)
That's 11.1% right.
"chance" says 12.5% should be right, so we did less well than random guessing should. However, the sample size wasn't really large enough. Oh, well.
13 Answers
- puredagnastyevilLv 61 decade agoFavorite Answer
Purple!
Didn't pray, I was just thinking that maybe you have a blue hat and red hat, you accidentally them in the washer on a warm setting, and the colors will mixed, making for a very awkward result.
I may have over-thought this.
- 5 years ago
This is really up to you, what your opinions are and such. I am an atheist, though i was once a Catholic. It is my belief that all religions must be respected and even if I am faced with a situation where I may not want to participate, I still will respectfully stand aside. I go to a Catholic high school. I stand during the prayers but I do not say the prayers myself. I want to show that I respect their choice of religion. However, you may want to research Shinto before you come to a conclusion. Shinto is really a form of Buddhism brought to feudal Japan from China that was mixed with local folklore. Shinto is vastly different from what it once was; after WWII Shinto practices lost favor in Japan, as did many other religions, and is really seen more as a "way of life" than a full blown religion.
- Miz TLv 71 decade ago
That's not the way prayer works, you know. Prayer is more like a conversation with the Holy Spirit, not the submission of a wish list.
It is, however, an interesting experiment in telepathy. I'm not particularly telepathic, but I'll be happy to see if I can pick up your vibes when 8 p.m. EST--5 p.m. PST rolls around (I can tell time, even if I'm not telepathic). It would be nice if you'd help out us telepathically challenged individuals by thinking the color real hard when the time comes.
Report: I didn't pray, I concentrated on making mental contact. At first, I "saw" a red hat, but then it turned black--so I'm going to report "black" as my answer.
Follow up: See? I am a failure at telepathy. Or maybe I sub-consciously see you as a black-hat kinda guy.
- PROBLEMLv 71 decade ago
Your experiment is not going to work. There is no way to control who prayed what they prayed for, or if God would give a hoot. There is no such thing as a scientific test for the validity of prayer.
- How do you think about the answers? You can sign in to vote the answer.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Sure, but you know that studies have already been done that prove prayer does absolutely nothing, right? I'll pray to God(Christian god) that the hat will be red.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
Black!
Didn't pray. I might be a theist, but I'm not one for prayer really.
- MathieulhLv 51 decade ago
I'm an atheist, but thought to hell with it and prayed anyway.
I came out with a yellow, and I prayed to the Christian God.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
tan, I tuned into the universe to see if a color would pop up and tan popped up. that's not really praying
- Anonymous1 decade ago
it's tan.
no, didn't pray.
it was just a guess. it was the first color that popped into my head.
- Anonymous1 decade ago
It is not wise to test God with such foolishness. God knows what prayers are important and what is fake. You would be better off praying for forgiveness.
