Darwin Week: The science of prayer

On Tuesday night in the University of Northern Iowa's Center for Multicultural Education, Hector Avalos, a philosophy and religious studies professor at Iowa State University, presented a lecture for Darwin Week on religion. In his lecture he asked the question, "Can science prove that prayer works?"

Avalos explained that people believe in prayer because they believe miracles happen as a result of prayer and that God will intervene if they pray. He defined a miracle as "an event that defies natural law, directly caused by God."

He used examples of airplane crash survivors to explain that miracles don't happen. Empirical data shows that the probability of a passenger surviving a plane crash is dependent on the altitude of the plane. This theory is assisted by the fact that passengers from all different religions have the same rate of survival depending upon altitude.

He presented studies that tried to prove patients who were prayed for in hospitals have better chances of recovery. However, Avalos disagreed.

 "It is not possible for there to be a control group for prayer. Who knows if someone is praying for one of the patients in the control group?" said Avalos. "It is impossible for science to prove that prayer works."

Avalos, now an atheist, used to be a Pentecostal preacher who prayed to God to heal believers. He said he became non-religious by reading the Bible. When Avalos became an atheist, his beliefs conflicted with his work as a faith healer.

 "Mythological beings don't help people, people help people," said Avalos.

At ISU, Avalos researches the relationship between violence and religion, science and religion, and religion among Latinos. He has written a total of eight books, two as editor and six as the sole author. His next book will be about slavery and the Bible.

When asked what were the most important points he wanted the audience to understand from the lecture, he said, "The scientific method is the best method we have to live our lives and to create a good society through empirical data." He also wanted audience to "know how well the organizers (University of Northern Iowa Freethinkers and Inquires) work to make these events happen. I'm very grateful that they do the kind of work they do. I don't think they get appreciated enough for that."

UNI students attending the event had their own opinions of the presentation. Devin Yeoman, a graduate student majoring in science education, compared the presentation to previous ones given by Avalos.

 "I've seen all three (presentations) of them. It's his best one so far, not to say his other ones were bad," Yeoman said.

 "I thought it was great. I liked how much evidence he had for his opinions and how much thought he put into it. He had statistics to back it up and evidence both from his life and from studies he has done," said Laura Schmitz, a senior anthropology and biology double major.

Joe Enabnit, who is a member of UNIFI and blogs for the group, said, "I really enjoyed Hector's talk. He did a good job proving his title statement."  

For more information regarding Darwin Week, go to www.darwinweek.com.