Japan Needs Your Help, Not Your Prayers

Rigorous study has shown, repeatedly, that prayer does nothing … a null effect on the events or mankind. Even a randomized trial, published in the Lancet, found that prayer was useless beyond some imagined beneficial effect for the person offering the prayer. Yet, there are those who when confronted with tragedy, offer the comforting words that they will pray for (fill in the blank).

I try not to let their arrogance annoy me. Why would they think that I would want the prayers offered up to their imaginary god/supreme being? What if I were Jewish or Muslim or Hindu? Why would it help me for them to pray to a different god? To keep my own head from exploding, I tell myself that they offer this A) because they just don’t know what else to say, or B) actual effort to do something quantifiable hasn’t occurred to them.

So, if you really want to do something for the Japanese, why not contribute to MedicinsSansFrontieres? It’s a reasonable fall back position … you know, just in case the prayer thing doesn’t work out.

-maven