Does Prayer Work?

In most religions, people can pray or otherwise make requests for blessings from God or whatever principles the religion revolves around. Most people offer prayers for the well-being and prosperity of themselves and others. There have been a number of news articles recently concerning tests that are done in an attempt to determine if prayer really works. My hypothesis is that over time the many thousands of prayers for well-being and prosperity that God answers will result in increased prosperity of the society as a whole.

The United Nations has a way of scoring the nations of the world in the average prosperity and quality of life. This is known as the HDI or Human Development Index. There is also the Human Poverty Index. Of the twenty highest-ranking countries in the world, nineteen are countries that are historically Christian and that have Christianity as their primary religion. The only country in the top twenty that is not is Japan. People in the historically Christian countries are certainly no smarter or innately talented than those in other countries, as school test scores show. This must be considered as evidence to the power of Christian prayer.