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Can humans assess God's will through prayer?

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Conflicting quotations about assessing God's will:

	Proverbs 3:5 & 6: "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths."
	Susan B. Anthony: "I distrust those who know so well what God wants them to do, because I notice it always coincides with their own desires."
	Monte Wolverton at Plain Truth Ministries: "Methods some Christians use to determine God's will are highly subjective -- arising from the individual's own perception and experience. Such messages are subject to personal interpretation. ....And ironically, in many cases, these perceived messages from God seem to affirm what the individual wanted to do in the first place." 2

Note about "God":

To make this section more easily read, we will refer to deity simply as "God" in this essay. This matches the beliefs of most North American adults, who believe in a single male deity: God the Father who is omnipotent, omnipresent and omnibeneficient. If you view deity as plural, female, male and female, as gender-neutral, as absent, as evil, as lacking in power, please substitute a title or description of your choice.

Overview:

Prayer is a very popular activity. Polls have indicated that about 80% of Americans say that they have prayed to God in the previous week.

There are many reasons why people pray. Two of the most important are:

	To seek guidance from God on a specific topic or problem in their life. For example: should they propose to their girlfriend; what university should they go to; should they accept a recent job offer; is this the right time to buy a new car?
	To assess the will of God on a theological matter: For example: Which denomination is the true church; What is the best ethical choice about stem cell research; Is an abortion the least worse option in a particular circumstance, or are abortions always unacceptable?

The effectiveness of prayer is rarely scrutinized. We decided examine the belief that people can assess the will of God through prayer by conducting a pilot study to test it in practice.

Topic covered in this section:

	How does God communicate with humanity?
	Evaluating the effectiveness of prayer in real life
	A pilot study to determine if people can assess the will of God through prayer Design of the study   Results   Interpretation of the results   Raw data from the above study   Raw data (continued)

Reference used:

The following information source was used to prepare and update the above essay. The hyperlink is not necessarily still active today.

1. Monte Wolverton, "In Search of God's Will," Plain Truth Ministries, 2004-SEP/OCT, at: http://www.ptm.org/

Copyright © 2001 to 2009 by Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance
Originally written: 2003-JAN-12
Latest update: 2009-OCT-14
Author: B.A. Robinson

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