Religion is a highly emotive subject for the vast majority of people. We are conditioned not to question its tenets and to accept its doctrine, customs and rituals in totality. Skepticism - and even plain horse sense - is frowned upon and dismissed with statements such as; "The wisdom of man amounts to the foolishness of God".Dissenters are often threatened with dire consequences.

Still, many people get to a point in their lives where doubt lingers. Some groups encourage their members to be studious or even ask God himself for answers. But sometimes the questions are so fundamental that the the doubting person cannot even assume, for instance, that God is available for direct quizzing via prayer. One such question is, does prayer work?

To give my question some context, let me disclose right here and now that I consider myself agnostic to religion. Agnosticism, in summary, is religious fence sitting. It is, to quote my WordWeb dictionary "a religious orientation of doubt; a denial of ultimate knowledge of the existence of God". But I believe the diligent agnostic must endeavor to examine whatever shreds of evidence he finds along the way in order to either reinforce his belief or climb down from the fence and join either the theist or the atheist on the ground.

Many claims of prayers that worked abound across both historical and contemporary life. What is not discussed as much is prayers that didn't work. Even less debated is the question of whether or not prayer work at all.

While scouring the internet for these often under-examined questions, I came across two different articles that seek to investigate reasons people may believe prayer works while indeed it one can't be too sure. Granted they are biased towards the notion that prayer does not work, I nevertheless hope that the great minds here on Wazua can share their own reactions, thoughts and experiences on the matter.