This is the third book in David Madison's Ten Tough Problems in Christian Belief series.
The guidelines by which millions of daily pray-ers have been taught to evaluate the success of their prayers are designed so that no response — or lack of response — from God can ever be deemed as anything other than a cause for gratitude. The idea of prayer as communication with a deity fails over and over. It does not pass the test of history. It does not stand up to simple objective observations. And there is daily evidence that millions of sincere believers get vastly different answers when talking to the same God.
Ultimately, the statements commonly used as a catch-all, last line of defense of prayer —
God's ways are higher than our ways. God works in mysterious ways. The most important aspect of prayer is private time spent in fellowship with God.
— fail as well. It seems fair to expect that the God to whom believers pray could perform better than the rock in my made-up friend's back yard.