Well, it's not just that I've a tendency to critically examine all sorts of claims and try to find out what they're based on, but I don't know four OR five people with any sort of religious inclination.
It doesn't even take much digging to read that the survey in question doesn't actually ask whether people believe in the power of prayer, or anything remotely similar, but instead has the question:
"Irrespective of whether you currently pray or not, if you were to pray for something at the moment, What would it be for?"
So, as 19% of respondents responded with "don't know" or said they would "never pray for anything", the C of E spin doctors contemptuously ignore the old "Thou shalt not bear false witness" commandment, and miraculously interpret this to mean that the remainder must believe that there's some sort of celestial concierge who responds to pestering (the website quotes the Archbishop of Canterbury as saying "...committed in prayer to Christ, and we will see a world transformed.").
However, as the Church article helpfully informs us that 31% of respondents said they would pray for world peace, and as there obviously isn't anything like "world peace", either nobody has got around to praying yet, God has so far ignored all the prayers but might do something about it later, or praying is a pointless exercise.
Maybe the C of E will add a request for clarification into its Pray One For Me programme of getting requests relayed through church groups?
