Our four (atheist) panel guests were there for the occasion: David Silverman, Tracey Moody, Dan Broadbent and Aron Ra. They give us the report from the field.

Christians (and those of other religions) worldwide pray fervently for the cures to cancer, disease, and all manner of malady and misfortune. Are those prayers activating the healing hand of God as promised in scripture?

This is a difficult and often unpopular conversation, but a necessary one. And amid the global avalanche of human suffering, we must address and understand what prayer is, why we do it, what results it does (or doesn’t) bring, and the nature of the god who receives our desperate pleas. We must also reevaluate our models for compassion, help and healing…and the agents of rescue and goodness who are so often, tragically, ignored.

This presentation by Seth Andrews, given at the “Shift to Reason” conference in Regina, Saskatchewan on April 30, 2016, is far from a complete examination of the subject, but it explores some important, key questions regarding faith, divine protection, suffering, prayer and healing intervention.

Shauna Mitchell, an investigator with the Medical Examiner’s office, said she was dispatched to the Citadel Drive N.W. home of Emil and Rodica Radita to look into a sudden death.

She said she asked the couple when they had last seen their son alive.

“They said they went to church at, I think it was after 1800 hours, and they came home at about 2000 hours and that’s when the father said that he wasn’t breathing, so they prayed and they didn’t call EMS until sometime around 2200 hours,” Mitchell said.

She told Crown prosecutor Marta Juzwiak there were multiple members of the couple’s church in the home.

“They were in the home praying together,” Mitchell said.

And she said it was possible the boy wasn’t breathing even before the couple went to church, as she was given conflicting reports from them.

She said the mother said Alexandru was breathing at 6 p.m. that day, but his father said he wasn’t.
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