Almost 70 atheists and agnostics from around the world are praying for 40 days, asking God to reveal himself to them as part of a radio experiment in the UK.

Premier Christian Radio show ‘Unbelievable’ is conducting The Atheist Prayer Experiment throughout September and October. The experiment is based on a paper by Oxford philosopher Tim Mawson who argued in 2010 that, “on balance, it is in the interests of those atheists who don’t think it’s absolutely impossible that there is a God to investigate the issue of whether or not he exists by ‘the experimental method’ – trying to ask him.”

Host of “Unbelievable”, Justin Brierley is tracking the progress of the experiment’s participants, many of whom are blogging about the experience.

“It’s a bit of a crazy experiment, but it’s really interesting a lot of people have got on board,” he told listeners last week.

Two people have dropped out already since the experiment began on 17 September. Ben, an atheist who took part, tried prayer for one day. “I tried my prayer, but you know what, I’m just incredibly, staunchly atheist. God does not exist…I began this in the best of faith but simply cannot continue,” he wrote to the radio station.

Another participant, Kendra, dropped out right before the experiment began. She told Brierley she’d decided to withdraw from the experiment because “I’ve decided to commit my life to Christ.”

“I think it was through doing the research on the experiment and listening to podcasts, etcetera, it made me realise that I need Christ in my life,” Kendra wrote in an email. “I do believe in God, so I’m no longer an atheist. Thank you for letting me join and for opening up my eyes.”

Many participants, says Brierley, consider themselves “former Christians”, like Bryon who says he was a Christian for 42 years, took his faith seriously, attended church but awoke one day and “my faith was just gone”. He hopes the experiment works: “It wasn’t a decision I made, it’s just the way I feel. If I got to decide, I would choose Christianity.”

Some participants are video-blogging their daily prayers. Others have chosen to pray on their own, not blogging or commenting so as not to be distracted or influenced either way by those watching.

Brierley says the experiment has already raised questions for participants.

“The question is, ‘how hard can it be to fill a few minutes in prayer?’. [One blogger] asked, ‘Once I’ve asked God to reveal himself – what else am I supposed to pray for?” says Brierley.

The other big questions is, what would people be prepared to count as an answer to their prayer?

One week in, participants blogging about their experiences have noted several coincidences, though Brierley says they’re not prepared to consider them “God-incidences” just yet.

“One of our female contributors – a former charismatic Christian – wrote about her first day like this: She said ‘Hello God, I realise you’re probably a bit busy right now, what with half the world going round setting fire to things, but I wonder if you could possibly take some time out to reveal yourself to me.’

“She says: ‘this is how I felt praying this morning. I found it hard to concentrate…but no major revelations. But when I went outside for coffee, a busker was outside Starbucks playing a tune of what used to be one of my favourite hymns. I’m not persuaded that that was God waving at me, but it did lift my spirits.’”

The radio show says all they ask from their participants is that “anyone taking part commits themselves to finding a quiet meditative ‘space’ and praying there for two to three minutes each day as earnestly as they can for any God that there might be to reveal himself/herself/itself to him or her, and that he or she remains as open as possible to ways in which that prayer could be answered.”

Bob Seidensticker, a self-proclaimed atheist writing on the Patheos blog, is taking part. He writes:

“I don’t expect that I’ll be able to be all that earnest—frankly, I don’t have much expectation of anything supernatural happening or even much desire for God to exist—but I’ll have a go. To any Christian who says that I’m not approaching this with much sincerity, you’re right. As I read it, none is required—as it should be. Sincerity comes after the fact; sincerity is earned.”

While not directly on prayer as an unbeliever, C.S. Lewis, in his book Miracles highlights the type of revelation the radio show seems to be hoping for:

“It is always shock­ing to meet life where we thought we were alone. “Look out!” we cry, “it’s alive.” And there­fore this is the very point at which so many draw back—I would have done so myself if I could—and pro­ceed no fur­ther with Chris­tian­ity. An “imper­sonal God”—well and good. A sub­jec­tive God of beauty, truth, and good­ness, inside our own heads—better still. A form­less life-​​force surg­ing through us, a vast power which we can tap—best of all. But God him­self, alive, pulling at the other end of the cord, per­haps approach­ing at an infi­nite speed, the hunter, king, husband—that is quite another mat­ter. There comes a moment when the chil­dren who have been play­ing at bur­glars hush sud­denly: was that a real foot­step in the hall? There comes a moment when peo­ple who have been dab­bling in reli­gion (“Man’s search for God”!) sud­denly draw back. Sup­pos­ing we really found him? We never meant it to come to that! Worse still, sup­pos­ing he had found us!” (Ch 11)

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