ToL Study: Praying For The Sick Makes Them...Sicker.

[stopbush]

Prayer does not heal the sick, study finds
By Sam Knight and agencies

Praying for the health of strangers who have undergone heart surgery has no effect, according to the largest scientific study ever commissioned to calculate the healing power of prayer. In fact, patients who know they are being prayed for suffer a noticeably higher rate of complications, according to the study, which monitored the recovery of 1,800 patients after heart bypass surgery in the US. The findings of the decade-long study were due to be published in the American Heart Journal next week, but the journal published the report on its website yesterday as anticipation grew.

The power of intercessory prayer has been studied by doctors for years in America, but with no conclusive results. This $2.4 million study, funded in large part by the John Templeton Foundation, which seeks "insights at the boundary between theology and science", was intended to cast some clear light on the matter. But the study "did not move us forward or backward" in understanding the effects of prayer, admitted Dr Charles Bethea, one of the co-authors and a cardiologist at the Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City. "Intercessory prayer under our restricted format had a neutral effect," he said.

Members of three congregations - St. Paul's Monastery in St. Paul; the Community of Teresian Carmelites in Worcester, Massachussetts; and Silent Unity, a Missouri prayer ministry near Kansas City - were asked to pray for the patients, who were divided into three groups: those who would be told they were being prayed for, those who would receive prayers but not know, and those who would not be prayed for at all. The worshippers starting praying for the patients the night before surgery and for the next two weeks, asking God to grant "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications".

The study found no appreciable difference between the health of those who did not know they were being prayed for and those who received no prayers. Fifty-two per cent of patients in both groups suffered complications after surgery. But 59 per cent of those who knew they were prayed for went on to develop complications.

The reports authors said they had no explanation for the difference beyond a possibility that the prayers made people anxious about their ability to recover.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2-2112892,00.html

[shenmue]

1. To paraphrase...

George Carlin on Mad TV: "If God wanted you to be healed of cancer...why'd he let you get cancer in the first place?"

;)

[swag]

2. I wonder if "Good DU Vibes" have a similar effect.

[Zenlitened]

3. "... the study "did not move us forward or backward" in understanding...

"..the study "did not move us forward or backward" in understanding the effects of prayer.."

Uh, yeah it did. Effects of prayer = 0.

Effect of piling on sick patients with prayer-talk = not so good.

[Der Blaue Engel]

4. I don't mean to insult the DU believers, but

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

You'd understand why I'm laughing so hard if you knew the history of my mother's death from cancer and the fundie loons who browbeat her to death with "prayer." :eyes: