Last week, I posted on the power behind the power of
prayer regarding a study basically suggesting that prayer does not help people heal, and to make matters worse,
prayer seems to inadvertently act with evil-eye power, making those prayed for suffer more difficult recovery than
their counterparts who were not prayed for at all. But if prayer can have a negative affect on the health of someone
prayed for, then it must have the power to heal too. Yes? Yes. As Nietzsche once pointed out, good and bad cannot, and
do not, travel separately, as each is merely a side to a two-sided coin. So if the study is suggesting prayer does not
have any power to heal, it cancels out its conclusions by suggesting that prayer does have the power to harm. All this
study provides is a reference for those who believe there is nothing beyond life but what we experience in a
skin-and-bones existence, much the same as a religious text is used by those to support their take on ultimate truth.
You would think we could learn to agree to disagree, because, dare I suggest, each of us is partly right and none of us
owns the exclusive rights to reality and truth. But then again, what good is that perspective when it comes to pissing
contests or the impassioned discourse that fuels the religious and scientifically political punditry. In a Slate article, The Deity in the Data by William Saletan, the author asserts that the researchers of the study, many media outlets and clerics are shrugging off the study findings because the findings did not go the way most expected, or wanted. The study "cannot address a large number of religious questions, such as whether God exists, whether God answers intercessory prayers, or whether prayers from one religious group work in the same way as prayers from other groups." To that, Saletan says bull. He presents some interesting, and entertaining, perspectives of his own. I do not think anyone is shrugging. As I see it, the power of prayer was not the real focus of the study, but whether or not God can be proven as real. Quite a task, and an unneeded one. Those who believe in the power of their God, believe in the power of their prayers. For those who do not believe, there is nothing to prove, is there? It is my guess that the researchers might not have received the same level of funding by stating the obvious hypothesis.
1. Does this latest study prove anything about the power of prayer?
In this latest study, patients were randomly assigned to 3 groups. Group 1 was not prayed for, group 2 was but not told, and the 3rd group was prayed for and informed of that.
Were the patients in the informed group in poorer health? Is it possible the random assignment skewed the results? Certainly younger patients in better health would have fewer complications. Apparently factors like this were not considered. Patients who were told they would be prayed for were asked to conceal this from their caregivers! Wouldn't this effect their outlook?
A previous study of the healing power of prayer differed in that it classified patients based on their risk level, paired them up and then distributed them into 2 groups to study the effect of prayer on their recovery.
So the results are different.
Certainly this recent study does not change the fact that miraculous recoveries happen - like when my neighbor's growth in his skull dissapeared- we were sure praying!
from Romans 1:19-20 ...since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse.
Posted at 10:47AM on Apr 8th 2006 by Gordon Preston