What if I told you that there is a scientific study showing that prayer works and is effective?

Question

Patients underwent coronary bypass surgery. They were randomly assigned to groups. Two groups were told that they may or may not receive prayer. One did and one did not. One group was told that they would receive prayer and they did.

The two groups that were prayed for did best, the group that was not prayed for did worst.

What do you say?

Source:

Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: a multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer.
Benson H, Dusek JA, Sherwood JB, Lam P, Bethea CF, Carpenter W, Levitsky S, Hill PC, Clem DW Jr, Jain MK, Drumel D, Kopecky SL, Mueller PS, Marek D, Rollins S, Hibberd PL.
Am Heart J. 2006 Apr;151(4):934-42.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=16569567&dopt=Citation

Answer 1

It's only scientific if:

1 group was told they'd get prayer and did
1 gp was told they'd get prayer and didn't
1 group was told they wouldn't get prayer and did
1 gp was told they wouldn't get it and didn't.

The placebo effect is an amazing thing. Call it religion if you want, but it's the belief in divine intervention and not the reality that gets them through.

Answer 2

Then you clearly missed the nationally-televised Daily Report episode where John Stewart covered this case in the news and used it as an example of prayer NOT working. ALL of the groups had a similar percentage of complications arising after surgery. Might I also state that two things continue to amaze me:

1) The speed with which most Christians jump at any "evidence" that they think might have a glimmer of proving the validity of their so-called "faith-based" beliefs;

2) The inevitability that this "evidence" is usually taken out of context, misconstrued, or down right wrong, or that the logic that has led them to see this evidence as proof of their beliefs is an utter fallacy.

Answer 3

Isn't prayer a personal thing? So how can you tell a person whether or not he receives prayer or otherwise? Weird.

I mean, if I was the fella who just came out/is going to undergo coronary bypass surgery and some scientist tells me, " We're conducting an experiment and so you are not going to receive prayer" (because isn't there a clause somewhere that states that test subjects need to be informed that they are being 'researched on), I think I would start praying like mad because if no one else is going to pray for me, its best I do it myself!!

We're not talking about 'receiving prayer' for whether you'll find that long lost teddy bear or something. We're talking about someone's life on the operating table here. hmph

I think the study has many flaws simply because something like prayer isn't a tangible object that you can inject/remove from someone's life.

Answer 4

My wife has witnessed this working as an RN.
It's a very interesting topic. This does not prove the existance of divine intervention. Since we can't measure what is happening then we can only speculate on the mechanisms at work.The outcome depends primarily on the nature of the individual being prayed for and secondly, the sincerity of those doing the paying. After that it's anyones guess as to what is going on.

Answer 5

Not a good study to prove your point, sincce this one looked at complications from the surgery, and this study shows a higher rate complications for those who received the intercessory prayer. There have been other studies that would indicate the opposite.

Personally, I believe that prayer works.

Answer 6

Like my girlfriend said seven seconds ago, it's called the placebo effect. In short, "positive thinking" has a real world effect. The only NON metaphysical diagnosis I know of is through endomorphines. However, it's also possible that faith itself has an effect, and that raw consciousness can influence our world.

That does NOT, however, sugguest that any one SPECIFIC religion exists. To do that you would have to notice a statistically significant difference between one religion and another religion, and even then you'd only prove that one religion is more theraputic than another. That being said though, I never said religion wasn't theraputic. But that's not a good enough reason to believe in it (or rather, it's not a convincing reason to believe in it. It's a convincing reason to WANT to believe in it).

Edit: Hey, that guy's right! prayer caused MORE complications! Holy ****! That even goes against science. It LOOKS like most of the results aren't statistically significant though...

Answer 7

Applied will towards a given outcome. No matter what you call it: prayer, magick, spells, blessings, it's all the same stuff. Yes, it does work. Yes, there is scientific proof that the focused mind, better when there are two or more, can affect the natural order of things.

Answer 8

You can call it prayer...and when the collective conciousness of humanities energy is directed properly it'll assist people...It's not really prayer it's a direction of positive ions generated by the thought process that when directed at one in need helps. It's not praying to God (if there is one) for that person...It's that you're praying for that person at all that helps. PEACE!

Answer 9

I agree with kak. It's all in the head. If you think "Hey, I'm going to make it through this because I've prayed to God", your thoughts on your condition will be positive and you will heal easier and faster. Just like thinking you're sick can actually make you sick, thinking you'll be healthy can get you healthy. People underestimate their own willpower, and when an illness is cured without alot of medicine, they automatically think it's a miracle of thier God.

Answer 10

Prayer? a lot of human beings pray to a pair god. Many prayers can't be responded with the aid of a god of stone, timber or any actual substance. maximum gods are man made or programed with the aid of a charleton who desires to regulate human beings. human beings have written volumes to precise their view of the thank you to realize heaven. The bible written some time past is the main solid e book to discover answrs human beings would desire to realize a living God. it fairly is easy to comprehend if a guy or woman fairly considers that the God of the bible loves the reader. devil and his angels will reason readers to question the actuality approximately guy's lack of ability to grow to be spiritully alive and grow to be a new child of this loving God. it fairly is easy logic that the creater of the universe has designed a potential that would draw guy decrease back to God's universe.

Answer 11

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!

Read the link, it says that prayer caused MORE complications!

BWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Sorry to laugh, but:

"complications occurred in 52% (315/604) of patients who received intercessory prayer versus 51% (304/597) of those who did not "

:)

Sorry again. If it means anything to you, when you look closely at the method and p-values it says prayer had no effect, rather than negative effect.


:)