Did anyone hear about the use of prayer for those heart surgeries and the results?

Question

Prayer didn't help at all. Why not?

Answer 1

Sure, there have been several studies. Earlier ones were more vague and subject to error because people were informed they were being prayed for. Thus it might be a positive psychological benefit rather than the actual prayer that's working. A Duke University study tried to correct for this and found that prayer didn't make a difference.
http://www.stnews.org/News-1590.htm

I heard a doctor from Columbia University who favored the prayer studies. He said he had people pray for the best outcome. So he figured that even if the person died the prayer might have worked- maybe ending suffering at that point WAS the best outcome. This is precisely the sort of thing that makes religion not subject to scientific scrutiny. Science can only test when the outcomes can be compared. If any outcome can be described as somehow confirming your idea then no test could be done to test the idea and your idea isn't scientific.

So there's no scientific evidence that prayer works because God intervenes. But there is reason to believe that prayer provides a psychological benefit. So could lots of other things, but prayer can help for psychological reasons.

Answer 2

Yes. The results?

Prayer did not help.

Out of those that were prayed for, 59% had complications after surgery. Out of those that were not prayed for, only 52% had complications after surgery. Close enough to be the same.

Answer 3

Yes, I read the news article on it. Doesn't surprise me a bit really. "Spells" work basically the same was... you have a 50/50 chance that it'll work anyway... so why bother?

Answer 4

NOPE-but if its good news it will quickly be refuted anyway.