Evolutionist: How do you explain the healing power of prayer?

Question

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?ex=1301461200&en=4acf338be4900000&ei=5088

"Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found."

Answer 1

Jesus taught that if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, anything you ask for, you will receive.
Believe you have received it, and you will.

You can say placebo, or miracle, it is up to you.

I say it is the power of God, and through Christ, ANYTHING is possible.

Answer 2

I will only say that my experience was a real awakening.I was stabbed in the stomach by a ten inch fillet knife,it went through my Colin and cut it almost into.I had emergency surgery and was almost dead from the poison leaking into my body.The doctors called in my family which means death is imminent.I had a fever of 106 and climbing,my mother in law called her pastor and friends they had a prayer chain and blessed a cloth.She put the cloth upon my forehead,within the hour my fever dropped to 102 and continued down.If not for the grace of God I would be dead.The doctors were baffled and so was the hospital staff.Certainly this does not work every time because some people are meant to die that is Gods will.I am a believer regardless of all the skeptics.I lived because of these fine loving people asking God to spare me.That is a true story.!!!

Answer 3

Doesnt that article in fact say the very opposite??

And, have you heard of the placebo effect?

What cracks me up is that this study was commisioned by the Templeton Foundation - a CHRISTIAN organization. The results were not what they expected - although they initially beleived prayer could be scientifically studied. But, now that the results are negative, they claim that prayer cannot be studied... I wonder - had the results demonstrated that God does respond to prayers, would Christians still be saying the study is worthless? I THINK NOT! Which goes to show - they pick and choose what works for them and what doesnt.

Answer 4

What Exactly Does Prayer Do That Results in Healing? Prayer brings the person closer to God. As with all relationships, communication is what leads to real love, which casts out fear, displaces worry, and reduces stress. Prayer changes us. It changes our outlook on problems and situations and gives us insight into forgiving others and receiving forgiveness ourselves.

Prayer allows the body to heal naturally. By counteracting stress and promoting positive emotions, prayer frees the body’s natural healing processes. It releases the immune, hormonal, and cardiovascular systems to heal disease, illness, or injury. It is these mind-body mechanisms that scientists are seeking to better understand. Within the past year there has been an explosion of research documenting the negative effects of depression, psychological stress, and social isolation on immune function, coronary artery disease, cancer survival, and other disease outcomes. For those with faith, prayer makes the supernatural possible. These are things researchers cannot understand and may not be able to study or explain with the natural and limited tools of science.

Answer 5

This is like going into a garage and saying hey car mechanics how do you explain the variance in atomic weights with similar elements gauged at varying velocities?

How the flip should they know?
They know about cars - not physics.

Evolutionists know about studies on controlled ecologies.
And extrapulate theories based on the data.
Scientists gladly express what they don't know.

It's church ladies who refuse to admit some phenomenons such as the power of prayer - don't have a scientific demonstrated solution so therefore take it as an opportunity to build a link to their religion.

How do you explain the power of prayer in a polytheistic blood ritualistic religion as many primitive cultures practiced?

Answer 6

I'm not going to answer your question because it's too stupid. Here are the two most basic flaws in it:
1. You assume the science of biological evolution says prayers don't work. Whereas evolution makes no comment on prayer.
2. You ask evolutionists for answers, when there is no such group of people.

Answer 7

This is a psychological thing that you are twisting to meet your own ends. Now listen, here is how I explain it:
lets say that in this last week, there were 20000 people who were very likely to die. Now lets say that people prayed for all of them. When 100 live, you say that prayer healed them. Now let me ask you: Did prayer kill the other 19900 people? Because apparently all you can see is the prayer, not the medical facts.

Answer 8

Did you read the article that you posted? The study that you cited said that there was no difference between patients that were being prayed for, and patients that weren't being prayed for. Which means, that prayer has no effect, hence it has no healing power.

Reminds me of a great saying "wish in one hand and crap in the other, and see which one fills up first."

Answer 9

Clearly prayer is powerful because the study found that "patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications." This means that those patients realized that their own prayers were not considered sufficient and, since they lacked sufficient faith, they suffered in the eyes of god, praise be his mysterious ways.

Answer 10

"Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found."

You just said it.

Answer 11

this is obtainable that considering which you the place in a Christian abode, you believed which you would be healed via your God so which you subconsciously healed your self. There are documented examples of persons questioning that they have got been unwell, and as a effect, became unwell. So why won't be in a position to it artwork any incorrect way around. An Atheist might ask you, "Why might God choose for to heal you whilst there are hundreds of human beings suffering in this way of way that your situation is minuscule in c assessment?" opportunities are high a "Christian" who did no longer accept as true with our solutions and did no longer have the concrete information or self belief to back up their "God" basically gave us all a thumbs down. i visit choose for you...