If studies show smoking with cause cancer, and alcoholism will cause liver damage then why?

Question

Then why do people pray? In several studies, prayer has been shown not to work. In fact those who KNEW they were being prayed for, did WORSE after surgery.
Please read: http://www.dimaggio.org/Eye-Openers/prayer_does_not_work.htm

Why do religious people hold onto these beliefs when they are shown over and over to be false?

Why do religious people continue to believe the bible is the word of god when it has been shown that a majority of the bible is falsified and made up? (Read Misquoting Jesus)

Over the last two thousand years, Christianity has gone from being real and tangible to obscure, internalized and translucent. What's next for religion? How can you base your whole life's belief system on something so obscure?

Hey, I'm just being curious here.

Answer 1

Because the one skill that any religious person quickly learns is rationalization. It is the only way (besides burying your head in the sand) that a person could maintain such beliefs.

Example: I was on an evolution discussion board. To be more specific, it was a Creationist evolution-bashing board. Very heated. One of the people there went to further steps to justify his beliefs than I have ever seen.

One of the keys to evolution is genetic mutation. Take away that, and evolution doesn't work. We have an abundance of evidence for genetic mutation, from genetic disorders to cancer.

This guy was making an argument that CANCER IS CAUSED BY VITAMIN C DEFICIENCY. Genetic mutation couldn't be the reason, you see, because that might give evidence for evolution.

Answer 2

I'm not sure why any of us spend time trying to figure religion out, especially on this site. By the way, did you know that religion can cause brain damage?
ClosetCoon - he said that people who KNEW they were being prayed for did WORSE. This just means that there is a possible psychological effect of knowing you are being prayed for. Perhaps there people didn't fight as hard to survive or do well because they felt they were going to a better place. Subconscious thoughts at work in my opinion.

Answer 3

First, what bible are you reading from? There is nothing in God's Word that hasn't already happened except the rapture of the church and the soon coming of the anti-christ. Today, we have been watching the beginning of the war in Israel which Ezekiel and Daniel talk about. Secondly, prayer works. There's an old saying that stands true, " If you want an answer to prayer, be careful who you ask to prayer for you." God only hears the prayers of His children. So asking a non-Christian to pray for you is ridiculous and of no avail.

Answer 4

You are saying in your first paragraph that prayer DOES work. If it didn't then people who know they were being prayed for would do the SAME as anyone else. The desired result is not there but if its a different result as an average person then the study would show that there is an effect albeit a negative one.

Edit: As a 2nd answer to this I would say that the people that are being prayed for are probably in worse shape then the people not being prayed for so the results, again, are worse on paper.

Answer 5

My father had a minor surgery where he was intubated. While the doctor was doing it, he noticed a spot on the back of his throat and took a small biospy. When my father first found out about the spot, he went to our church and the deacons layed their hands on him and prayed in the power of Jesus. When the results came back, it showed it was cancer. He went in for a second biospy and the spot was completely gone. Absolutely nothing there.

We hold fast to these beliefs, because the world has nothing to offer us. We are happy with our decision. How does that affect anyone else? It doesnt. Does it affect us that others dont believe in God? No, but we have compassion and a religion that compels us to share the Gospel, not force it down your throat. I wonder why so many people on Y!A ask questions like this. Is it because they are curious? Or are they simply bashing people that are happy with their choice?

Answer 6

Does God answer the prayers of the corrupted, and aren't many Christians corrupt? These studies aren't sound at all. I know God listens to holy people.

And obviously everything in the Bible isn't true, but the true things are incredibly important. You should try reading the Bible, and generally looking at life, and try to see the good, important, helpful things. You can even forget about most of the Old Testament. The Gospels and Epistles are the key.

Answer 7

The more purer religious person should not be doing those things. At least not drinking to destructive perportions.

But what's more important are the cancer causing PCBs in your water table, put there by science and technology.

It is not the Lutherans, Catholics, Presybterians or Baptists that are being forced to clean up the Hudson, it is General Electric.

Answer 8

I just read an essay about this, actually.

Essentially, Christians buy into a sort of groupthink, where a sort of negative feedback grabs at those in danger of "straying" from the fold and forces them back. This negative feedback can take the form of social pressures, threats, or even just homogeneity of reading sources.


This is why Christians emphasize their community and subculture so much. It really is hard to be a Christian on one's own because there is nothing to keep lone people from critical analysis of one's beliefs.

Answer 9

The point of prayer is not that our Santa Clause like God would do whatever we wish he would do. God does not answer every little whim of every person who asks. most of the time, the one asking does not ask for a good thing, or asks with wrong motives, etc. He knows what is good, we do not always.
Someone who knows God would be asking a different question than the one you pose here.
You are a classic example of the text in Jeremiah 44.
You are not being curious here, you are displaying the chip on your shoulder--I think a healthy curiosity would have you asking "why do I harbor such bitterness toward the God of Christianity?"

Answer 10

I'm a doctor who has made it a hobby to study so-called "miraculous" cures. A lot are either bunk or still fall under the "extremely unlikely yet still possible" category.

But some fall in the "scientifically impossible" category.

Just look up cures from Lourdes, and these were not declared miraculous by priests alone, but by doctors too.