2007-09-14 00:45:17 · 19 answers · asked by Anonymous in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
The short answer is: it's failed miserably, every time it's been tried.
In fact, in several cases the people who were prayed for actually ended up WORSE than the control group! The most likely cause for this is a form of "performance anxiety" -- the patients worry so much about proving their god to be true, the added stress ends up making them worse. Richard Dawkins describes one such study in some detail in "The God Delusion", for those who doubt....
2007-09-14 00:49:27 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 1⤋
If the "double-blind" test is that the recipient of the prayer doesn't know that they're being prayed for, then I don't think it'd work. All the studies I know of where prayer has been found to have a positive effect are where the recipient is told that they are being prayed for.
The power of prayer is basically the power of positive thought. The tests I know of have shown that it's the positive mental attitude of the patient that aids their recovery, rather than the action of prayer itself. Prayer is important to assist believers in achieving this positive mental state. Meditation, spell casting, or any other exercise that puts the patient in to a positive frame of mind will work just as well.
2007-09-14 07:55:31 · answer #2 · answered by Valarian 4 · 2⤊ 0⤋
It does not. This has been tested. See the Washington Post link above.
I have a theory about prayer involved in critically ill patients, though. I wonder if the eagerness to get to heaven does not counter-balance any efforts to heal through the power of prayer. Or at the very least, relief from their pain.
2007-09-14 09:36:46 · answer #3 · answered by auntb93 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
At least it did not in one study.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/14/AR2005071401695.html
However, the auto-suggestive power of prayer for individual betterment may be true because of the faith of the individual. The power is within. It is unlocked by the faith that an external Agency that is Omnipotent is interceding.
Difficult subject for a true double blind evaluation.
2007-09-14 07:53:56 · answer #4 · answered by A.V.R. 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
There was a study a while back on this (Sorry, can't quote who did it or where it was done, I just don't remember), where they took people of equal "severity" of sickness and split them into two groups. Those that would be prayed for, and those who wouldn't be.
The group that would be prayed for had someone pray for them every day. They did this religiously (Ha ha, bad pun).
At the end of the study they had concluded that the power of prayer did absolutely nothing. None of the people who were prayed for got better or worse any faster than those who were not prayed for.
To me, prayer is just glorified wishing and hoping.
2007-09-14 07:49:29 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 2⤊ 1⤋
The power of prayer isn't something you can test in a laboratory.
God doesn't do "magic tricks" on demand, I'm thinking...nor should He.
It would be a pretty poor God, indeed, that could fit into some scientific "theory"...
2007-09-14 08:12:59 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
There have been studies done and the group that was prayed for did less well in hospital than the other group,it wasn't double blind as far as I know.
2007-09-14 07:49:48 · answer #7 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 1⤋
The power of prayer is a psychological mechanism. If you didn't know about it, it wouldn't work. Kind of like voodoo.
2007-09-14 07:50:34 · answer #8 · answered by skunk pie 5 · 1⤊ 1⤋
it would be really fun to study the results of such a test but I think most people are biased one way or another, so you could mess with the premises of the test.
2007-09-14 07:54:01 · answer #9 · answered by carl 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Careful what you ask for. I'd say you are just about to have some dodgy research quoted at you.
2007-09-14 07:50:28 · answer #10 · answered by Voyager 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋