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Mar. 31, 2006 A recent study which tracked around 1,800 patients at six medical centers has found that prayer had no effect on the recovery of heart bypass patients. Researchers had three Christian groups pray for particular patients, beginning the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. For each patient, they were given a first name and last initial and were to pray for both a successful surgery and a speedy recovery, free of complications. The patients, in order to establish controls, were divided into three groups: one which was prayed for and knew it, one which was prayed for but only knew it was possible, and one which was not prayed for but knew it was possible. This isn't the first time the efficacy of prayer has been put to the test, and it's not the first time prayer has utterly failed to impress. As expected, the results of this study are being dismissed as largely irrelevant. The scientists don't want to offend anyone and the truth is that claims like this can't ever properly be tested, we simply don't have the ability to exclude other options when dealing with claims of the supernatural. One interesting result of this study is that the patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of complications. The researchers don't have an explanation for this result, but a friend of mine suggested a possibility: "Maybe they were stressed because they knew there was pressure on them to get better for God? If they died, that would make God look bad..." God or not, that explanation is psychologically sound. If we could get to the root cause, I wouldn't be surprised to find that the true explanation is very similar. Either way, it seems that the emotional security one would expect from placing an issue "in God's hands" seems to have failed those folks. While a study like this can't prove that prayer doesn't ever work, it does show that it didn't appear to have a significant effect in this case. Christians are quick to dismiss results like this, citing "Don't Tempt God" and "Not my will, but Thy will", but the fact remains - God was presented with a golden opportunity to demonstrate his power, and he utterly failed to do so. Considering the number of people who believe that prayer has an effect, it's odd that it never seems to pan out that way. Considering the instructions to "pray without ceasing", "ask and ye shall receive" and specific instructions to pray for the sick, it's a odd that we keep seeing the same non-results every time this claim is put to the test. God's will appears to correspond, exactly, to the results we'd expect if he didn't exist. I suppose it's possible that they simply picked the wrong religion to do the praying, or maybe those folks weren't "true Christians". Maybe they should try this test again with some other religion which believes prayer is effective in treating disease. Though, personally, I'm hoping that they simply drop useless studies like this and focus on continuing to improve the only demonstrably effective treatment for disease - medical science. ------------ About the author: Matt Dillahunty is an active member of the Atheist Community of Austin (www.atheist-community.org). In addition to his article submissions, he enjoys e-mail and forum debates. He also hosts/co-hosts on a weekly call-in television program (The Atheist Experience) and a bi-weekly Internet radio program (The Non-Prophets), which are both sponsored by the ACA. After more than 20 years as a fundamentalist Christian, his interest in apologetics, skepticism and critical thinking convinced him that his religious beliefs were the result of irrational, uneducated thought and the beliefs of Christianity and other religions are simply untenable. Email: sans_deity@yahoo.com ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to TopNewsReports.com. Please link to this article rather than copying and pasting it onto your site (which would be unauthorized and illegal). |
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