Study: Praying Won't Affect 1800 Heart Patients

[Pah]

Study: Praying Won't Affect Heart Patients

By MALCOLM RITTER
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 30, 2006; 8:03 PM

Appearing in the Washington Post

NEW YORK -- Does praying for a sick person's recovery do any good? In the largest scientific test of its kind, heart surgery patients showed no benefit when strangers prayed for their recovery.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. The researchers could only guess why.

The remaining portion of the article requires registration

 

[the truth be with us]

i don't know about this study, prayer has to be sincere and after all that can be done, done. god wants us to do all that we can to help ourselves before he'll do anything. Praying just to pray will not help, if a stranger doesn’t know the person how sincere are there prays, the more sincere a prayer is the more help a person it going to get. if a person knows about the prayer then they are more susceptible to the sprit of god and will be healed from there faith and the faith of others. And i know doctors cannot explain this odd form of healing. i know that it is true that prayer and asking god can help, but there is anther power that i don't know if i can talk about because is very sacred to god and me and my church, so i'll just leave it at this...

and god gave the gift to learn how to make the body heal, and heart sergery is very depenable from years ago.

i know they did a similar study on cancer patents and found different results i don't remember where the article came from but i do remember it was a story for about a week on the news in the mid 90’s... if anyone knows the study i'm talking about please help i know its out there somewhere. i found sevarl websites talking about the importance of prayere for cancer patants but it was a simular study of the one that was quoted by the ap that i'm looking for...

 

[Pah]

i don't know about this study, prayer has to be sincere and after all that can be done, done. god wants us to do all that we can to help ourselves before he'll do anything. Praying just to pray will not help, if a stranger doesn’t know the person how sincere are there prays, the more sincere a prayer is the more help a person it going to get. if a person knows about the prayer then they are more susceptible to the sprit of god and will be healed from there faith and the faith of others.

That is contrary to the results of the study. I do hope you are not saying that the prayer was insincere and thus gave "no effective good".

And i know doctors cannot explain this odd form of healing. i know that it is true that prayer and asking god can help, but there is anther power that i don't know if i can talk about because is very sacred to god and me and my church, so i'll just leave it at this...

Ah yeah, the secret power. Forgive me if I equate that to a "secret de-coder ring". It can be no better than the prayer of others.

i know they did a similar study on cancer patents and found different results i don't remember where the article came from but i do remember it was a story for about a week on the news in the mid 90’s... if anyone knows the study i'm talking about please help i know its out there somewhere. i found sevarl websites talking about the importance of prayere for cancer patants but it was a simular study of the one that was quoted by the ap that i'm looking for...

It has long been the desire of many religious communities to show the truth of, to prove, the effectiveness of prayer. There have been many studies. None, that meet the rigor of scientific testing, showed positive results. I always thought that the placebo effect would help, but, alas, it seems this study shows it is absent in prayer from others.

The only good from a prayer circle seems to be the individual feeling of those doing the praying. Showing the ineffectiveness of prayer by others even casts doubt on intercessionary prayer.

 

[michel]

That is contrary to the results of the study. I do hope you are not saying that the prayer was insincere and thus gave "no effective good". Ah yeah, the secret power. Forgive me if I equate that to a "secret de-coder ring". It can be no better than the prayer of others.

It has long been the desire of many religious communities to show the truth of, to prove, the effectiveness of prayer. There have been many studies. None, that meet the rigor of scientific testing, showed positive results. I always thought that the placebo effect would help, but, alas, it seems this study shows it is absent in prayer from others.

The only good from a prayer circle seems to be the individual feeling of those doing the praying. Showing the ineffectiveness of prayer by others even casts doubt on intercessionary prayer.

I can hardly say I am surprised; (that may even sound strange coming from a Christian). The reason ? Because all is God's will.

If I pray for someone who is ill to get better (miraculously, because of the prayer), am I not 'taking control of that person's destiny' ? That would be wrong.

This actually was a point about which I have been meditating over for many weeks - and which occurred to me, again, this morning.

Marie & James are on holiday (on a cruise); I had been asking God to keep them safe, in prayer. Last night, I spoke to themm, to find out that the seas had been so rough they had both been quite ill. So what happened to my prayer ?

I think that we (who believe in God) cannot ask for something which is going to disrupt the normal course things will take. They were on a boat, in the ocean, the weather was bad.

Why should God calm the ocean ? Just for my wife and son ?

 

[Daniel Burbank]

I don't personally believe that God wants his will to be revealed to man in a controlled scientific study

 

[Pah]

I don't personally believe that God wants his will to be revealed to man in a controlled scientific study

I would imagine you're right - not with these results.

 

[tkdrocks]

Study: Praying Won't Affect Heart Patients

By MALCOLM RITTER
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 30, 2006; 8:03 PM

Appearing in the Washington Post

NEW YORK -- Does praying for a sick person's recovery do any good? In the largest scientific test of its kind, heart surgery patients showed no benefit when strangers prayed for their recovery.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. The researchers could only guess why.

The remaining portion of the article requires registration

One of the interesting 'findings' of this study was that the data showed that those who had been prayed for had worse results than those that were not prayed for.

I do not take much stock in these types of studies. Everyone has some sort of agenda. Nonetheless, if I get sick ... please keep your prayer to yourselves. :biglaugh:

 

[jeffrey]

Study: Praying Won't Affect Heart Patients

By MALCOLM RITTER
The Associated Press
Thursday, March 30, 2006; 8:03 PM

Appearing in the Washington Post

NEW YORK -- Does praying for a sick person's recovery do any good? In the largest scientific test of its kind, heart surgery patients showed no benefit when strangers prayed for their recovery.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. The researchers could only guess why.

The remaining portion of the article requires registration

Makes sense. If you truely believe, you could heal yourself. And that has nothing to do with God. We have unlocked so little of our mind.

 

[Jaymes]

Makes sense. If you truely believe, you could heal yourself. And that has nothing to do with God. We have unlocked so little of our mind.

I really hope you're kidding. All the belief in the world couldn't heal my scoliosis.