We hope you enjoy your visit.


You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free.


Join our community!


If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features:

Username:   Password:
Add Reply
God doesn't care.
Topic Started: Mar 31 2006, 04:48 AM (279 Views)
Genetic God
Member Avatar
Chief of Staff
Quote:
 
Praying for other people to recover from an illness is ineffective, according to the largest, best-designed study to examine the power of prayer to heal strangers at a distance.

The study of more than 1,800 heart-bypass patients found that those who had people praying for them had as many complications as those who did not. In fact, one group of patients who knew they were the subject of prayers fared worse.

The long-awaited results, the latest in a series of studies that have not found any benefit from "distant" or "intercessory" prayer, came as a blow to those hoping scientific research would validate the popular notion that people can influence others' health, even if the sick do not know that someone is praying for them.

The researchers cautioned that the study was not designed to test the existence of God or the benefit of other types of prayer, such as praying for oneself or praying at the bedside of friends or relatives. They also did not rule out that other types of distant prayer may be effective for other types of patients.

"No one single study is ever going to provide an answer," said Jeffery A. Dusek of Harvard Medical School, who helped lead the study being published in the April 4 issue of the American Heart Journal.

Although many studies have suggested that praying for oneself may reduce stress, research into praying for others who may not know they are the subject of prayers has been much more controversial. Several studies that claimed to show a benefit have been criticized as deeply flawed. And several of the most recent findings have found no benefit.

The new $2.4 million study, funded primarily by the John Templeton Foundation, was designed to overcome some of those shortcomings. Dusek and his colleagues divided 1,802 bypass patients at six hospitals into three groups. Two groups were uncertain whether they would be the subject of prayers. The third was told they would definitely be prayed for.

The researchers recruited two Catholic groups and one Protestant group to pray "for a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for 14 days for each patient, beginning the night before the surgery, using the patient's first name and the first initial of the last name.

Over the next month, the two groups that were uncertain whether they were the subject of prayers fared virtually the same, with about 52 percent of patients experiencing complications regardless of whether they were the subject of prayers.

Surprisingly, 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for experienced complications.

Because the most common complication was an irregular heartbeat, researchers speculated that knowing they were chosen to receive prayers may have inadvertently put the patients under increased stress.

"Did the patients think, 'I am so sick they had to call in the prayer team?' " said Charles Bethea of the Integris Heart Hospital at Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, who helped conduct the study.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...6033000902.html

All jokes aside, the findings are depressing if you're a believer. I would have assumed the placebo effect alone would make people feel better, but apparantly not.
Maybe God just decided to screw with the survey results.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
EVILyangkuang
Member Avatar
2nd Lieutenant Gold
I can't believe they even conducted such a test.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
pianogirl2422
Member Avatar
Sergeant Major Gold
EVILyangkuang
Mar 31 2006, 03:06 AM
I can't believe they even conducted such a test.

Take a psychology class. They've done lots of things that you'd never think people would do.
Zim: "WE'RE DOOMED! DOOMED!"
Gir: "YAY!"
Zim: "No Gir, that's a bad thing"
~pause~
Gir: "YAY!"
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
EVILyangkuang
Member Avatar
2nd Lieutenant Gold
I am seriously consider majoring in psychology (senior now). For those that took psych classes, is the whole thing worth it? A major in psychology is no good unless you at least get a master, right? Seems like a lot of wasted time if I change my mind later oo.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
« Previous Topic · The Feed · Next Topic »
Add Reply