Friday, April 07, 2006
The Power of Prayer, orrrr Not
The largest study ever of the effectiveness of prayer to help people recover from illness was just completed. Funded by the Templeton Foundation, the 2.4 million dollar study of more than 1800 heart by-pass patients was run for 10 years and found no benefits to praying for the patients in the study. A similar study at the Mayo Clinic reached the same conclusion. A Duke University study also yielded the same results.
The Templeton Foundation is often in the news for giving out prizes to scientists who purportedly further the advances of the scientific study of religion. I do have to applaud them for the publishing the results of this study. It has to be a huge blow to the cause. The naysayers are already out in force. “Anyone who seeks a prayer life guided by Scripture will not take this study seriously,” Don Whitney, associate professor of biblical spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said. Of course they wouldn't, it's an absolutely huge gaping hole in anyone's belief that if gawd exists, he cares.
The largest study ever of the effectiveness of prayer to help people recover from illness was just completed. Funded by the Templeton Foundation, the 2.4 million dollar study of more than 1800 heart by-pass patients was run for 10 years and found no benefits to praying for the patients in the study. A similar study at the Mayo Clinic reached the same conclusion. A Duke University study also yielded the same results.
The Templeton Foundation is often in the news for giving out prizes to scientists who purportedly further the advances of the scientific study of religion. I do have to applaud them for the publishing the results of this study. It has to be a huge blow to the cause. The naysayers are already out in force. “Anyone who seeks a prayer life guided by Scripture will not take this study seriously,” Don Whitney, associate professor of biblical spirituality at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said. Of course they wouldn't, it's an absolutely huge gaping hole in anyone's belief that if gawd exists, he cares.
