Prayer is Bad For You
by KevinApril 3rd, 2006
At least if you are having heart surgery and know that someone is praying for you:
Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.
And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.
I think the researchers are correct on that last point. My grandfather went through several heart operations over several years before we lost him (to skin cancer — wear your sunscreen), and each of his doctors repeatedly told u that recovery depended a lot upon the outlook of the patient. People who are being prayed for may lose a little bit of their drive, thinking things are being “dealt with”.
What has the potential to be really interesting is the affect this study could have on religion. Intercessory prayer is a large portion of the belief system of most major Christian denominations. And yet this study proves that such prayer is meaningless or even harmful in at least one life threatening situation. God may care, this study seems to say, but he doesn’t seem to answer prayers. That is not the behavior most Christians have been taught to expect from God. Some sects actually pray for victory in sporting events and the like. What does it do to their worldview now that it has been shown that the prayers of the devout could not stir God to help dying people?
I fully expect this study to be ignored.
Categories: General |
I waited patiently for Bush to make a statement 9-11. At long last it came and began with, “Go to your churches, temples, synagogues, moaques and pray.” I’m old enough to remember what FDR had to say to Dec 7, 1941. TV wasn’t around yet and radios were few and far between but I remember the adults gathering around the radio and the scared looks on their faces. If you haven’t seen the film made of FDR’s speach, it began “December seventh nineteen hundred and forty one is a day that shall live in infamy” and it got a little more agressive from there forward. I guess it’s the difference in how liberals and conservatives see the world. Liberals shoot back and conservatives resort to praying, calling on dieties for help.
The research shows that prayer is bad for heart patients and implies that it goes beyond them. There is the case of the folks who sought shelter from Katrina in the Baptist church. I don’t know how they fared except that they escaped the rising waters by breaking an expensive stained glass window. Praying is the court of last resort. When one is there one is admitting defeat is what the research says. Optimism is a good thing, gives a person the psychological edge to defeat whatever is attacking.
That research is also consistent with another bit of research which proves beyond a reasonable shadow of a doubt that the Bible is a hoax. That says that those who lead us in prayer get their divine guidance from a now known hoax. The christians claim they are at war and even held a war council recently complete with a lot of saber rattling. It is my opinion that they are responding to a mass emailing of ministers informing them that the Bible is bogus. They don’t want to advertise that fact so they have “imiginary” enemies that they are at war with which makes their pow wows look a little odd to say the least. In spite of a media boycot of the news it is becoming general knowledge through word of mouth and the internet. A web site has the proof and they don’t want to mention it. It’s a fire storm that will reduce the morality mongers to the status of fortune tellers, astrologers, that sort.
http://www.hoax-buster.org has the proof from the written historical record that the Bible is a hoax. It’s free and easy to access. The number of visitors from all over the world increases daily. It’s a story they wish would go away but it’s here to stay. The media has been informed but is probably in a state of shock or afraid they will lose their religious advertisers.
I don’t think the study will have much effect on those of us who do pray. Our experience with Christ outweighs what the study suggests.
Okay, I’m convinced. One little study will negate all my first person experiences. When the choice is between personal experience and an impartial study, I will choose the study every time. Yep, what would we do without “studies”?
Studies surrounding the efficacy of prayer are notoriously questionable in terms of their methodology. I don’t pay much attention to the results when they come down in favor of prayer, and I don’t really think much better of them when they come down against it.
As far as I can tell, all the available evidence suggest that prayer has no impact whatsoever, neither positive nor negative.
The psychological issue raised by this study, however, raises some interesting questions, if it can be replicated.
I guess I would be able to give this study any credence at all if we knew what the religious beliefs and practices of those in the study were to begin with and what is meant be being prayed for. Christians throw around, “I’m praying for you” in the same vein as, “good luck with that”. It’s meaningless. I’ve heard real prayer before and it’s not about luck or about coming out of it alive or winning. It’s about accepting and admitting the deity and sovereignty of God over every aspect of our lives. What HE decides to do, or not do is irrelevant to the person who believes that no matter the outcome He is with you. Tell me how those, with that belief system, faired in this study and then I’ll give it a passing thought.