http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/03/30/prayer.study.ap/index.html
Thank you Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard. I can stop wasting all that time on prayer because, thanks to your research, I now know for sure that it's useless.
Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.
My question is, who are these 'Christian groups' that actually signed up for this bullshit? The problem begins there, I think. I don't care if people want to study or do research on it. In fact, I'm all for it. But when Christians are willing participants in studies like this it just deepens the problem. We should be the ones saying, "Well, Dr. Benson, I appreciate the offer to participate in your study. I'm so honored and humbled. But, actually, that is not what prayer is about. I will pray for these people because they are hurting and in need of comfort, but I will not do it to satisfy your research. God does not work like that. I'm sorry we can't help. But there is a Baptist church down the street that might be interested...."
(low blow)
Prayer is not magic. You can't expect things to happen just because you pray for it. (Sorry Bruce Wilkinson) Prayer is much more than that. Prayer is wrestling; prayer is hard work; prayer is unpredictable.
Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center, who did not take part in the study, said the results did not surprise him.
"There are no scientific grounds to expect a result and there are no real theological grounds to expect a result either," he said.
Science, he said, "is not designed to study the supernatural."
Even those guys at Duke get it.
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2 comments:
What up bro...
I agree. Dr. Noll (Mr. Noll to his neighbors) writes in The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind: "The scandal of the Evangelical mind is that there is not much Evangelical mind." That's actually the first sentence of the book. He follows with this:
"An extraordinary range of virtues is found among the sprawling throngs of evangelical Protestants in North America, including great sacrifice in spreading the message of salvation in Jesus Christ, open-hearted generosity to the needy, heroic personal exertion on behalf of troubled individuals, and the unheralded sustenance of countless church and parachurch communities. Notwithstanding all their other virtues, however, American evangelicals are not exemplary for their thinking, and they have not been so for several generations."
Anyway, I agree with you. You should use your Amazon gift certificate on Dr. Noll's book.
peace...
love it. i can't even imagine being asked to pray to see 'if' i get the results. isn't their something in the bible about asking God without a faith that wavers ... i would look this up but i'm lazy right now. pretty sure it's in james. anyway. this is REDICULOUS. i'm glad God didn't give in. :)
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