ScrappleFace on the Prayer study: Manipulating God a bust

(2006-03-31) — A team of scientists today ended a 10-year study on the so-called “power of prayer” by concluding that God cannot be manipulated by humans, not even by scientists with a $2.4 million research grant.

The scientists also noted that their work was “sabotaged by religious zealots” secretly praying for study subjects who were supposed to receive no prayer.

The allegations came at a news conference where researchers announced their findings that intercessory prayer by two Roman Catholic religious communities and a group from the Missouri-based Unity church failed to produce better results for patients recovering from heart surgery.

“As it turns out, God was not impressed by our academic credentials, our substantial funding base, and our rigorous study protocols,” said lead researcher Dr. Herbert Benson, a cardiologist and director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute near Boston. “I get the feeling we just spent 10 years looking through the wrong end of the telescope.”

While patients who knew they were the targets of the study’s intercessory prayer team actually had more post-operative complications, Dr. Benson admitted he failed to prevent friends and relatives from praying for the “no prayer” control group.

“It really burns me up that we worked so hard, only to be undermined by an anonymous army of intellectual weaklings on their knees,” he said.

Dr. Benson said he would now seek $10 million in grants to explore whether fire can be called down from heaven to kindle a pile of wood. The control group’s wood will be drenched in water to prevent combustion.

-Scott Ott

Leslie adds her two cents worth:

Science is still bumbling around, trying to set up tests for the existence of God.  Not that different from someone like me, staring at the radio, wondering why I can't see the evening's TV schedule scrolling down the front of it.

That, dear readers, is called insightful.

Comments

[XtnYoda]

Let's see now...they get two particular groups of Christian people...Catholic and a Missouri Unity group...to pray for people they have never heard of (nothing against Catholic or a Missouri Unity group} as well as the people they are too pray for don't know them and don't even know they are praying for the most part...

And in so doing the researchers clearly ignore the instruction the Bible gives on praying for the sick...that calls for personal, hands on, annointed praying by leaders from the sick person's church...

Rather arrogant wouldn't we think? For the researchers to set up a method of praying for the sick the Bible knows nothing about then to turn around and say that prayer doesn't work...

This study tends to prove the saying of one friend who says, "To study the history of science is to study the history of failed theories."

XtnYoda Shalomed

[a concerned Christian]

Man's wisdom is what to GOD? Foolishness! It's too bad that they simply won't ask a sincere Christian for the answer because it would save them millions of dollars-what's given to us freely, we give freely(not that there wasn't a HUGE price paid in full for it -that price being Our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Guess i had better be careful with "free topic" thing (with everybody and their brother selling God's Word by dvd,cassette,book,ETC..) It makes me really wonder!?!