Columbia University issued a news release claiming that the remarkable study had several safeguards in place to eliminate bias and that the study itself was carefully designed to eliminate bias (3). This was no hoax. Media attention immediately focused on the miraculous study, and articles touting its spectacular results quickly appeared in newspapers around the world. Rogerio Lobo, chairman of the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia and the study's lead author, told Reuters Health that, "Essentially, there was a doubling of the pregnancy rate in the group that was prayed for" (4). Dr. Timothy Johnson, ABC News medical editor and Good Morning America commentator, stated, "A new study on the power of prayer over pregnancy reports surprising results; but many physicians remain skeptical" (5).
The facts I will relate here about the Columbia University "miracle" study confirm that those physicians who doubted the study's astounding results had extremely good reasons to be skeptical. It remains to be seen whether ABC's Dr. Johnson, a medical doctor who also serves as a minister at the evangelical Community Covenant Church in West Peabody, Massachusetts, will report or ignore the following shocking information that has since been revealed about the alleged study and its authors.
By all means, read the entire article.
I'll forego snarky comments.
snarky:
as one who has the (often unenviable) responsibility to read medical journals and analyze articles on a routine basis, i can see the original study certainly has methodological flaws. unless i missed something, i didn't see where flamm's article, which is more calumny than refutation, helps support or weaken the concept of "healing" prayer, or helps us understand the strengths or failings of the study results.