Study fails to show healing power of prayer

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized for their recovery had any impact, researchers said on Thursday.

In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed for -- though those who did the study said they could not explain why.

The patients in the study at six U.S. hospitals included 604 who were actually prayed for after being told they might or might not be; another 597 patients who were not prayed for after being told they might or might not be; and a group of 601 who were prayed for and told they would be the subject of such prayer.

The praying was done by members of three Christian groups in monasteries and elsewhere -- two Catholic and one Protestant -- who were given written prayers and the first name and initial of the last name of the prayer subjects. The prayers started on the eve of or day of surgery and lasted for two weeks.

Among the first group -- who were prayed for but only told they might be -- 52 percent had post-surgical complications compared to 51 percent in the second group, the ones who were not prayed for though told they might be. In the third group, who knew they were being prayed for, 59 percent had complications.

After 30 days, however, the death rates and incidence of major complications was about the same across all three groups, said the study published in the American Heart Journal.

"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications occurred (and) patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer," the study said.

The study -- called the largest of its kind -- was designed only to try to measure the impact of intercessory prayer on heart surgery patients, an intervention that some earlier reports had showed seemed to be beneficial.

"Our study was never intended to address the existence of God or the presence or absence of intelligent design in the universe" or to compare the efficacy of one prayer form over another, said the Rev. Dean Marek, director of chaplain services at the Mayo Clinic, one of the authors.

The patients in the study had similar religious profiles with most believing in spiritual healing and almost all also thinking that friends or relatives would be praying for them as well, he said.

"One caveat is that with so many individuals receiving prayer from friends and family, as well as personal prayer, it may be impossible to disentangle the effects of study prayer from background prayer," Manoj Jain of Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, another author of the report.

The authors said one possible limitation to their study was that those doing the special praying had no connection or acquaintance with the subjects of their prayer, which would not usually be the norm.

"Private or family prayer is widely believed to influence recovery from illness, and the results of this study do not challenge this belief," the report concluded.

Miracles are so rare as to be statistically insignificant.

Why should this be otherwise?

If miracles were commonplace, they wouldn't be miraculuous.

So, when you or a family member falls ill, call your church or synagogue but don't put your faith in the teachings of hucksters like Benny Hinn or Kenneth Hagin. Get on the phone with your doctor.

Ahhhh.

Well, I've had people encourage me, profitably, I think, to be more humble when having opinions about God or cheeky statements toward Him and/or about His ways and Wisdom.

I don't mind encouraging others similarly.

But I'm happy to accept exhortations toward more humility. It's a worthy goal.

"It implies a perverse sense of superiority on the part of the one demanding such humility."

I don't recall "demanding" anything--humility or anything else.

I'm sure you find all kinds of things funny which I would not find funny. And? So? And therefore?

BTW, IF you have responded to the main points of my first reply to you, please point that out and show me where. I think I missed any evidence that you did.

"whoops... "Defend" in the first sentence should be "offend"."

No biggie. I try to avoid getting all wound up over personal offense. Otherwise, I wouldn't have that much fun.

And, most of my fierceness . . . 98+%? . . . is regarding the CONTENT and not the person. So, none intended the other way, either.

And, if I worried too much about those I may be offending, goodness, I couldn't breathe hereon. Lots of people are offended just seeing my screen name without any post attached! LOL.

Well, if I read your long post correctly, your objection seems to be that "not the right people" were praying.

That's a good, testable hypothesis, theoretically. Of course, it would be impossible to make family-members NOT pray for someone if they were pre-disposed to do so.
But it might be possible to find enough subjects with loving family members who do NOT believe in intercessory prayer (perhaps from some non-Abrahamic religions?)

Anyway, if it were possible to find a sufficient sample, it seems your hypothesis COULD be tested. Perhaps the results would be different.

In this case, however, I believe this study was in response to earlier studies, also using non-loved ones, to pray for people, and those studies tentatively showed a positive effect. This study was bigger and tried to fix some of the perceived flaws in the earlier studies.

In general, do you believe intercessory prayer can have a positive effect on the prayee? And if so, can you think of a way to test that effect so we can measure its efficacy?

This is so strange. One of our local channels had this story on last night and said the people who DID NOT know they were being prayed for did no better than those who were in the hospital but were not prayed for. OTOH the people who knew they were being prayed for did much better. Either my local newsies don't know how to read or this story has been reissued with a different conclusion that was originally given. Sure is strange.

In general, do you believe intercessory prayer can have a positive effect on the prayee? And if so, can you think of a way to test that effect so we can measure its efficacy?

Yes, I believe that the overwhelming percentage of the time, authentic earnest prayers of folks earnestly attempting to live a redeemed, righteous life in Christ's Blood and Spirit in a genuine, intimate walk with Him have a great impact on the focus of the prayers.

It would be tricky indeed to ferret out situations where all the variables could be suitably isolated. Theoretically possible but very tricky.

Personally, I believe that past studies have been significantly flawed, too. Not all Christians by label are authentic Christians. And, not all even authentic Christians are called to intercessory prayer or taught well in the details of it.

Nevertheless, I think child-like faith is often sufficient to touch and move the heart and hand of God. A 4 year old's simple prayer can often have more impact than several churches full of self-righteous folks vainly pleading in flesh-driven ways.

In any case, I don't care to think through all the details of sufficiently well designed studies to answer your question. But I do think it's possible.

I also think that--depending on one's attitude, it's quite comfortable to God for us to ask Him to demonstrate His majesty. On the other hand, it can be a cheeky affrontery to challenge or test Him out of a bad faith attitude or bad faith kind of perspective or place. I wouldn't encourage that on the part of anyone.

Thanks for the reply.

You say that the "overwhelming percentage of the time, authentic earnest prayers of folks earnestly attempting to live a redeemed, righteous life in Christ's Blood and Spirit in a genuine, intimate walk with Him have a great impact on the focus of the prayers."

If it is in fact an overwhelming percentage of the time, it should be pretty obvious, no?

Now... the tough part. Who are these people? Are not all the dedicated nuns and monks and priests who prayed for the health of John Paul II part of that group?

Is there a particular denomination God listens to? What about all the American (and in fact, international) people who prayed for Ronald Reagan after he announced he had alzheimers? Did they have a positive effect on his health?

What about all the good, fine people here on FR who have prayed for various Freepers and their families or acquaintances? If the effect you posit is overwhelming, why have some succumbed?

I am a Christian. I'm not arguing based on some antagonism towards religion, but I am also a huge admirer of science and the knowledge it brings us, and I don't reject a study like this out of hand because it presents an uncomfortable truth.

Would we all like to believe prayer works? Of course. Anyone who's had a sick child would understand that. But my own experience shows it does not, and studies like this back up my conclusion.

God may well just not be interested in our petty lives and pleas.

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