'http://cosmos.bcst.yahoo.com/up/player/popup/?cl=16228041

I think it's wonderful that someone took the time to talk to this man, but prayer? Why did the media make it about the prayer?

They're just giving their audience what it wants to hear. Nobody wants to hear about the millions of prayers that go unanswered every day, but when one appears to work it's big news.

And we know they went unanswered...HOW?

Point is... this was a great human interest story until the media made it a hard-sell for Christianity. WTF?

She's Christian... sure she prayed; she was scared. What would you expect her to do? And he sympathized with her and prayed, too, when she prayed. What would you expect him to do, if he was human at all?

The good story is that one human reached out to another, and they found a way to calm down and communicate. It's a wonderful story. It wasn't about the damned prayer, or any other superstitions they held; it was about them, coming together in a time of stress and working something out.

The girl was a hero; don't give it to an illusion.

quote:

Originally posted by tawodi:
And we know they went unanswered...HOW?

Several studies on the efficacy of prayer have been done in the past few years, with differing results. Some of them involved highly questionable methodology. The largest, most carefully constructed and executed of these was concluded in 2006. It was a ten year long, double blind study involving 1802 patients from several prestigious heart centers, divided into 3 groups. This study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer(STEP) in cardiac bypass patients(Benson H, et al.) was primarily funded with $2 million from the John Templeton Foundation.

In case you're not familiar with him, Sir John Templeton was a billionaire who at age 60 began using his wealth to promote religion and spirituality. In 1972 he established the Templeton Prize for Progress in Religion, which in 2001 became the Templeton Prize for Progress Toward Research or Discoveries About Spiritual Realities. He stipulated that it should always pay more than the Nobel Prize(last year's was around $4 million). Templeton died in 2008 at the age of 95.

This was a highly publicized research project from the beginning. The Templeton Foundation announced the beginning of the experiment with great fanfare, claiming it would be the definitive study that would once and for all prove beyond doubt the efficacy of intercessory prayer. They must have been devastated when the carefully analyzed statistics from this long awaited study indicated a quite different conclusion. There was barely a peep out of them when the results of the study were published in the American Heart Journal.

I've read many good articles related to this study, and here are just three of them. You can google it yourself and find a lot more.

<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?pagewanted=2&_r=1>

<http://www.examiner.com/x-7780-Houston-Science--Religion-Examiner~y2009m4d10-Scientific-Studies-on-the-Effectiveness-of-Intercessory-Prayer>

<http://www.news.harvard.edu/gazette/2006/04.06/05-prayer.html>

Here's another good article with more insight about John Templeton and how his Foundation operates and disperses its money. Don't be put off because it was published in the Skeptic's Dictionary. I think you'll find it interesting anyway.

<http://www.skepdic.com/essays/templeton.html>

This message has been edited. Last edited by: BPCR45_90,

As I recall those studies, (I have not read them in a while and don’t really have the inclination or time to read them again – so I may be misspeaking here….) the researches make no claim there are any gods or anything like them assisting people or interceding on their behave with the beings in the unseen world. Just because something appears to be the result of a human activity or belief does make make it so. There are many forces at work. Panaceas comes in many forms.
Prayer, as an expression of hope and confidence in alleged results that may come from the activity, might indeed help in some situations. But by no means have any conclusions been reached that anything is there responding objectively to the prayer.
If I am not mistaken, some similar research indicated types of music had a similar positive result.
It’s akin to believing in an eclipse the moon will reappear if one sacrifices chickens. How do we know that doesn’t work?

B.P.C.;

Been there done that...as a matter of fact one of the studies, ( in the Templton series ) showed an inclination that prayer could be harmful!!

And. so it goes. I have seen many a time when those persons prayed for had no knowledge of it and never would have such knowledge, being helped immeasurably. I can not tell you in what cases, or what they concerned, as that and anything surrounding them is and are, strictly confidential, and I dare not let anything slip concerning them.

So on a subjective level I have my beliefs and on an objective level can still attest to them but I of course realise that this does no good for you or others, and accept that. Nature of the beast ya know?

T

quote:

Originally posted by tawodi:
And we know they went unanswered...HOW?

Some would say the same of Paul's letters.... they went unanswered.