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March 31, 2006
Study fails to show healing power of prayer
I have to wonder if that the psychology of attribution didn't play a role here. I mean if you think people might be praying for you and something positive happens to you, then you attribute it to the prayer and assume that it's working. Your positive attitude contributes to your recovery. Verses if you've been told that people are praying for you and then something bad happens, you assume that it's not working and you assume God may have forsaken you. That would also explain why the people that were told they might be prayed for had the same results as the ones that were actually prayed for. I think the important thing to take away from all this is that the human mind is a very powerful tool in the healing process that shouldn't be underestimated. It also suggests that a person's faith can be a double edged sword when it's manipulated. Which we can see with your average Neo-Christian fanatics are constantly manipulated and most of them end up being soulless monsters. I think this points to a need for extreme caution in the area of religion.
Read more over at Reuters.
Posted by ManDrake at March 31, 2006 12:34 PM
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Comments
Any god that has spent this much effort concealing the fact that He exists wouldn't be in the slightest bit squeamish about letting a few people die in order to confound a study like this.
Posted by: reno at March 31, 2006 7:02 PM