Friday, March 31, 2006

Prayer Doesn't Help...

"The long-awaited study of intercessory prayer for coronary bypasspatients was released yesterday. A small increase in complications, attributed to "performance anxiety,"was found in a subset of patients who were told that strangers were praying for them. Otherwise, there was nothing.

Scientists are relieved of course; science is tough enough without having to worry that somebody on their knees in East Cupcake, Iowa can override natural law. The study of 1800 patients took almost ten years and cost $2.4M, mostly from the Templeton Foundation. Of course, there are calls for further study. Where do we start? What are the units of prayer? Do prayers of Pat Robertson than those of death-row inmates? What is the optimum posture of the supplicant? Where can we learn these things?
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Once a week, Bob Park (www.bobpark.org) delves into stories of scientific interest, and while he's a moonbat extraordinaire, sometimes a spade is a spade.

One DOES have to feel sorry for modern science. Tell an ultra conservative that Intelligent Design is absolute bilgewater, OR, a liberal that there are DISTINCT and MEASUREABLE differences in the races of man, and watch the fur fly.

But no matter what they say in public, science likes dealing with Republicans over their Loon counterparts. Not ALL Republicans believe that unheard of words from an invisible man who lives in the clouds should be taken over common sense, but ALL Democrats believe that ALL of Homo Sapien Sapiens are born with the same cognitive resources. Otherwise, there'd be NO explaining Hillary Clinton or Chuckie Schumer.

2 comments:

Axinar said...

Although generally I imagine prayer is more for the people doing the praying than it is for the people being prayed FOR.

Essentially it seems like it gets going in situations of utter helplessness - for instance the classic line from Star Trek when Kirk was counseling a cadet about a hopeless scenario - "Prayer, Mr. Saavik - the Klingons don't take prisoners."

Fits said...

Agreed. The problem arises when prayer is specifically "proven" to assist others, and that's when rational thinking steps in and says, of course not.

Multitudes of conmen out there and all religions have their share as well.