Prayer and Medicine
| Somehow over the last few years some notions arose that one could test through science that prayer can heal. Each of these attempts have one thing in common namely a total misconception of how prayer and belief relate to healing. A recent study just reinforces this notion. It found that for those patients who were prayed for by strangers when they underwent surgery did worse than those not prayed for. Somebody is actually paying for this research? Prayer is not quantifiable! You don't need to do any study to see that faith and belief can have an important influence on health and healing. The placebo effect is one example of how a specific belief influences outcome. If we believe that we won't get better then we may not get better. The monolithic 'cancer' diagnosis is one example of this. Just say the word to some people and they may give up. A strong belief in God can help to lift the burden of illness and even healing but then again various religions may see the illness in different ways with different outcomes. If you know someone close to you is praying for you then that prayer should say that they care about you and this may not cure you but could ease the burden of the illness. If we go the route of testing when strangers pray for us then next we will be testing for people giving us the hex. The internal prayer of an individual who is sick allows him or her to place the illness in its proper perspective. It is hard enough to control variables in a study say dealing with heart disease. There you want to have both groups be similar in blood pressure, age, cholesterol etc. but how could you control for the two groups with respect to prayer outcome? Impossible! Physicians and nurses need to be empathetic and to encourage their patients spiritual development independent of what religion if any they have. Forget about being scientific in this regard just be human. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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