(January 10, 2018 at 5:54 pm)Huggy74 Wrote:(January 10, 2018 at 5:43 pm)c152 Wrote: There's also the Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory Prayer (STEP), funded by the good 'ol Templeton Foundation.
Groups of patients for heart surgery were being prayed for in a very large study, the results were that no positive effect from the prayers could be observed. And before anyone comes dragging with the placebo bullshit, the group of people who knew they were receiving prayers actually did worse in the study!
Prayer does no good unless it's backed by belief.
A placebo does no good unless it's backed by belief.
What's the common denominator? So that study is nonsense unless it can determine the amount of faith a subject possesses, which is not something that is quantifiable by science.
I don't get you Huggy. If you readily acknowledge the power of belief outside the context of your God, such as the placebo effect... where belief in any arbitrary deity or superstition has the same effects for believers, such as healing... how on earth do you conclude that any one of those beliefs - in this case the Christian God - is the cause? How do you not conclude that the common denominator is the power of the mind, rather than any particular belief?
