RE: What Is The Point Of Prayer?
August 22, 2013 at 2:50 pm
(This post was last modified: August 22, 2013 at 2:52 pm by Cyberman.)
@Sword of Christ
Ever seen people throw salt over their shoulder after spilling it? Knock on wood for luck? Carry lucky totems, such as rabbits' feet, four leaf clovers, horse shoes etc? Walk around ladders rather than under them? Cross their fingers? Read up on how someone else imagines the positions of the planets relative to certain background stars dictates their actions? When these and many, many other superstitious rituals are assessed critically, we find that the results of them are indistinguishable from blind chance. Realising they are imaginary doesn't stop people from doing them. It doesn't even slow them down.
In the case of prayer, however, things get worse.
When prayer was studied by the pro-religionist Templeton Foundation, measuring any effects against heart bypass patients in double-blind tests, it was found that the only patients who experienced complications were those being prayed for and were told about it. All other groups recovered at about the expected rate. Presumably, lying in a hospital bed awaiting major surgery isn't the best time to hear someone say "I'm going to pray for you", unless the intended response is "Oh shit - they think I'm not gonna make it... what else aren't they telling me?"
Source
Ever seen people throw salt over their shoulder after spilling it? Knock on wood for luck? Carry lucky totems, such as rabbits' feet, four leaf clovers, horse shoes etc? Walk around ladders rather than under them? Cross their fingers? Read up on how someone else imagines the positions of the planets relative to certain background stars dictates their actions? When these and many, many other superstitious rituals are assessed critically, we find that the results of them are indistinguishable from blind chance. Realising they are imaginary doesn't stop people from doing them. It doesn't even slow them down.
In the case of prayer, however, things get worse.
When prayer was studied by the pro-religionist Templeton Foundation, measuring any effects against heart bypass patients in double-blind tests, it was found that the only patients who experienced complications were those being prayed for and were told about it. All other groups recovered at about the expected rate. Presumably, lying in a hospital bed awaiting major surgery isn't the best time to hear someone say "I'm going to pray for you", unless the intended response is "Oh shit - they think I'm not gonna make it... what else aren't they telling me?"
Source
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
