Does Prayer Really Work? Does God Even Care?

[Simon Moon]

My bold. Proof, please.

The International Journal of Psychiatry in Medicine
Issue: Volume 39, Number 4 / 2009
Pages: 377 - 392
URL: Linking Options
DOI: 10.2190/PM.39.4.c
A Randomized Trial of the Effect of Prayer on Depression and Anxiety

Peter A. Boelens A1, Roy R. Reeves A2, William H. Replogle A3, Harold G. Koenig A4

A1 University of Mississippi and Shalom Prayer Ministry
A2 Jackson VA Medical Center, University of Mississippi
A3 University of Mississippi Medical Center
A4 Duke University Medical Center and VA Medical Center, Durham, North Carolina

Abstract:

Objective: To investigate the effect of direct contact person-to-person prayer on depression, anxiety, positive emotions, and salivary cortisol levels. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cross-over clinical trial with depression or anxiety conducted in an office setting. Following randomization to the prayer intervention or control groups, subjects (95% women) completed Hamilton Rating Scales for Depression and Anxiety, Life Orientation Test, Daily Spiritual Experiences Scale, and underwent measurement of cortisol levels. Individuals in the direct person-to-person prayer contact intervention group received six weekly 1-hour prayer sessions while those in the control group received none. Rating scales and cortisol levels were repeated for both groups after completion of the prayer sessions, and a month later. ANOVAs were used to compare pre- and post-prayer measures for each group. Results: At the completion of the trial, participants receiving the prayer intervention showed significant improvement of depression and anxiety, as well as increases of daily spiritual experiences and optimism compared to controls (p < 0.01 in all cases). Subjects in the prayer group maintained these significant improvements (p < 0.01 in all cases) for a duration of at least 1 month after the final prayer session. Participants in the control group did not show significant changes during the study. Cortisol levels did not differ significantly between intervention and control groups, or between pre- and post-prayer conditions. Conclusions: Direct contact person-to-person prayer may be useful as an adjunct to standard medical care for patients with depression and anxiety. Further research in this area is indicated.

The same results can be obtained though meditation, without the need to believe in ridiculous Bronze and Iron age superstitious mythology:


http://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/news/medi...depression

http://hub.jhu.edu/2014/01/08/meditate-t...depression

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/201...190050.htm

http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/mind...meditation

[ShaMan]

<snip>

...participants receiving the prayer intervention showed significant improvement of depression and anxiety...

Further research in this area is indicated.

The same results can be obtained though meditation, without the need to believe in ridiculous Bronze and Iron age superstitious mythology:

Prayer and Meditation are the same thing practiced in different forms. No [gods] required.

[Fidel_Castronaut]

Look at who does most work for charity. Prayer stimulates concern for others, and action fir others. Even people like Richard Dawkins have said that atheists need to find a way if galvanising themselves to do charitable work in the way theists do. And to be fair to RD he has made a serious effort in that direction.

There are just as many, if not more, secular charities than religious ones, though.

MSF, Oxfam, green peace, amnesty, water aid, save the children, UNICEF, fair trade, Friends of the earth, CND and so on. Indeed the list is almost endless.

Now naturally a lot of the people involved in those charities will be religious, but equally a lot of them won't be.

I don't think its fair to automatically presume that people with a religion by default 'give' more to charity than those who don't. A lot of religious charities act in a very sectarian and sometimes downright nefarious way in their activities. I'm thinking of Islamic relief who rarely have donation drives in countries where money is needed by whose populations tend not to have a Muslim demographic. This is one of the reAons why I never give to a religious charity and only lend my monetary or physical support to secular ones (currently acorns in England).

My circle of friends has very few theists, but many of them have done a lot for charity, as have I. So anecdotally I don't recognise your claim.

[Brakeman]

My Comments were not denying a change, my comments were denying that a god conversation was going on. Once you cede that, you are simply stating that a psychotic delusional conversation is the best way that you know how to improve yourself.. how sad..

Yes, I understood that. But I didn't cede anything, other than the mechanism of prayer could be debated, but that the fact that prayer can have beneficial effects is pretty much indisputable, especially with someone who has experienced those benefits. As for 'sad', no drug-free benefits are ever sad, be they from prayer, meditation, mindfulness, etc. What is more sad, in my opinion, is closing oneself off to beneficial practices.
..
Look at who does most work for charity. Prayer stimulates concern for others, and action fir others. Even people like Richard Dawkins have said that atheists need to find a way if galvanising themselves to do charitable work in the way theists do. And to be fair to RD he has made a serious effort in that direction.

What crap! The beneficial effects of prayer is certainly not indisputable!
An unintentional byproduct, meditation, may have some minor benefit to some, but over all the belief in the imaginary conversations with god is very detrimental to society. If you can't convince yourself that you can talk to god through prayer then becoming a christian is pretty close to "not gonna happen" so all the monies and effort spent on any facet of religion is wasted.
The prayer belief that you are doing something for somebody when you aren't is detrimental because it prevents you from realizing that you haven't yet done anything to help.

God believers often "pray" for god to heal their sick children and sit around land let the child die for want of health care.

True believers often pray for god guidance in raising their children and rely on the prayer instead of secular family counseling or education.

True believers pray that god will grant them wisdom and rely on his telepathic answers instead of research and fact finding.

Even yourself must admit that if you relied only on info received from your prayers, your (Biology?) work would be greatly stunted.

You don't rely on prayer to feed yourself, you get your own food.
You don't rely on prayer to wash yourself, you take your own shower.
You don't rely on prayer to clothe yourself, you get your own clothes.
You don't rely on prayer to pay your bills, you get your own job.
You don't rely on prayer to get yourself to work, you arrange your own transportation.

Yet now, you claim that there are benefits of prayer that might be more than you doing it yourself from the start? Such bullshit!

As for the Christian claim to do so much charity.. Since the majority of the world population is religious of some sort, then by shear numbers the theists would dwarf non-theistic charity giving. But charity is a poor benchmark, because it is scientists and engineers that bring up the standard of living, not priests, and agnostics and atheists make up the bulk of these. God botherers simply use charities to try to buy their way into an imaginary heaven. They enjoy and use poverty and pain to further ply their trade as the healthy and wealthy are much less eager to swallow a conditional unsubstantiated promise of a better future. Human misery is historically highest where and when the society spends too much of it's efforts on religion.

Want to help the starving kids in Africa? Fight the religious beliefs against family planing and against the religious belief that life on earth is not to be valued but rather the next life in heaven is more important than education and the liberal values of equality that prevents wars.

Want to help the disabled or the diseased? Fight the religious conservatives that block stem cell research, and that block teaching of evolution and general science to more easily push children away from fields of research that would doom their god belief.

Want to help hurricane or flood victims? Don't give to a theistic charity, Counter the religious conservatives' staunch opposition to global climate change mollification efforts

The best charity is to correct the world problems that create the need for charities, and that is what atheists do best!

[ShaMan]

The best charity is to correct the world problems that create the need for charities, and that is what atheists do best!

Good words.

[Michael]

On the link between theism and charity, numerous studies have confirmed the positive link between religiosity and charity. For example, in the USA Brooks (2004), using a database of over 30,000 individuals, found that those identifying as religious gave more than 3 times more of their income away, and that increased charitable giving was to both religious and non-religious causes.

http://www.gordon.edu/ACE/pdf/BrooksS04.pdf

Stavrova and Siegers (2013) showed that the positive link between religiosity and charity work was greatest in those countries where religion is freely chosen.

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/early/201...1.abstract

Pablo et al. (2013) showed that the degree of charitable work and donation appears to be related to degree of religiosity. Those with no religious affiliation acted most selfishly, and for those with a religious affiliation the degree of generosity was linked to intensity of religiosity.

http://www.econstor.eu/handle/10419/90066

Again (like the effect of prayer), what is open and uncertain is the mechanism of this link (correlations identify potential links, but don't tell us whether the linkage is direct, or caused by some other related variable), but, returning to the theme of prayer, Bremner et al. (2011) found in a controlled setting that praying for someone, rather than thinking of someone, led to a more sympathetic view of the other person even when reciprocity was unlikely (that is the person praying is not likely to receive any return 'favour'). Praying did positively affect attitude to others, more than simply thinking of the other person.

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/37/6/830.short

[Thumpalumpacus]

The funny thing is that this comes from a Christian website:

God Will Save Me

A terrible storm came into a town and local officials sent out an emergency warning that the riverbanks would soon overflow and flood the nearby homes. They ordered everyone in the town to evacuate immediately.

A faithful Christian man heard the warning and decided to stay, saying to himself, “I will trust God and if I am in danger, then God will send a divine miracle to save me.”

The neighbors came by his house and said to him, “We’re leaving and there is room for you in our car, please come with us!” But the man declined. “I have faith that God will save me.”

As the man stood on his porch watching the water rise up the steps, a man in a canoe paddled by and called to him, “Hurry and come into my canoe, the waters are rising quickly!” But the man again said, “No thanks, God will save me.”

The floodwaters rose higher pouring water into his living room and the man had to retreat to the second floor. A police motorboat came by and saw him at the window. “We will come up and rescue you!” they shouted. But the man refused, waving them off saying, “Use your time to save someone else! I have faith that God will save me!”

The flood waters rose higher and higher and the man had to climb up to his rooftop.

A helicopter spotted him and dropped a rope ladder. A rescue officer came down the ladder and pleaded with the man, "Grab my hand and I will pull you up!" But the man STILL refused, folding his arms tightly to his body. “No thank you! God will save me!”

Shortly after, the house broke up and the floodwaters swept the man away and he drowned.

When in Heaven, the man stood before God and asked, “I put all of my faith in You. Why didn’t You come and save me?”

And God said, “Son, I sent you a warning. I sent you a car. I sent you a canoe. I sent you a motorboat. I sent you a helicopter. What more were you looking for?”

They seem to miss the inference that divine action is entirely identical to the normal actions of ordinary folks ... i.e. god(s) need not apply.

[ShaMan]

On the link between theism and charity, numerous studies have confirmed the positive link between religiosity and charity.

Unless you live in the real day-to-day world where kindness does not depend on dogma.

ETA: No disrespect intended Michael. Though erudite, you're no less deluded in your apparent metaphysical beliefs than any other theist, and while I find you to be intelligent beyond some, I'm no less impressed by your presupposed conclusions than I am by any other.

[Minimalist]

those identifying as religious gave more than 3 times more of their income away,

Yeah...doubtlessly with all the money they waste on their fucking churches!

The question is, what do the churches do with it?

[Brakeman]

On the link between theism and charity, numerous studies have confirmed the positive link between religiosity and charity. For example, in the USA Brooks (2004), using a database of over 30,000 individuals, found that those identifying as religious gave more than 3 times more of their income away, and that increased charitable giving was to both religious and non-religious causes.

http://www.gordon.edu/ACE/pdf/BrooksS04.pdf

Did you vet your sources?? I surely doesn't look like it.

Just to start on the first one - Arthur C. Clark

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2008/01/17...ering-Sham

Once again demonstrating its gift for fiction, the Wall Street Journal offered a hilariously pathetic treatise on the hate-mongering and intolerance of liberals. Just three weeks after Bruce Bartlett took to the Journal's opinion pages to insist that Americans overlook the Republicans' racist present to instead focus on Democrats' racist past, Arthur C. Brooks in "Liberal Hatemongers" today argued that "political intolerance in America is to be found more on the left than it is on the right." Sadly, the misguided professor Brooks is confusing liberals' current disdain for conservatives with the political strategies, tactics and messages of hate. And that brand of hyperpartisanship and selective demonization of Americans is almost exclusively the province of the right.

“Liberal Hatemongers.” The Wall Street Journal. (January 17, 2008).
Seems like Clark likes to pick the opposite conclusions from reality in order to sell himself on conservative media.

"Don’t Live Simply." Forbes.com (September 16, 2008). In Italian: “PER FAVORE CONSUMATE DI PIU'” Il Giornale (September 17, 2008). - Pro consumption

“Party of Disbelief.” National Review Online (November 30, 2007).

"The Left's 'Inequality' Obsession." The Wall Street Journal, p. A16. (July 19, 2007).

"The Political Gender Gap." The Wall Street Journal, p. A17. (July 12, 2007)

"The Politics of Happiness." The Wall Street Journal, p. A17. (May 21, 2007)

"What's Wrong With Billionaires?" The Wall Street Journal, p. A13 (March 19, 2007).

“The True Ideological Battle.” The Wall Street Journal, p. A12 (November 7, 2006).

"Right-Wing Heart, Left-Wing Heart." CBSNews.com (April 11, 2006).

“Bleeding Hearts.” The Wall Street Journal, p. A14. (January 16, 2006).

"The Upside of Bush’s Foreign Policy." The New York Sun. (January 8, 2008).

“Money Buys Happiness.” The Wall Street Journal, p. A16. (December 8, 2005).

“CNY Needs Don't Stop for Katrina.” Syracuse Post-Standard (September 25, 2005).

"Our Religious Destiny.” The Wall Street Journal, p. A11. (August 20, 2007).


I'm sure that Glen Beck's and Rush Limbaugh's sources are unbiased too!

Author Clark's modus operandi appears to be to publish lots of ""statisticy"" looking columns and phrases but not publish the questionnaires of the surveys so that one can examine the clarity and bias of the questions and he also does not seem to give any detail about the methods of canvassing.

Garbage in = Garbage out

Surely you are aware of this?

---

Again (like the effect of prayer), what is open and uncertain is the mechanism of this link (correlations identify potential links, but don't tell us whether the linkage is direct, or caused by some other related variable), but, returning to the theme of prayer, Bremner et al. (2011) found in a controlled setting that praying for someone, rather than thinking of someone, led to a more sympathetic view of the other person even when reciprocity was unlikely (that is the person praying is not likely to receive any return 'favour'). Praying did positively affect attitude to others, more than simply thinking of the other person.

http://psp.sagepub.com/content/37/6/830.short

Not very honest there are you??

You were aware that ALL of the participants were religious, as can be implied from the abstract.

Abstract

Although some religious teachings have been used to justify aggression, most religious teachings promote peace in human affairs. Three experiments tested the hypothesis that praying for others brings out the more peaceful side of religion by reducing anger and aggression after a provocation.

The idea that thinking of others by prayer can divert a theist's attention from being god's soldier does not go against common atheistic opinion.