Prayers can be placebos?

[veire]

I was listening to my mom say that if i believed in god and did a prayer every once in a while i would do at least a bit better in things, i was watching the big bang theory while she was talking .Just then Leonard said Raj might be under a placebo affect so it made me think that , if you make a prayer in hopes to do something better you will do better because you believe it will come out better rather then it being the blessing received by god.

[theVOID]

It can be a placebo, there was a relatively huge study into placebo and prayer that essentially split people into 4 mixed faith groups, group 1 was prayed for by religious figures such as priests, imams etc, group 2 way prayed for by lay people, group 3 was not prayed for at all though they were told they were and group 4 was told they were not being prayed for.

Relative to their illness, I believe it was Asthma, all groups saw an equal rate of recovery with the 4th group, no prayer and no placebo, fearing slightly worse.

[LastPoet]

The truth is prayer is not for the target of it to feel better, its for the one that prays to feel good about himself.

[lilphil1989]

It can be a placebo, there was a relatively huge study into placebo and prayer that essentially split people into 4 mixed faith groups, group 1 was prayed for by religious figures such as priests, imams etc, group 2 way prayed for by lay people, group 3 was not prayed for at all though they were told they were and group 4 was told they were not being prayed for.

What of the faith of the subjects? I imagine there would only be an effect for those subjects that believe in the efficacy of prayer.

Do you have a link?

[Minimalist]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html

Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.

Didn't even slow the shitwits down, though. Mencken was right again.

The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

[affirmedatheist]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html

Prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.

And patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of post-operative complications like abnormal heart rhythms, perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.

Didn't even slow the shitwits down, though. Mencken was right again.

The Christian church, in its attitude toward science, shows the mind of a more or less enlightened man of the Thirteenth Century. It no longer believes that the earth is flat, but it is still convinced that prayer can cure after medicine fails.

I suspect personally that for certain people prayer can certainly act as a placebo. But never anything more than a placebo.
Deep down many religious people probably don't actually believe in prayer's efficacy despite how much they might profess belief in it.