Experimental Proof of the Effectiveness of Prayer for Health, Safety and Longevit

jwburgeson@juno.com writes:
>>>I'm interested to know your view of the quality and credibility and
 
>value of "prayer research". Randy>>

ED: The majority of educated Christians probably agree that prayer
changes the mind/heart of the person doing the praying to a far greater
extent than it changes the physical world. Even in modern scientific
studies on prayer, the physical results claimed by its most ardent
advocates are relatively meager, and the overall interpretation of the
results remains controversial. You get far more significant results in
the physical world from simply taking vitamin and mineral supplements,
watching your diet and weight, and by lowering your risks via rational
means, like not driving with bald tires in the rain, or not driving too
fast when trying to get to church or a prayer meeting on time. *smile*

Some of the earliest mathematical studies that questioned the
effectiveness of prayer include those of Francis Galton who examined the
longevity of clergy. He reasoned that clergy should be the longest lived
of all since they were the most "prayerful class" of all and among the
most prayed for. When Galton compared the longevity of eminent clergy with
eminent doctors and lawyers, the clergy were the shortest lived of the
three groups. In this study of the clergy, he cited a previous study by
Guy (Galton wasn't the first to think of analyzing prayer statistically
but usually gets the credit) where Guy found prayer did not protect
royalty, who were much prayed for, when compared to other members of the
aristocracy. In analyzing the data on royalty, Galton concluded:
"Sovereigns are literally the shortest lived of all who have the advantage
of affluence."

Galton looked for other statistical data. He examined the insurance rates
for ships. He reasoned that ships carrying missionaries and pilgrims
should have lower rates since frequent praying by the occupants should
decrease the number of accidents. He found that the rates were the same;
ships carrying missionaries and pilgrims sank just as often as other
ships.
Following up on Galton's statistical studies on prayer, Rupert Sheldrake,
a 20th century Cambridge-trained plant biologist, did one of his own,
examining the effects of prayer in India. Most people there prefer having
a son, and a tremendous amount of praying goes into the effort to produce
one. Sheldrake examined statistics of live male births in India and used
data from England as a control where the preference for sons was less
strong. He found that in both England and India there were 106 males to
100 females, just as in every other country. He stated, "if this enormous
amount of psychic effort and praying of holy men were working, you would
expect on average the percentage of live male births to be higher."

Also on the topic of the effectiveness of prayers, I might mention that
recently over a hundred children were taken captive in a schoolhouse
hostage situation in Russia (2004), which included several children of
Baptist missionaries, who died in the final act of that hostage tragedy.
Prior to the children's deaths I had rec'd an email begging for prayers
for the children sent out by the Baptist World Alliance (I am on their
email list). I also read about a year ago in the magazine, Christianity
Today, that four American missionaries went to Iraq and no sooner were
they off the plane and driving through town than they were gunned down,
all four dead. The article further explained that it was not the fact that
they were missionaries that got them killed, but they had lost their way
in the streets and simply driven into the wrong side of town and were
gunned down simply for appearing to be Americans. I am sure those
missionaries did not arrive in Iraq without many prayers having been said
for them. In another case, a few years ago, on the television news show,
20/20, a South American missionary's small airplane was gunned down with
the missionary inside by a military jet aircraft who mistook the tiny
missionary's plane as a drug-runner's plane. In Pucuro, Panama, three
missionary men were taken away from their families in 1993. After eight
long years of praying for the safe return of the men, their families
recently learned that they had been killed by their captors five years
previously.

On the opposite hand, what about people who have actively opposed
"prayer?" Sure, there was Mad Madeline Murray O'Hair, the atheist who
opposed prayer in schools, wound up murdered decades later. And the child
she used to make her court case later became an alcoholic and then a
convert and spokesperson for Evangelical Christianity. However O'Hair's
court case was not the only one delaing with mandatory prayer in schools.
Here's the story of another person who actively opposed manditory Bible
readings in schools, and whose longevity and long marriage and three kids
speaks for themselves: Ed Schempp, 1908-2003 Supreme Court state/church
victor Ed Schempp, 95, died in New Hampshire on Nov. 8, 2003 "surrounded
by the beauty of nature," writes his son Ellery. The father/son pair
launched the landmark lawsuit, Schempp v. Board of Education, ridding
public schools of devotional bible readings. In 1956, Ellery protested the
mandatory bible reading by reading from the Koran. After he was
reprimanded, his father filed suit. Ellery was dropped from the suit after
he graduated from high school. Madalyn Murray's later, similar case out of
Maryland was joined with the Schempp case before the Supreme Court, with
the high court reserving the bulk of its opinion for the Schempp case. The
Supreme Court issued an 8-1 ruling on June 17, 1963, barring mandatory
bible reading in public schools, which followed its 1962 decision barring
prayer. "In the relationship between man and religion, the state is
firmly committed to the position of neutrality," Justice Clark wrote
Schempp. Ed was a longtime member and honorary officer of the Freedom
From Religion Foundation, and was featured in the FFRF film, "Champions of
the First Amendment." A native Philadelphian, Ed took over his father's
hardware business as a young man, and later worked in electronics. He was
active in Unitarianism and peace groups. Ed Schempp is survived not only
by the enduring legacy of his major court victory, but by his wife of 69
years, Sidney, and their children Ellery, Roger and Donna.
Secret of Longevity: "Laugh a Lot" Freedom From Religion Foundation
member Clara Carlson of Washington State is 96, and her husband Ralph is
100. The Peninsula Daily News recently ran a feature story about the
long-lived couple, who have been married for more than 75 years. When
asked her secrets to longevity and a long marriage, Clara replied: "Drink
lots of champagne, eat lots of chocolate, and laugh a lot." "Everything we
do is a partnership," Ralph told the newspaper. Clara also credited the
"miracles of modern medicine" with helping Ralph survive four cancers, two
heart attacks and two bouts with pneumonia. They have three daughters,
nine grandchildren and 17 great-grandchildren. Both have longevity in
their genes, and stayed physically and mentally active after retirement.
Home health and chore service workers have enabled them to keep living at
home. Clara remains active in freethought, humanist and feminist causes.
She had planned to travel to a recent FFRF national convention, but had to
cancel the trip to help celebrate her daughter's 50th wedding anniversary.

Other famous overacheivers in today's news (who are not religious)
include: Bill Gates, and Lance Armstrong (bicycle racing champion).

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"Say one prayer three times daily" The New York Times, October 12, 2004
Millions of dollars are being spent in the US on researching whether the
prayers of others can affect a patient's health.
If researchers are struggling to prove that intercessory prayer has
benefits for health, at least one study hints that it could be harmful. In
a 1997 experiment involving 40 alcoholics in rehab, psychologists at the
University of New Mexico found that although intercessory prayers did not
have any effect on drinking patterns, the men and women in the study who
knew they were being prayed for actually did worse. "It's not clear what
that means," said Dr William Miller, one of the study's authors.
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/11/1097406506362.html?oneclick=true
[If the above URL doesn't take you to the article, try googling the exact
title above, which also works]

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Debunking Medical Prayer Studies

http://ffrf.org/fttoday/2002/april02/index.php3?ft=williamson.html

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Bush wants to put the nation on a prayer diet. For whatever ails you, Bush
believes a spoonful of salvation is the answer... It appears we are
entering a new era in Washington, one where the wall separating church and
state has been razed to a pile of rubble and the IRS has become one giant
collection plate.
-- Columnist Robyn E. Blumner, St. Petersburg Times, Sept. 15, 2002
Received on Tue, 12 Oct 2004 00:50:41 -0400