Efficacy of prayer
The efficacy of prayer has been studied since at least 1872, generally through experiments to determine whether prayer or intercessory prayer has a measurable effect on the health of the person for whom prayer is offered. A study in 2006 indicates that intercessory prayer in cardiac bypass patients had no discernible effects.[1]
While some religious groups argue that the power of prayer is obvious, others question whether it is possible to measure its effect.[2][3][4] Dr. Fred Rosner, an authority on Jewish medical ethics, has expressed doubt that prayer could ever be subject to empirical analysis.[5] Basic philosophical questions bear upon the question of the efficacy of prayer – for example, whether statistical inference and falsifiability are sufficient to "prove" or to "disprove" anything, and whether the topic is even within the realm of science.[6]
According to The Washington Post, "...prayer is the most common complement to mainstream medicine, far outpacing acupuncture, herbs, vitamins and other alternative remedies." In comparison to other fields that have been scientifically studied, carefully monitored studies of prayer are relatively few. The field remains tiny, with about $5 million spent worldwide on such research each year.[7]
Studies of intercessory prayer
First person studies
Studies can verify that those who pray are affected by the experience, including certain physiological outcomes. An example of a study on meditative prayer was the Bernardi study in the British Medical Journal in 2001. It reported that by praying the rosary or reciting yoga mantras at specific rates, baroreflex sensitivity increased significantly in cardiovascular patients.[8]
A study published in 2008 used Eysenck's dimensional model of personality based on neuroticism and psychoticism to assess the mental health of high school students based on their self-reported frequency of prayer. For students both in Catholic and Protestant schools, higher levels of prayer were associated with better mental health as measured by lower psychoticism scores. However, among pupils attending Catholic schools, higher levels of prayer were also associated with higher neuroticism scores.[9]
It has also been suggested that if a person knows that he or she is being prayed for it can be uplifting and increase morale, thus aiding recovery. (See
A 2001 study by Meisenhelder and Chandler analyzed data obtained from 1,421 Presbyterian pastors surveyed by mail and found that their self-reported frequency of prayer was well-correlated with their self-perception of health and vitality.
Third party studies
Various controlled studies have addressed the topic of the efficacy of prayer at least since Francis Galton in 1872.[12] Carefully monitored studies of prayer are relatively scarce with $5 million spent worldwide on such research each year.[7] The largest study, from the 2006 STEP project, found no significant differences in patients recovering from heart surgery whether the patients were prayed for or not.[1][5][13]
The third party studies reported either null results, correlated results, or contradictory results in which beneficiaries of prayer had worsened health outcomes. For instance, a meta-analysis of several studies related to distant intercessory healing published in the Annals of Internal Medicine in 2000 looked at 2774 patients in 23 studies, and found that 13 studies showed statistically significant positive results, 9 studies showed no effect, and 1 study showed a negative result.[14]
A 2003
Belief and skepticism
Medical views
Most[a] scientists dismiss "faith healing" practitioners.[18][19][6][20] Believers assert that faith healing makes no scientific claims and thus should be treated as a matter of faith that is not testable by science.[21] Critics reply that claims of medical cures should be tested scientifically because, although faith in the supernatural is not in itself usually considered to be the purview of science,[22][23][b] claims of reproducible effects are nevertheless subject to scientific investigation.[19][21]
Scientists and doctors generally find that faith healing lacks
An article in the Medical Journal of Australia says that "One common criticism of prayer research is that prayer has become a popular therapeutic method for which there is no known plausible mechanism."[27]
Medical professionals are skeptical of new claims by studies until they have been experimentally reproduced and corroborated. For instance, a 2001 study by researchers associated with Columbia University has been associated with controversy, following claims of success in the popular media.[28][29]
Although different medical studies have been at odds with one another, physicians have not stopped studying prayer. This may be partly because prayer is increasingly used as a coping mechanism for patients.[30]
Skepticism on scope of prayer
In a debate/interview in
Harris also criticized existing empirical studies for limiting themselves to prayers for relatively unmiraculous events, such as recovery from heart surgery. He suggested a simple experiment to settle the issue:
Religious and philosophical issues
Religious and philosophical objections to the very study of prayer's efficacy exist. Some interpret
The religious viewpoint objects to the claim that prayer is susceptible to experimental designs or statistical analysis, and other assumptions in many experiments, e.g. that a thousand prayers are statistically different from one. The objections also include the complaint that religion generally deals with unique, uncontrollable events; statistics, and science in general, deal with recurring phenomena which are possible to sample or control and are susceptible to general laws.
Religious objections also include the complaint that as prayer starts to be measured, it is no longer real prayer once it gets involved in an experiment and that the concept of conducting prayer experiments reflects a misunderstanding of the purpose of prayer. The 2006 STEP experiment indicated that some of the intercessors who took part in it complained about the scripted nature of the prayers that were imposed to them,[33] saying that this is not the way they usually conduct prayer:
Prior to the start of this study, intercessors reported that they usually receive information about the patient's age, gender and progress reports on their medical condition; converse with family members or the patient (not by fax from a third party); use individualized prayers of their own choosing; and pray for a variable time period based on patient or family request.
With respect to expectation of a response to prayer, the 18th-century philosopher William Paley wrote:[34]
To pray for particular favors is to dictate to Divine Wisdom, and savors of presumption; and to intercede for other individuals or for nations, is to presume that their happiness depends upon our choice, and that the prosperity of communities hangs upon our interest.
During the 20th century, philosopher Bertrand Russell believed that religion and science "have long been at war, claiming for themselves the same territory, ideas and allegiances". He also believed that the war had been decisively won by science.[35] Almost 40 years earlier, a 22-year-old Russell also wrote: "For although I had long ceased to believe in the efficacy of prayer, I was so lonely and so in need of some supporter such as the Christian God, that I took to saying prayers again when I ceased to believe in their efficacy."[36]
The 21st-century evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins, describing how Richard Swinburne explained away the STEP experiment's negative results "on the grounds that God answers prayers only if they are offered up for good reasons",[37] finds one predictable result of prayer:[38]
Other theologians joined NOMA-inspired sceptics in contending that studying prayer in this way is a waste of money because supernatural influences are by definition beyond the reach of science. But as the Templeton Foundation correctly recognized when it financed the study, the alleged power of intercessory prayer is at least in principle within the reach of science. A double-blind experiment can be done and was done. It could have yielded a positive result. And if it had, can you imagine that a single religious apologist would have dismissed it on the grounds that scientific research has no bearing on religious matters? Of course not.
See also
Notes
- ^ "Despite the lack of generally accepted demarcation criteria, we find remarkable agreement among virtually all philosophers and scientists that fields like astrology, creationism, homeopathy, dowsing, psychokinesis, faith healing, clairvoyance, or ufology are either pseudosciences or at least lack the epistemic warrant to be taken seriously." Martin Mahner, 2013.[6]: 30–31
- ^ "The 'faith' in faith healing refers to an irrational belief, unsupported by evidence, that mysterious supernatural powers can eradicate disease. Science deals with evidence, not faith." Bruce Flamm, 2004.[24]
References
- ^ a b Carey, Benedict (31 March 2006). "Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer". The New York Times. Archived from the original on 12 March 2013.
- ISBN 0-7546-3828-6page 24-27
- ISBN 0-217-76300-6pages 99–105
- ISBN 1-884527-13-2pages 58–61
- ^ ISBN 1-890151-53-Xpages 33–35
- ^ ISBN 9780226051826. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
- ^ a b
Boorstein, Michelle (6 December 2008). "Study of Health and Religiosity Growing Despite Criticism". Retrieved 18 November 2016 – via washingtonpost.com.
While the field remains tiny – about $5 million is spent worldwide on such research, experts estimate – both sides view the stakes as huge.
- PMID 11751348.
- S2CID 56432949.
- ^ Mind and Spirit Archived 2009-02-01 at the Wayback Machine from the Health Library section of CentraState Healthcare System. Accessed May 18, 2006.
- .
- ^ Galton, Francis. "Statistical Inquiries into the Efficacy of Prayer". Retrieved 7 May 2015.
- ^ Benson, H., Dusek, J. A., Sherwood, J. B., Lam, P., Bethea, C. F., Carpenter, W., Levitsky, S., Hill, P. C., Clem, D. W., Jain, M. K., Drumel, D., Kopecky, S. L., Mueller, P. S., Marek, D., Rollins, S., & Hibberd, P. L. (2006). Study of the therapeutic effects of intercessory prayer (STEP) in cardiac bypass patients: A Multicenter randomized trial of uncertainty and certainty of receiving intercessory prayer. American Heart Journal, 151(4), 934–942. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ahj.2005.05.028
- ^ John A. Astin, et al. The Efficacy of "Distant Healing" A Systematic Review of Randomized Trials Annals of Internal Medicine June 6, 2000 vol. 132 no. 11 903–910 [1]
- PMID 12674817.
- S2CID 43547918.
- S2CID 3672308.
- ISBN 9781842221617.
For example, most scientists dismiss the notion of faith-healing, a phenomenon for which there is a certain amount of evidence.
- ^ ISBN 9781439882849. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
There are also activities that, although not classified (or claimed) as science, have implications that trespass into the scientific territories. Examples of this category of activities are the claim that we have been visited by aliens riding unidentified flying objects, all psychic phenomena, and faith healing. We study the nature of all these activities under the general heading of pseudoscience. . .
- ISBN 9781598848670. Retrieved 18 April 2018.
Certain approaches to faith healing are also widely considered to be pseudoscientific, including those of Christian Science, voodoo, and Spiritualism.
- ^ a b "Popular Delusions III: Faith Healing". 26 September 2006. Retrieved 30 April 2018.
Naturally, this result has provoked bitter complaints from many believers who assert that God should not be put to the test. In response to the MANTRA study, an English bishop said, "Prayer is not a penny in the slot machine. You can't just put in a coin and get out a chocolate bar." Similarly, in an article in The New York Times on prayer studies from October 10, 2004, Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence Jr. of New York-Presbyterian Hospital is quoted as saying, "There's no way to put God to the test, and that's exactly what you're doing when you design a study to see if God answers your prayers. This whole exercise cheapens religion, and promotes an infantile theology that God is out there ready to miraculously defy the laws of nature in answer to a prayer."
- S2CID 22730647. Archived from the original(PDF) on 13 July 2019. Retrieved 30 March 2018.
Cures allegedly brought about by religious faith are, in turn, considered to be paranormal phenomena but the related religious practices and beliefs are not pseudoscientific since they usually have no scientific pretensions.
- ^ Gould, Stephen Jay (March 1997). "Non-overlapping magisteria". Natural History. Vol. 106. pp. 16–22. Re-published in Gould, Stephen Jay (1998). "Non-overlapping magisteria". Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms. New York: New Harmony. pp. 269–83.
- ^ Flamm, Bruce (September–October 2004). "The Columbia University 'miracle' study: Flawed and fraud". Skeptical Inquirer. Committee for Skeptical Inquiry. Archived from the original on 2009-11-06.
- ^ Wendler, David (2017). "The Ethics of Clinical Research". The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy (Winter 2017 ed.). Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University.
- ^ PMID 19370557.
- ^ "eMJA: Prayer as medicine: how much have we learned?". Retrieved 2007-12-21.
- ^ Skeptical Inquirer Archived 2008-02-29 at the Wayback Machine, Sept/Oct 2004
- ^ Reproductive Medicine Nov 2004
- doi:10.1037/a0021598.
- ^ 'The God Debate' by Sam Harris, Rick Warren, Newsweek – RichardDawkins.net
- ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Deuteronomy 6:16 – New American Standard Bible". Retrieved 18 November 2016.
- PMID 16569567.
- "Largest Study of Third-Party Prayer Suggests Such Prayer Not Effective In Reducing Complications Following Heart Surgery" (PDF). John Templeton Foundation (Press release). April 5, 2006. Archived from the original (PDF) on September 15, 2011. Retrieved March 26, 2010.
- ^ William Paley, 1835, Paley's moral and political philosophy Uriah Hunt Press, Philadelphia page 157
- ^ Bertrand Russell, Religion and science Oxford University Press, 1997
ISBN 0-19-511551-1page xi
- ISBN 0-04-920067-4
- ^ Richard Swinburne, Response to a Statistical Study of the Effect of Petitionary Prayer, originally in Science and Theology News 2006.
- ^ Dawkins, "The God Delusion", p. 65
Further reading
- Sloan, Richard P. (2006). Blind faith: the unholy alliance of religion and medicine. New York: St. Martin's Press. ISBN 978-0-312-34881-6.
- Behrman, E. J., "Testing Prayer", Skeptic, 11:4, 15(2005)