Propping up my bike before going to church
Recently, I had a talk with someone who believed in the efficacy of prayer. I have for years been arguing that prayers don't work. One can come to that conclusion through a process of logic but of course a proper study would be helpful. During the discussion, I recalled a study done by a Harvard research team that showed that prayer was not effective when it came to healing. I looked up my trusty gmail in which I store facts that catch my fancy and sure enough, I had the link to the Harvard study: Harvard Medical School
If you prefer a more readable newspaper-like article, here's a link to the NY Times reporting this: New York Times
And here are the links to Medline searches on the study: Medline 1
and Medline 2
All I can say is if I'm having a heart surgery I should pray real hard that nobody prays for me. Or if they do, I should not be told of it. Prayers can be harmful to healing or at best, they're just plain useless.
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