Last night I was reading a book, that told of an experiment that is currently underway. I wanted to see what you people thought.
The attempt is to apply the scientific method to try to see if prayer works through the intercession of a Higher Being.
A 'prayer group' has been set up, taking several people from different religions. A sample of 600 heart patients will be randomly chosen from around the US and will be prayed for (but not told they are being prayed for) by the prayer group. Another sample of 600 heart patients will NOT be prayed for. A third sample of 600 patients will be prayed for and TOLD they are being prayed for.
The names, and quick details of their condition, of the patients being prayed for will be given to the prayer group.
Most christians believe in the power of prayer and the intercession of God. If this is indeed the case, it is hypothesized that the patients being prayed for should recover better, have a lower death rate and less complications than the patients not being prayed for. If not, it would seem that praying had not effect whatsoever.
I think the experiment is slated to finish in 2002, so there are no results yet. However, it is useful to think of what outcomes are possible and what they might mean:
1) Patients in both groups (prayed for vs not prayed for) recover exactly the same -- statistically speaking
What could this tell us?
a) Prayer is not useful
b) God does not exist
c) God does exist, but chose not help those patients being prayed for, because he would not want to leave any clues which may lead to us 'discovering' him scientifically. Basically, he's on to us and can't be fooled.
2) Patients that are prayed for do better
What could this tell us
a) Prayer is useful
b) God exists and is interceding for us
c) God does not exist, but some telepathic process is at work
3) Only the patients being told they are being prayed for do better
a) It's all in our mind
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Also the results could be 'skewed' by friends and family praying. This is being referred to as 'backround noise'. It may be the case that this heartfelt prayer is more powerful than the prayer of strangers.
Comments, interpretations?
dvst8
