SCIENCE AND PRAYER;

There is GROWING SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE THAT PRAYER WORKS IN HEALING.

We believe the evidence for the effectiveness of prayer is reasonable and will continue to grow if the studies are done in a reasonable way.

This limitation of science in sorting out prayer as a cause and it's effect is a basic fact for individuals alone or individuals if they are part of a group of people who have been prayed for. The fact that the effect on individuals cannot be addressed by science says nothing negative about prayer. human physiology and their lives are too complex for simple yes or no study answers on an individual basis. It may, in fact be that one will need to look at simpler forms of life to understand the reality.  CNN NETWORK REFERENCE TO SCIENCE EXPERIMENTS SHOWING THE HEALING POWER OF PRAYER ON MICE!

To study the effectiveness or prayer on humans, it is necessary to study groups. It is to be expected, therefore, that science will be able to show only statistical benefits of prayer this is to be expected from the process of studying a complex set of information of any sort to draw conclusions about effects masked to some degree by extraneous effects. This is not unusual, and is even true in physics when studying comparatively extremely simple nuclear particle systems. Probabilistic response is inherent in the nature of any complex part of reality.

By definition, if the prayer is for an individual (alone or in a group), as soon as the prayer is prayed, it is not longer possible to know what the outcome would have been without prayer for that individual or individual within a group (in each individual case.) this fact eliminates inherently any certainty that prayer did or did not work for an individual.

It may be, to some degree, nevertheless, scientifically meaningful to perform experiments in which some groups are prayed for (as individuals or as a group) and compare the future condition of that group to the condition at the same time in the future of another group which did not receive prayer. One can then do a mathematical statistical analysis and look at the group average and worst case and best case outcomes of individuals in each group. This does not mean, however, that all tests of prayer for groups will be valid.

Not all tests of prayer are valid for at least three possible reasons;

1) In regards to prayers for individuals (or groups) it seems likely that the individuals mental and spiritual state could in some way block or enhance the effects of the prayer, whether or not they know they are being prayed for. If this is true, that would make tests of praying for some group which did not know they were being prayed for or which did not participate in the prayer themselves, of questionable validity. On the other hand, those in a group being prayer for who are negative about such a test might block the effects somehow if they know they are being prayer for by a group which they disagree with.

2) It seems clear that God does not usually answer extreme prayers immediately so as to be detectable by simple analysis. For example, prayers for world peace may have an effect that could take a long time and even if the prayers have a major effect, that could be buried amongst other effects and become virtually indistinguishable to scientific analysis.

3) God may answer the prayers in ways to subtle to be detectable by simple measures. These three points mean that when a positive result is found statistically, it may be far more positive than otherwise believed.  What is required to have any chance at scientific meaning is to have some objective measure to use which is strongly correlated to the nature of the prayers. The measure can even be the health of a mouse as noted in the CNN report link above. even this amazing result does not result in certainty and would not be expected to do so, due to the many factors which can effect the outcome in addition to prayer. With such tests, it can, however, be shown to a significant degree of probability that prayer is beneficial in healing. 

MANY STUDIES HAVE SHOWN PRAYER TO BE BENEFICIAL.    Scientific Evidence for Answered Prayer

SOME BELIEVE THAT SCIENCE CANNOT TEST PRAYER.

 There are some negative reports about the effectiveness of prayer. That is, however, to be expected since prayer is not a mechanical thing where a given input produces a given output. Negative results in any study does not prove that prayer does not work in other situations. positive results on the other hand cannot be explained away by negative test since even if the negative tests were valid, a negative result does not cancel a positive test result.

Additionally, there are reports of tests which are at the very least careless in their titles and somewhat misleading as in the story in the July 15, 2005 Seattle times which is titled; "medical study sees no effects in prayer from afar." Subtitle; "heart patients were assessed" and second subtitle; "some say science can't measure god."  We might agree that "some say" science can't measure God but what does that really mean about Science and God and it could be misinterpreted.

First of all, most people of faith would accept that the prayer needs to be in accordance with God's will and to have a higher probability of being effective the prayer also needs to be consistent within the law of the universe as god has made them. If they prayer was, for example, for some group of amputees to regrow limbs, that would probably not happen. If the prayer was to relieve their phantom limb pain, that would be a good test of prayer, but a double blind test still might be invalid if the amputee also at least needs to be open to or possibly even participate in the prayer for it to be answered. This study involved praying for heart patients and the physical direct repair of a heart prayer is probably going to occur directly by prayer less often than some other types of healing (such as relief of pain or possibly even an immune response.)

Additionally, as the article admits, the study "could not account for the possible efforts of family members praying for patients on their own. the study also did show that those receiving music, imagery, and touch plus and the "high-dose" of prayer were less likely to die in the following six months.

Even when proper experiments are done, it is generally not possible to avoid effecting the knowledge of what would have happened if the experiment had not been performed. It is fundamentally true that when prayer is invoked, this inherently removes the information of what would have happened to that individual without prayer. Interestingly, this is very similar to experiments done in quantum mechanics in physics. In quantum mechanical experiments on subatomic particles individually, the experimental setup effects the outcome. The experimental setup precludes certain results from occurring and certain knowledge from being obtained. The experiments with nuclear particles result in probability calculations very similar to those from the studies on prayer.

Again, if the patients did not know for sure if someone was praying for them, they may not have been in a spiritual state to receive the benefits of prayer. If the recipients mental and spiritual state are important for prayer to work strongly, that would make any double blind experiment reach the wrong conclusion when using recipients with spiritual or emotionally unreceptive states. It may be necessary for the recipient to be "tuned" in to prayer.

Additionally, it should be noted that in Christianity, Jesus taught at the end of the lords prayer to pray; "thy will be done.". If the prayers are not in accordance with god's will, the answer to the prayer may not be according to the prayer and the science finding could be misleading.

Also, no one would argue that if someone prayed for their body to regenerate a severed limb it is not likely that it is going to happen. God in most religions is lawful and does not frequently interfere in major ways in his creation.

We believe that there is significant evidence that prayer can have profound effects, but the prayer must be reasonable for a lawful god and his universe and God's will is paramount.

If, however, as has happened in a number of studies, prayer is shown to have a positive statistical effect on a group, that is valid proof of the benefits of prayer in that particular situation.

 PRAYER WORKS.

In the middle of the referenced newspaper article there is the admission; "a growing body of evidence has found that religious people tend to be healthier than average and that people who pray when they are ill are likely to fare better than those who do not."  At the end of that Seattle times article, despite its negative title, there is the statement; "this study gives us a sense of where there might be therapeutic benefit that might be worth pursuing in future trials."
 

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