Holy Statistics! A Clinical Study of Divine Healing
This article intrigued me. Why would a group of doctors try to run a clinical study on the health benefits of prayer?
I have downloaded the actual study article as published in the American Heart Journal (AHJ). This is not readily available (sort of a Regular Guy exclusive, if you will), but I encourage you to peruse the original source material at your leisure. The AHJ has also written an editorial about this study with some background and foundational arguments.
Clinically studying the effects of intercessory prayer on patients with medical needs seems, perhaps, presumptuous. I suppose that it is trying too hard to put a box around a God whose limits are boundless. Is this study really expecting to answer questions of faith by scientific methods? It seems that we are better letting our personal experience and spiritual principles lead rather than using a sampling of scientific inquiry to govern our belief in divine healing.
Please feel free to comment with your take on this. I would love to hear everyone’s thoughts.
~RG
posted by Regular Guy at 11:39 AM
1 Comments:
Why are we so afraid to "test all things" using science and reason? Criticizing the study from a scientific perspective is one thing (too small a sample size, not using proper controls etc), but the way you've written it here it sounds almost like you don't think religion or spirituality should be tested at all with reason. I disagree.
11:09 AM
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