* Studies Find Prayer Ineffective

Reverend Fun Website

John Templeton Foundation
Supporting Science ~ Investing in the Big Questions

*Largest Study of Third-Party Prayer Suggests Such Prayer Not Effective in Reducing Complications Following Heart Surgery (PDF), Mechal Weiss, Boston, MA, April 2006

* * *
STUDY FINDS HEART PATIENTS NOT HELPED BY PRAYER

AP - In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications. . . The work, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion. It will appear in the American Heart Journal (April 2006).

Undernews/AP/CNN/Health

Press Release
Harvard Medical School
Office of Public Affairs

Furthermore, we would have no need for hospitals if positive, healing effects resulted from prayer.
* * *
Does God Answer Prayer?
April 2006
by Brian Bolton

Brief history of studies on the efficacy of prayer, "Four large-sample experimental investigations of Christian intercessory prayer, conducted by evangelical Christians for the purpose of demonstrating god's power, produced indisputably negative results. The few instances of statistical significance were due to chance or admitted research malpractice."

Freedom From Religion Foundation

*Study Investigators

Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee
Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts
Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
St. Joseph's Hospital in Tampa, Florida
Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C
Mind/Body Medical Institute, Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts

Prayers never bring anything. . . . They may bring solace to the sap, the bigot, the ignorant, the aboriginal, and the lazy--but to the enlightened it is the same as asking Santa Claus to bring you something for Xmas.

~ W.C. Fields, cited by Warren Allen Smith in Who's Who in Hell