The collision of science and spirituality is inevitably interesting and the upshot inevitably problematic.
There's a new study out in which a team of researchers asked church congregations to pray for heart surgery patients at six different hospitals and then tracked how well they recovered from surgery compared to patients who weren't prayed for. Neither group did better than the other.
So what does this prove?
Absolutely nothing of consequence, because if prayer works for you -- and I've resorted to it from time to time -- then that's all that matters.
When I prayed for my dying mother, it wasn't to bring her back from the brink of death. It was to ease her pain and suffering no matter what happened. Did my praying make her feel better? I would like to think so, but I do know that it made me feel like I was doing something of consequence at a time when the Fates were in control and not my mother, her children or doctors.
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