“God may indeed exist and prayer may indeed heal; however, it appears that, for important theological and scientific reasons, randomized controlled studies cannot be applied to the study of the efficacy of prayer in healing. In fact, no form of scientific enquiry presently available can suitably address the subject.”
The above is the conclusion of a National Institute of Health study on the efficacy of prayer in healing illnesses. The report found wildly inconsistent findings among different studies; some said prayer helped, others found it made no difference, some found that it made illnesses worse. (I was researching the issue as I believe any such claims are bogus but I always insist upon some scientific and factual support for any claim I make. The link to the report is at the end of this post.)
We already know that prayers have absolutely no impact on preventing gun violence. After every firearm massacre, the usual scrum of right-wing politicians declare they are praying for the victims and to end the violence, but it keeps getting worse. Whatever might be the solution to the horrific spate of gun violence we are seeing, prayer is absolutely not one of the possibilities.
I’m a long-time agnostic; I long ago determined it is impossible to either prove or disprove the existence of a Supreme Being, and so I’m not going to spend a lot of time thinking about it. It also became quite clear to me long ago that no one, and I mean no one, has the vaguest idea of what happens to us when we die. (Though this hasn’t stopped charlatans from preaching the most incredible b.s. imaginable.)
But if others wish to pray, let them pray away to their heart’s content, fully exercising their First Amendment right to hold any religious views they wish in private. But let’s make it perfectly clear that prayer is no substitute for science and medicine or serious action to protect people against violence. (Note: being agnostic does not mean I don’t have a spiritual side. Indeed, being free from superstition and ignorance opens the door to very broad spiritual paths, within my own Judaism and other wise traditions.)
When politicians respond to tragedy solely with prayer, what they’re really doing is telling the rest of us to f**k off.
You can read the report here:
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