Did you catch the brief but remarkable story about researchers who have concluded (once again) that more and more Americans are praying about their health? As striking as that is, it's not the big surprise in the latest study.
Here's what is: as of 2007 the percent of adults who are praying about their health is now at 49 percent -- no kidding, about half of the adult population -- up from 43 percent in 2002 and 14 percent in 1999. That's a lot of prayers.
But what about the results? With all that lofty thinking going on are people actually satisfied with the outcome? Apparently so. The researchers commented in their report that a huge majority reported positive experiences.
Harold Koenig, M.D. isn't surprised. In the introduction to his now-classic Handbook of Religion and Health, a definitive analysis of the effect of religion and spirituality on health, Koenig noted: "As those of us who have labored in this field for many years have long suspected, the relationship between religion and health, on average and at the population level, is overwhelmingly positive."
Does this decade-long trend signal that people aren't putting as much faith in drug-based therapies as they once did? Not necessarily. Many who said they pray about health also told survey-takers they're using prayer as a supplement to their medical treatment, apparently hoping for the best of both worlds.
Still, for some whose treatment for bodily pain and ailments is solely mental and spiritual, the results are impressive. Mind-healing, which doesn't need to be helped along by drugs, has been the health care method of choice for some people for years. Critical to understanding how that could be is an understanding of just how much the human mind alone affects the action and condition of the body, and of the potential for spirituality to improve the human mind. An improved mental state, in other words, can promote health.
The research suggests that the average man and woman, through their everyday experiences with prayer and health, get this. They get it in spite of the more "rational" materialistic arguments made by critics of non-traditional methods of treatment who say that all this spiritual stuff is without convincing evidence.
Yet what the critics aren't embracing, the people are: the potential of a more spiritual consciousness to improve and restore health, and the confirmation from their own experience that indeed it does.
Which then raises a larger question about the future of health care. It isn't so much about where we're headed, really -- the public is showing a strong interest in finding alternative methods of care -- but who will take the lead?
Open-minded men and women, it appears, are the "experts" to watch. In the trenches of health care decision-making everyday, they're challenging long-held assumptions, looking at all the health care options before them, including prayer, and as surveys show they are utilizing prayer to a growing degree. For those who thought health care reform was just about cost control and access, think again.
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Dennis Merritt Jones: Reverence Thyself First: Where the Sacred Journey Begins
Placebos appear to work.
Meditation and positive thinking can help.
More people pray for their health because they can’t afford insurance.
Regardless, more people are fat and sick today than ever.
More prayers doesn’t not equal prayers answered.
Not all gods can be the “right one” so some religionists are lying.
Blind studies on prayer were not considered for this piece.
Christian Science practitioner’s have christian agendas.
So-called positive results from this article come in the form of non-specific words and phrases such as:
“apparently”
“understanding how that could be”
“research suggests”
“the potential of”
“it appears”
Then on to obvious yet vague statements that don’t offer any proof of the outcome such as:
“mind healing… is a choice”
Or add in other factors such as:
“using prayer as a supplement”
And finally amorphous and non-specific terms such as:
“growing degree”
“huge majority”
On a related note, if I squint hard enough, Keira Knightley looks like Natalie Portman.
Unfortunately, double-blind studies have shown that intercessory prayer does not have any benefits when it comes to resolving actual medical problems. At most, prayer has a psychological effect, similar to meditation or other proven anxiety reducing activities.
For example, take the results of this extensive Mayo Clinic study: "Conclusions: As delivered in this study, intercessory prayer had no significant effect on medical outcomes after hospitalization in a coronary care unit." - http://www.mayoclinicproceedings.com/content/76/12/1192
So, please don't try the "many believe it, so it must be real" line on us. Educated people demand hard evidence, not anecdotes and fuzzy feelings.
Matthew 7:7 Jesus says: Ask, and it will be given you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you. For every one who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
Matthew 17:20 Jesus says: For truly, I say to you, if you have faith as a grain of mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.
In Matthew 21:21: If you believe, you will receive whatever you ask for in prayer.
Mark 11:24: Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours.
Matthew 18:19 Jesus says: Again I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything they ask, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven.
In places where medical care isn't available people pray too but their prayers aren't as effective.
Now why does god only answer the prayers of those who have good medical care?
So, apparently it isn't the theology, but rather the hope that it provides. Hope is a very human emotion. It is not exclusive to believers.
Using this fact, could it be that it has nothing to do with the theology or claimed deity, but is a very human response to thinking positive thoughts, religious or not. Saying positive affirmations, whether to a deity or just "your strong enough to get through this" appear to have the same outcome.
First of all, the reason more are praying for better health is because less can afford quality health care. And it doesn't help when the very people that believe praying helps also don't want health care to cover the types of things that their god may not like, such as birth control and certain vaccinations.
Second, why pray to fight something that was given you by your god in the first place? Why doesn't the invisible man you are trying to converse with ever get the blame for the natural condition of disease and any other ailment in the first place?
Yes, it most definitely helps you lead a happier life when you have a positive attitude about your life and your recovery from sickness. There is no doubt depression leads to a more unhealthy physical life. But praying neither aids nor hurts, it just wastes your time. Nobody is listening, and even if he is, well, why would he take away what he just gave you?
This is proof that prayer has positive health effects? lol. Everywhere I look I see obesity and wildly popular poisonous "food". Most Americans have no idea what "healthy" even means.
take a war. 10000 men are getting ready to charge the enemy. they all pray. its a massacre. 9900 men are cut down. 100 men survive and thank god for answering their prayers. they go all over the nation with testimonials about how god answered their prayers. the 9900 whos prayers failed dont get to tell their story. they are dead.
What happened to those who have died since the beginning of time? Were they judged when they died and were sent to heaven or hell and they have to be judged again? A retrial? Or have they been in a spiritual state of suspended animation waiting for the Last Judgment? In the latter case, heaven and hell must be currently empty.
"When that happens for me, I strongly suspect I will wish I had prayed more."
Prayed more for what?