OK, I get it now
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I blogged previously about the prayer study and titled my blog "This doesn't make any sense." Leave it to the pastor of my Unitarian church in Dallas to make sense of it for me.
From the Senior Minister - Dr. Laurel Hallman
The newspaper heading read, “Power of Prayer Doubted.” The article (in the March 28 edition of The Dallas Morning News) went on to say that “prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.”
The study began almost a decade ago and involved more than 1,800 patients. It was funded largely by the John Templeton Foundation, a reputable institution which funds scientific studies of religious claims.
The article went on to say, “Patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of postoperative complications . . . perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.”
I for one am glad that there is research that refutes belief in a small god who moves at our bidding.
Some have questioned why, then, our ministers pray during worship on Sundays, apparently asking God for the very requests that are discounted in this study. My simple answer is this: The study didn’t say anything about the effect of prayer on the congregation doing the praying. I know such prayers change those of us in the Sanctuary, making us conscious at a deep level of how bound together we are.
When we pray we are not arranging our words to influence an absent-minded God, or to point Him/Her in the direction of our need. We’re praying because we are humans who need to bow to the mystery and love one another, and our prayers help us do that. We’re praying because we need to give voice to our hope.
The study got it partly right: Prayer can dash expectations which are too literal. (How many people have lost their faith when their prayers haven’t been answered as they were expected to be?) Any future studies need to measure the effect on people who are giving voice to human need without expectation. That might come to something.
From the Senior Minister - Dr. Laurel Hallman
The newspaper heading read, “Power of Prayer Doubted.” The article (in the March 28 edition of The Dallas Morning News) went on to say that “prayers offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people who were undergoing heart surgery, a large and long-awaited study has found.”
The study began almost a decade ago and involved more than 1,800 patients. It was funded largely by the John Templeton Foundation, a reputable institution which funds scientific studies of religious claims.
The article went on to say, “Patients who knew they were being prayed for had a higher rate of postoperative complications . . . perhaps because of the expectations the prayers created, the researchers suggested.”
I for one am glad that there is research that refutes belief in a small god who moves at our bidding.
Some have questioned why, then, our ministers pray during worship on Sundays, apparently asking God for the very requests that are discounted in this study. My simple answer is this: The study didn’t say anything about the effect of prayer on the congregation doing the praying. I know such prayers change those of us in the Sanctuary, making us conscious at a deep level of how bound together we are.
When we pray we are not arranging our words to influence an absent-minded God, or to point Him/Her in the direction of our need. We’re praying because we are humans who need to bow to the mystery and love one another, and our prayers help us do that. We’re praying because we need to give voice to our hope.
The study got it partly right: Prayer can dash expectations which are too literal. (How many people have lost their faith when their prayers haven’t been answered as they were expected to be?) Any future studies need to measure the effect on people who are giving voice to human need without expectation. That might come to something.
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