Prayer Study

[dannibear]

My friend who's an atheist upset me today,
and I just can't shake off what he said.
Can anyone explain to me, this thing he told me?
I feel like there has to be something explaining
this:

He says that scientists conducted a study where a
patient had cancer, and they assigned one group
to not pray for the patient, and another group
to pray. They found praying had no difference
on the patient.

What should I think of this? It's upsetting

 

[HeIsMyFather]

Hummm...sounds like he's trying to jerk your chain here.

Ask him where he saw this so-called 'study', who conducted it, etc.

From what you wrote, these people had two groups of people-one group was essentially told to do nothing (not pray), and the other was instructed to pray.
Now we know that God doesn't hear prayers from unbelievers, so, since believers
already know this, obviously the ones conducting the study were unbelievers, as well
as those doing the 'praying'....I'm not surprised at these 'results'.

 

[dannibear]

i was thinking about it today, and I wondered,
doesn't God also not listen to prayers that are obviously
for selfish wicked reasons? if the prayers were meant to
prove whether He existed or not, He wouldn't take
care of them would He?

 

[HeIsMyFather]

Another good point, danni. We must also consider who is really behind that study too!
Don't let it get you down, for that was the main goal of the enemy.

 

[Boanerges]

It depends on the facts you select. I have seen people healed by God and scientists are often (not always) anti God with a skewed view.

Here is an article for you:

By Don Teague
Correspondent
NBC News
updated 9:30 a.m. CT, Fri., March. 25, 2005<script language="javascript"> function UpdateTimeStamp(pdt) { var n = document.getElementById("udtD"); if(pdt != '' && n && window.DateTime) { var dt = new DateTime(); pdt = dt.T2D(pdt); if(dt.GetTZ(pdt)) {n.innerHTML = dt.D2S(pdt,((''.toLowerCase()=='false')?false:true));} } } UpdateTimeStamp('632473578284970000');</script>

Durham, N.C. - By all medical standards, Andy Delbridge should be dead. The North Carolina father of two was diagnosed three years ago with the most aggressive and dangerous type of brain tumor.
"It was just devastation. I thought, 'I'm not going to make it, I'm just not going to make it,' " says Delbridge.
His chances of surviving were no more than a few months.
"Half the patients are dead within 12 months of diagnosis. The overall survival at several years out is felt to be 2, maybe 5 percent," says Dr. Henry Friedman, a neurooncologist at Duke University.But despite long odds, Delbridge underwent surgery, radiation and painful chemotherapy. And while putting his trust in doctors at Duke University Hospital, Delbridge also put his faith in God.
Members of Delbridge's church prayed for him daily. He and his family asked for divine intervention."I prayed for a miracle, I really did. I said, 'God, I know you can do it,' " says Andy’s wife, Nancy.
"The minute you think that you have no hope, you are down for the count. So you've got to always think there's hope," says Andy.
Today Delbridge is cancer free. Not only is the brain tumor gone, so are the growths that had appeared near his heart. They simply disappeared, without surgery.
For decades the medical community basically ignored the impact of religion on health. But in recent years, scientists have begun studying the possibility that faith matters.

 

[HeIsMyFather]

Actually, it sounds to me that danni's atheist friend, as I said, was making this up. He/she probably can't give any links or evidence of any kind of study like this, because it likely never happened. While I can't give any evidence on studies of this type that show prayer helped, I do recall seeing on a news report some time back that doctors have seen miraculous healing because of prayer for the afflicted one by true believers in their support group (family, friends, church).

Mr. Delbridge certainly had all that and is now cancer-free. Praise the Lord for that!

As I pointed out, this so-called 'study' your friend talked about was obviously flawed. If it did happen, then the researchers didn't gather the right people for the group that was to pray so that the study would be valid.

 

[dannibear]

okie dokie, thank you for your wisdom ^-^
it just hurt me when i thought, but God can do anything!
and to hear that someone didn't get better through
prayer made me stumble, but then I remembered a verse
in the Bible somewhere that said, because of your hardened
heart, you felt like I was not there, or something like that.
And I realized, that when we pray, what he does is
totally not what we expect, or even at the time we ask for.
I feel so much better about it now

 

[HeIsMyFather]

You are welcome, danni, and I'm so glad you feel better now. I'm certainly no expert, still being a newborn in Christ, but I felt led by Him to answer you and help you see what was really going on. Sometimes, in dealing with an unbeliever, such as an atheist, even though he/she might be a friend, one must approach such claims with a bit of skepticism, and get more information from them. In cases like this, there's other things going on, and it's usually because the enemy is behind it all.

 

[cowbot]

2 points,

1) Google something like ' research into healing effects of prayer' and you will find studies that show prayer has a positive effect. I have witnessed healings after people have received prayer and I am sure many others on this forum have too.

2) In my many many years of determined atheism I would happly proclaim statements such the one that has upset you so, without any consideration if what I was saying was actually correct, I would just take it as fact because it aligned with my world view. (After years of study though, I can now only conclude that the bible is true and my years of disbelief were wrong).

If prayer was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for me!

Pray in love that your friend would start to question the basis of their world view. Once that happens, the Lord will come in.

God Bless,
Cowbot

 

[HeIsMyFather]

Amen and amen, cowbot! That's a wonderful testimony!

 

[Boanerges]

okie dokie, thank you for your wisdom ^-^
it just hurt me when i thought, but God can do anything!
and to hear that someone didn't get better through
prayer made me stumble, but then I remembered a verse
in the Bible somewhere that said, because of your hardened
heart, you felt like I was not there, or something like that.
And I realized, that when we pray, what he does is
totally not what we expect, or even at the time we ask for.
I feel so much better about it now

Something else to consider Dannibear, the world cannot see things the way believers can.
Sometimes God heals people by prayer, by Doctors, by medicine or any combination of the above. He is the One that gave the herbs of the field and etc for medicine to be made from. He is the One who placed the principles of medicine for the Doctors and researchers to find.
They cannot do anything but find and use the tools He placed here for us.

Sometimes He allows troubles in our lives but walks hand in hand with us as a testimony to His grace and a method of ministering to others.
Sometimes He takes folks home. To them it seems death and the grave but to a Christian it is promotion time. Going to be with our heavenly Father is the greatest promotion and the ultimate healing.

Everything our God does is good.
Nothing can happen to a believer that God will not work for good.
We quite simply cannot loose.

 

[dannibear]

2 points,

1) Google something like ' research into healing effects of prayer' and you will find studies that show prayer has a positive effect. I have witnessed healings after people have received prayer and I am sure many others on this forum have too.

2) In my many many years of determined atheism I would happly proclaim statements such the one that has upset you so, without any consideration if what I was saying was actually correct, I would just take it as fact because it aligned with my world view. (After years of study though, I can now only conclude that the bible is true and my years of disbelief were wrong).

If prayer was good enough for Jesus, then it is good enough for me!

Pray in love that your friend would start to question the basis of their world view. Once that happens, the Lord will come in.

God Bless,
Cowbot

wow, that is amazing! Thanks so much for sharing that ^-^
and that's something I will certainly do, it can be info
added to the collection on my wall, I have a wall
covered with evidence, poems, and pictures for Jesus.

 

[dannibear]

Something else to consider Dannibear, the world cannot see things the way believers can.
Sometimes God heals people by prayer, by Doctors, by medicine or any combination of the above. He is the One that gave the herbs of the field and etc for medicine to be made from. He is the One who placed the principles of medicine for the Doctors and researchers to find.
They cannot do anything but find and use the tools He placed here for us.

Sometimes He allows troubles in our lives but walks hand in hand with us as a testimony to His grace and a method of ministering to others.
Sometimes He takes folks home. To them it seems death and the grave but to a Christian it is promotion time. Going to be with our heavenly Father is the greatest promotion and the ultimate healing.

Everything our God does is good.
Nothing can happen to a believer that God will not work for good.
We quite simply cannot loose.

How can I or anyone else refuse that kind of hope and promise?
Thank you so much

 

[dchildress]

Prayer is justified!

He has miss informed you on that fact founded by The Medical Society of Prevention of Diseases. The study was conducted but he has construed the evidence to back his claim. In actual facts they found that pray increased the patient out come of returning to health. It actually strengthen their desire to fight in a time of need. I hope next time that you will look him in the eyes and profess your faith with love and grace to him/or her. God Bless, Brother David.