Do you believe that prayer heals?

Depends how you mean heal. I don't think you should rely on prayer to perform miracles instead of going to the doctor. But I believe it can provide a healing of sorts, sometimes physical but more often spiritual. Just don't go around being a dope and avoiding the doctor cause you think prayer is gonna magically cure you.

I would say more mental healing than physical.

There are studies that have said people in the hospital who pray or have people praying for them do have faster recovery rates than those that don't. Of course some people atribute it to just being the placebo effect, that it's nothing more than just thinking positively, but they've never been able to answer my question if that's the case, why can't atheists in the hospital think as positively as the others do without even needing religious beliefs? Are they just not that positive in general, or what? Whenever I ask that question, everybody says a lot of stuff in response but they always forget the answer.

Supernova wrote:

...but they've never been able to answer my question if that's the case, why can't atheists in the hospital think as positively as the others do without even needing religious beliefs? Are they just not that positive in general, or what? Whenever I ask that question, everybody says a lot of stuff in response but they always forget the answer.

Studies are often misconstrued and sometimes even flawed in their methodology. But newspapers will report them nonetheless.

Did they correctly identify the Atheists as a control? Then, can one really determine what an Atheist thinks?

I consider myself an Agnostic, maybe even an Atheist but I do have an acceptance of a mystical nature, one that falls outside the scientific tests of observation. I am also pretty healthy and have recovered well from those few diseases that I have not been able to ward off with my blue forcefield.

The human mind is a wonderful and mysterious thing. My opinion is that as long as you're not betting your life that prayer alone is going to cure you, it couldn't hurt. PS - Shale, a minor correction. In 1909, Twain is quoted as saying:

Quote :

I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: 'Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.'
His prediction was accurate – Twain died of a heart attack on April 21, 1910, in Redding, Connecticut, one day after the comet's closest approach to Earth.

He was shy of his 75th B'day, not 80.

alan smithee wrote:

...He was shy of his 75th B'day, not 80.

Damn, can't a guy get away with a commonly accepted myth without someone doing research around here?

















Thanx

No, I don't believe that prayer heals. I think it can definitely give someone comfort in a crisis, but that it doesn't heal the ailment. And I totally agree with what FM said - don't go screwy and avoid the doctor all together! Faith in God, in my opinion, is less reliable.

I am agnostic, but I believe in the power of prayer to heal.

Prayer=investing your energy in something,sending it to someone else.

I believe that we are all made up of energy and when someone prays for you, they are sending you some of their energy and extra energy leads to faster healing.

Very scientific, I know...

Did anyone watch What the Bleep Do We Know?

The experiments with water in that movie were really interesting to me, and that's partly why I believe in it.

MarQ-Boogie wrote:

I believe in God and I know prayer works.

It has worked for me.

Amen. Same here.

No, however if a person believes that prayer can help then it probably will. Placebo's work for some people too.

RedBedroom wrote:

MarQ-Boogie wrote:

I believe in God and I know prayer works.

It has worked for me.

Amen. Same here.

Same here - both in my own life but also in the lives of others.

Suzi wrote:

No, however if a person believes that prayer can help then it probably will. Placebo's work for some people too.

But sometimes placebo cannot explain some of the effects of prayer.

Prayer works, you just shouldn't sit on your butt and not do anything else because you expect it to. Prayer is complementary; it shouldn't take the place of action.

Forgiveness Man wrote:

Depends how you mean heal. I don't think you should rely on prayer to perform miracles instead of going to the doctor. But I believe it can provide a healing of sorts, sometimes physical but more often spiritual. Just don't go around being a dope and avoiding the doctor cause you think prayer is gonna magically cure you.

They say sometimes the mind helps heal the body....and I guess prayer and faith plays a part in putting the mind in a more secure space. Man I don't know. At the very least prayer doesn't hurt, so whatever. My problem is the people who put so much stock in their faith that they reject more realistic medical treatments....thinking that God alone will cure whatever's wrong.

^^^^As the story goes: "I sent you the boat." "I sent you the helicopter." Sometimes God will answer your prayers by making medicine work. lol Sometimes I think people think that God can't do anything short of a big, showy, news-making miracle. Sometimes God doesn't need to make a big statement with a cure. Sometimes a prayer is answered by something just working out.

I believe that prayer is like self-hypnosis. If you believe in something hard enough, you can make it happen. But that's as far as it goes.

MarQ-Boogie wrote:

I believe in God and I know prayer works.

It has worked for me.