Prayer Does Not Help Heart Patients

mu22le writes "A recent study conducted by the Duke University Medical Center on 700 patients, found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. Researchers emphasized their work does not address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. This result seems to contradict a previous study by the same authors that reported "cardiac patients who received intercessory prayer in addition to coronary stenting appeared to have better clinical outcomes than those treated with standard stenting therapy alone"."

Comments

News flash!

[spaztik]

In other news... wishing upon a star will not make dreams come true. Details at 11.

Job Security

[trongey]

Now that they have two conflicting results they'll need a new grant to conduct another study so they can conclude which of their first two studies was correct. Yay! 5 more years of research funding.

No wonder the prayers didn't help

[vertinox]

Cthulhu was displeased with the family's offerings.

Unfortunatley since they awoken the great Ancient one with their pleas for mercy, the heart patients and their family (and next of kin and family pets) will be eaten first and slowly.

The Real Problem

[Eightyford]

Of course the real problem is that God is too busy helping rappers get their bling bling. This is obvious if you've ever watched a music awards show.

Re:Well of course not....

[Red Flayer]

"Prayer comes from the heart, and can't be done in a cold and scientific manner in the name of research." (emphasis mine)

Well, obviously then, the reason the prayer didn't work is that the patients all had defective hearts.

Even as a heartless bastard, though, I can attest that at least some of my prayers to The One Who Lies Dead but Dreaming have been answered. Though not all those prayers involved positive thoughts.

Maybe the victims were evil?

[macz]

Perhaps the real reason is that the people studied were not worthy of divine intervention? Did anyone check their level of evil before praying for them?

Re:No point to this study

[Concerned Onlooker]

The issue is to debunk pseudoscience and other mystic entities.

Exactly. But I certainly hope you weren't referring to the Flying Spaghetti Monster and His noodly appendage, otherwise I'm going to have to ask you to step outside.

Re: No point to this study

[Black Parrot]

> They put the control group inside a Faraday cage.

And the test group in a Prayer-a-day cage?

Re:No point to this study

[Mister Whirly]

Oh, I see..The scientist were praying wrong ... Well that explains everything then...

Re:No point to this study

[thatguywhoiam]

I'm not religious, but at the same time I don't get why science always has to have something to prove.

Wow. Just.. wow. I can't believe I just read those words. Can I sig that?

This has to be one of the funnest statements ever made on Slashdot. Your logic is completely impenetrable. Kudos!

Bash

[christian.elliott]

This reminds me of a great bash.org quote that I'd like to share with you all:

Gear Grinder X: once, we had these total freak seventh day advenist (or whatever) freak ass neighbors

Gear Grinder X: and this girl Lanna was a little younger than me

Gear Grinder X: she was a bitch, and they were all totally religious

Gear Grinder X: she threw rocks at me once on my bike, and so I turned around, and went to run over here

Gear Grinder X: I was hauling ASS, and you know what she did?

Gear Grinder X: put her hands on her hips, and stood there and said "The lord will protect me"

Gear Grinder X: well.... he didn't