We deliberately chose not to cover recent reports about negative effects of prayer on health. The Ayn Rand Institute nicely summarizes why such research is pure nonsense:
“The Harvard medical study showing that prayer has no effect on recovery from heart surgery is shocking,” said Dr. Yaron Brook, executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute. “It is not shocking that prayer has no medical effects–what’s shocking is that scientists at Harvard Medical School are wasting their time studying the medical effects of prayer.”
“Science is a method of gaining knowledge by systematically studying things that actually exist and have real effects. The notion that someone’s health can be affected by the prayers or wishes of strangers is based on nothing but imagination and faith. Such blind belief represents the rejection of reason and science, and is not worthy of serious, rational consideration. What’s next? A study of the medical effects of blowing out birthday candles?”
Good for them for doing an excellent job in flushing this Harvard research down the sewer pipe, where it belongs.
And here is an example of the USA Today, a nation-wide, reputable newspaper, reprinting an article from The Christian Science Monitor, that supposedly being neutral, simply cannot hide its disgust for research turning out the way the church wouldn’t approve: Study highlights difficulty of isolating effect of prayer on patients.
Science for the peasants, indeed.
The press release from the Ayn Rand Institute…
