The Power of Prayer

Debunking Christian Science

An incident last night at a  Christian Science "lecture" entitled "Healing with Scientific Certainty Through Christ":-

Speaker: "I've never relied on medicine or been to a hospital...." 

Robert Stovold*: "You've been to an opticians though, haven't you?"

So, emotive testimonies of people being brought back from the dead on one hand, and the speaker's glasses implying that prayer doesn't cure minor sight ailments on the other. Which is it reasonable to believe, do you think?

*Brighton & Hove Humanist Society.

The Athiest's prayer

Prayer can make things worse

The next time some faithhead offers to pray for you best be on the safe side and try and convince them not to. The scientific study summarised here demonstrates that: if you don't know that they are praying for you it doesn't make any difference; but if you do know they are, it can actually make things worse.  True this has only been investigated for patients recovering from a cardiac bypass, and one can find oneself the subject of offers of prayer for all kinds of reasons, but why take any chances. . . .?

Chilean mine rescue

It would seem logical to credit God with the rock fall that entombed the miners and thank the engineers for their eventual rescue.