Prayer Hurts

Ouch! Owowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowowow...

Prayer Making Heart Patients Sick!

from Sploid

In the largest study of its kind, the Templeton Foundation has shown that prayer does nothing to aid those undergoing heart surgeries.

In fact, if a patient knows he's being prayed for, that very knowledge leads to a jump in complications.

A group of 1,800 patients were divided into three camps: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who knew they might be prayed for and were, and those who knew they might be prayed for and didn't get any prayers.

Researchers asked three different Christian organizations to pray for the first two groups. Prayers were to begin the night before patients went under the knife and continue for two weeks. (The patients' friends and families were free to pray or not as they normally would.)

The results laid bare Jesus' hostility towards those who think he can be bothered with their personal problems.

Among those who knew they might be prayed for, 52% suffered complications within 30 days of surgery. Those who knew for certain they were being prayed for were afflicted 59% of the time.

Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center - who was in no way affiliated with the study - was not surprised.

"There are no scientific grounds to expect a result and there are no real theological grounds to expect a result either," he said. "There is no god in either the Christian, Jewish or Moslem scriptures that can be constrained to the point that they can be predicted."

In other words, do your ailing friends and relatives a favor: Don't pray for them.