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#1
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Quote:
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Hooray for fiscal irresponsibility and forced morality. |
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#2
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Of course, the devil is in the details.
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#3
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Unlike a regular study, where you can be assured that your control group does not receive Medicine X, how do you show that Patient Y did not also have prayers being said for them? If my wife were in the hospital, I'd be praying for her even if she were in the control group.
Alternate theory: no additional benefit seen because prayer already occured for all patients. |
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#4
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#5
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We're still ornery colonies to them
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#7
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What a stupid study. If God doesn't exist, then they're not going to find anything. If God does exist, then I'm pretty sure He's smart enough to outwit a bunch of scientists, so, again, they're not going to find anything. Stupid, stupid, stupid.
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#8
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I think the dose dependant argument is perfectly reasonable. The God that most believers worship isn't a mindless energy that can be tapped by prayer, but rather a sentient omniscient entity. If you accept the fact that there is a God and that he listens to our prayers, there is no reason to believe that he answers them in any democratic fashion.
__________________
Hooray for fiscal irresponsibility and forced morality. |
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#9
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My wfe and I were discussing prayer last night and what I would like to know is why is praying for someone else suppose to work?
I can understand why God would respond to someone praying for themselves (i.e. submitting to God, putting faith in God, etc.), but what I don't understand is why praying for someone else is suppose to work. It can't be to bring the situation to God's attenetion (as He is all knowing) and it can't be a popularity contest (as that would make God very callous looking). So, for you religious people out there what is the theory behind praying for someone else? |
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#10
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There was a very flawed study a couple of years back purporting to show that prayer improves the mortality of cardiac patients. The media made a big deal about this at the time and I am pretty sure that I have encountered people citing the study to defend their religious beliefs.
If you subscribe to the "separate domains" theory of Gould, then the study is a waste of time. But to the extent that religionists continue to makes claims that have emperical imprort (miralces etc), their claims can and should be tested by science. Edit: ah ha! I knew this was a familiar discussion.
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Someone tells us that God loves us as a father loves his children. We are reassured. But then something awful happens. Some qualification is made.... We are reassured again. But then perhaps we ask: what is this assurance of God's (appropriately qualified) love worth, what is this apparent guarantee really a guarantee against? Just what would have to happen not merely (morally and wrongly) to tempt but also (logically and rightly) to entitle us to say "God does not love us" or even "God does not exist"? -- Antony Flew |
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