things i learned while looking up other things. prayer

[mopinko]

mayo clinic study of intercessory prayer.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11761499

[PDJane]

1. I believe that I could have informed them of that

without the expense of a study.

[mopinko]

2. me too

but it is nice to see it proven so that we don't end up paying for it.

[damntexdem]

3. But IP is such an interesting area for study.

It represents an area where religious claims about the supernatural (as opposed, for example, to religious claims about the natural world, such as Creationism) can be tested by science. And many IP studies have been done, with no definitive positive results. One study claimed a significant positive outcome, but that was not with the test of a pre-stated hypothesis, rather after a "fishing expedition" through the data to find an ad hoc "index" that showed a "significant" outcome -- in other words, contortions to find something to report. But my favorite IP study was one of in-vitro fertilization, with a report of significant positive effects that had been hypothesized. This is my favorite because the Roman Catholic Church says that in-vitro fertilization is immoral, whereas here was an IP study purporting to show positive effects of prayer. Later, the study's authors admitted that the data had been fudged.

;-)