Maybe They Should have Studied Purrs

Yep, they should have studied purrs - they seem to work amazingly well. I'd
rather have this group purr for me than have a church group pray for me.


--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/


"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
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Study fails to show healing power of prayer

By Michael Conlon Fri Mar 31, 9:49 AM ET

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent
heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized
for their recovery had any impact, researchers said Thursday.

In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being
prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed
for -- though those who did the study said they could not explain why.

The patients in the study at six U.S. hospitals included 604 who were
actually prayed for after being told they might or might not be; another
597 patients who were not prayed for after being told they might or might
not be; and a group of 601 who were prayed for and told they would be the
subject of such prayer.

The praying was done by members of three Christian groups in monasteries
and elsewhere -- two Catholic and one Protestant -- who were given written
prayers and the first name and initial of the last name of the prayer
subjects. The prayers started on the eve of or day of surgery and lasted
for two weeks.

Among the first group -- who were prayed for but only told they might
be -- 52 percent had post-surgical complications compared to 51 percent in
the second group, the ones who were not prayed for though told they might
be. In the third group, who knew they were being prayed for, 59 percent
had complications.

After 30 days, however, the death rates and incidence of major
complications was about the same across all three groups, said the study
published in the American Heart Journal.

COMPLICATIONS AFTER SURGERY

"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications
occurred (and) patients who were certain that intercessors would pray for
them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were uncertain
but did receive intercessory prayer," the study said.

There is "no clear explanation" for the latter finding, it added.

The study -- called the largest of its kind -- was designed only to try to
measure the impact of intercessory prayer on heart surgery patients, an
intervention that some earlier reports had showed seemed to be beneficial.

"Our study was never intended to address the existence of God or the
presence or absence of intelligent design in the universe" or to compare
the efficacy of one prayer form over another, said the Rev. Dean Marek,
director of chaplain services at the Mayo Clinic, one of the authors.

The patients in the study had similar religious profiles with most
believing in spiritual healing and almost all also thinking that friends
or relatives would be praying for them as well, he said.

"One caveat is that with so many individuals receiving prayer from friends
and family, as well as personal prayer, it may be impossible to
disentangle the effects of study prayer from background prayer," Manoj
Jain of Baptist Memorial Hospital, Memphis, Tennessee, another author of
the report.

The authors said one possible limitation to their study was that those
doing the special praying had no connection or acquaintance with the
subjects of their prayer, which would not usually be the norm.

"Private or family prayer is widely believed to influence recovery from
illness, and the results of this study do not challenge this belief," the
report concluded.


http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060331/...lyBHNlYwMxNzAx

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"Nomen Nescio" wrote in message
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From: "CatNipped"

Yep, they should have studied purrs - they seem to work amazingly well.
I'd
rather have this group purr for me than have a church group pray for me.

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

That's got to be one of the dumbest "studies" I've
ever heard about. At a cost of $2 1/2 mil.
A bunch of strangers chanting crap for the benefit
of someone whose full name isn't even known.
I gotta think God was either disgusted by it, or
was laughing his ass off. "Ok, I'm hearing a prayer
for John D. Which John D. are these clowns babbling
about. Medammit, don't they know how many f**kin'
John D.s I know."
And why no Rabbi. Maybe Hebrew prayers work
better. Or (gasp) Muslim.
Maybe they should have tried having Muslims praying
for Jews. I'd bet that would get God's attention.
And it was just plain rude to leave Satan out of it.
"Excuse me, sir, but we're doing a study on the healing
effects of prayer and have arranged to have a group of
devil worshipers pray for your recovery"...."Uh, thanks,
but I already sacrificed a goat before coming to the hospital."
Of course, there's Voodoo. How can anyone be expected
to recover from surgery if nobody dances around the bed
with a live chicken.
But what if the patient was an atheist? I suppose it wouldn't
matter much if God's the happy, "Make love, not war", God
of the New Testament. But what if He's the angry, vengeful,
"F**k you all", God of the Old Testament?.... Some surgeon's
gonna get a nasty case of "crotch itch" in the middle of the
operation.

So many unconstrained variables that it's a stretch
to even call it a "study".

ROTFLMAO! Since the outcome was that prayer didn't work I'm assuming this
*wasn't* conducted by right-wing republicans*. As you say, if they would
have done a study on *which* religion's prayers worked I might have agreed
to spending my tax dollars to show that they are *all* equally ineffective.
Like I said, give me purrs every time!!!

* I think we're about this | | far away from our democracy becoming a
theocracy already!

--

Hugs,

CatNipped

See all my masters at: http://www.PossiblePlaces.com/CatNipped/





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"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Yep, they should have studied purrs - they seem to work amazingly well.
I'd rather have this group purr for me than have a church group pray for
me.


I was told last year, by doctors that I would die, maybe quite soon. I was
purred for and I'm still here.
To be fair, though, I also had laying on of hands and blessings from Morman
priests.
I don't know which worked. Something did.
So I'm still able to torment you all with my mails.

Tweed
just joking

Christina Websell wrote:
"CatNipped" wrote in message
...
Yep, they should have studied purrs - they seem to work amazingly
well. I'd rather have this group purr for me than have a church
group pray for me.


I was told last year, by doctors that I would die, maybe quite soon.
I was purred for and I'm still here.
To be fair, though, I also had laying on of hands and blessings from
Morman priests.
I don't know which worked. Something did.
So I'm still able to torment you all with my mails.

Tweed
just joking

My money's on the purrs. :-)
--
Adrian (Owned by Snoopy and Bagheera)
Cats leave pawprints on your heart.
http://community.webshots.com/user/clowderuk