| Modern prayer experiments bring to fruition the grand | | | | results from this unprecedented mother of all prayer |
| experiment envisioned in 1872 by an anonymous Briton | | | | experiments, other prayer experiments surfaced: |
| who threw down a prayer test challenge to believers. | | | | - A 1997 experiment on "Intercessory Prayer in the |
| The experiment was a simple one. Choose "one single | | | | Treatment of Alcohol Abuse and Dependence" found |
| ward or hospital" for three to five years of sustained | | | | no measurable effect of intercessory prayer. |
| prayer by "the whole body of the faithful." Will its | | | | - A 1998 experiment with arthritis patients reported |
| patients' healing and mortality rates surpass those in | | | | that no significant effect from distant prayer was |
| comparable hospitals elsewhere? The proposal | | | | found. |
| triggered a national "prayer-gauge controversy" that | | | | - A 1999 study of 990 coronary care patients -- who |
| raged for a year. For many people, the very idea of | | | | were unaware of the study --reported about 10 |
| testing prayer -- and God -- was outrageous. | | | | percent fewer complications for the half who received |
| If experimenting with prayer offends, said Victorian | | | | prayers "for a speedy recovery with no complications." |
| polymath Francis Galton, then why not examine the | | | | But there was no difference in specific major |
| efficacy of spontaneous prayers? Galton collected | | | | complications such as cardiac arrest, hypertension and |
| mortality data on people who were the subjects of | | | | pneumonia, with the median hospital stay the same 4.0 |
| much prayer, such as kings, and reported that they did | | | | days for both groups. |
| not outlive others. Moreover, the proportion of stillbirths | | | | - A 2001 Mayo Clinic study of 799 coronary care |
| suffered by praying and nonpraying expectant parents | | | | patients offered a simple result: "As delivered in this |
| appeared similar. | | | | study, intercessory prayer had no significant effect on |
| And there things stood quietly for a century, until | | | | medical outcomes," the study said. |
| American researchers decided they would experiment | | | | - A 2005 Duke University study of 848 coronary |
| with prayer. The study that did most to stimulate both | | | | patients found no significant difference in clinical |
| scientific and popular interest in prayer was Randolph | | | | outcomes between those prayed for and those not. |
| Byrd's 1988 report of "Positive Therapeutic Effects of | | | | Amid these negative results, one stunning result |
| Intercessory Prayer in a Coronary Care Unit | | | | challenged my prediction. "Prayer works," said a |
| Population." Byrd randomly assigned 393 coronary | | | | headline in The New York Times magazine after a |
| patients either to a no-prayer group or to a group that | | | | 2001 Journal of Reproductive Medicine article reported |
| would receive prayer from three to seven "born again" | | | | that prayed-for women undergoing in vitro fertilization |
| intercessors. | | | | experienced a 50 percent pregnancy rate -- double |
| For six of 26 outcomes, the prayed-for patients did | | | | the 26 percent rate among those not receiving |
| better. Although there were questions about whether | | | | experimental intercessory prayers. When suspicions |
| the person recording the data was entirely ignorant of | | | | about the study emerged, one of the study's authors |
| the patient assignment, the widely publicized conclusion | | | | pleaded guilty to criminal business fraud and was |
| was that prayer worked. | | | | sentenced to prison. The article's Columbia University |
| For the other measures -- such as length of hospital | | | | co-author removed his name from the "study," with |
| stay and even mortality -- there was, however, no | | | | which it turned out he had no direct involvement. |
| difference between the prayer and no-prayer groups. | | | | Climaxing this string of negative or discredited results |
| The ambiguous results helped inspire Dr. Herbert | | | | comes what may be the coup de grace for |
| Benson, director of the Mind-Body Institute at Harvard | | | | intercessory prayer experiments: intercessory prayer |
| University, to propose in 1997 a substantial, well | | | | in the STEP experiment had no effect on recovery |
| executed and elegantly simple experiment called the | | | | from bypass surgery. If these had been clinical tests of |
| Study of the Therapeutic Effects of Intercessory | | | | a new drug, the pharmaceutical industry would surely, |
| Prayer, also known as STEP. | | | | at this point, say "enough." |
| In STEP, which was funded by the John Templeton | | | | But imagine that these experiments had confirmed the |
| Foundation, more than 1,800 consenting coronary | | | | intercessory prayer's clinical efficacy. How big would |
| bypass patients were assigned to one of three | | | | the "God effect" -- if that is how we would have |
| groups: one that knew that it was being prayed for by | | | | viewed it -- need to be to be added to the list of |
| volunteer intercessors, one that did not know for | | | | recommended medical treatments? Might affluent but ill |
| certain whether it was being prayed for but was, and | | | | people effectively outsource prayers for their healing |
| another group that did not know for certain whether it | | | | by paying distant people to pray, in the confidence that |
| was being prayed for but wasn't. | | | | God will be counting votes? And if a now-proven God |
| After becoming aware of the STEP experiment from | | | | were to be arm-twisted into reliably responding, would |
| Templeton staff and Herbert Benson, the lead | | | | faith be required any more? |
| investigator, I filed a statement "Why People of Faith | | | | Or do we err in viewing the "God effect" as a mere |
| Can Expect Null Effects in the Harvard Prayer | | | | slight subtraction to, for example, the number of |
| Experiment." I put this on record in 1997 so that such | | | | stillbirths or coronary deaths? In the historic Christian |
| Christian thinking about prayer would not seem, if | | | | understanding, God is not a distant genie whom we call |
| offered now, like after-the-fact backpedaling or | | | | forth with our prayers but rather the creator and |
| rationalization. I also wrote two more articles for the | | | | sustainer of all that is. Thus when the Pharisees |
| Reformed Review expressing my Christian and | | | | pressed Jesus for some criteria by which they could |
| scientific skepticism about the prayer experiments | | | | validate the kingdom of God, Jesus answered, "The |
| while acknowledging the more intriguing and persuasive | | | | kingdom of God is not coming with things that can be |
| evidence of correlations between religiousness and | | | | observed . . . . . For, in fact, the kingdom of God is |
| health. | | | | among you. |
| In the intervening nine years, while we awaited the | | | | |