|
tazzygirl -> RE: Think there is a god and what is your evidence? (2/15/2012 11:31:18 AM)
|
quote:
Leaving aside things like only 4 out of 10 people believe in evolution There have been numerous studies on the power of prayer showing that it doesn't work the way believers keep using it.
And this is the crux of the issue. There are numerous ways that have shown, study after study, that reduction of stress DOES work, and that prayer is one source for that reduction.
My claim has been all along that prayer works. The fact that it doesnt work in the way you believe people believe that it works doesnt matter. Your belief doesnt hold water.
quote:
Thing is we're not having that conversation, we're talking about things like whether the placebo effect counts when it comes to the claim that something "works".
Even under that statement, prayer works. It seems like you are confusing this type of prayer with faith healing. The two are worlds apart.
"Pray as if everything depends on god, work as if everything depends on you"
I grew up with that, its something I believe in to this day. If there is a god, as most christians believe him to be, then he has given the knowledge to heal to others.
When my son was small, he had surgery on his feet. The nurse came out and told me he died on the table. I hit my knees. I had all the trust in the world in his doctors. I still prayed that any powers that are out in the world.... The nurse came back and told us he recovered and they were finishing up his surgery. She came back out quickly and told us they lost him a second time. I didnt stop praying through that whole time. He is now 25, so obviously he pulled through.
I do not credit "god" with the outcome, I credit the knowledge and experience of the OR crew, the 4 surgeons they had working on his, the staff of nurses and techs and the anesthesia crew.
What did prayer do for my son? I do not know. Nor do I claim to know. I know what it did for me. Calm. Focus. I could train my thoughts elsewhere and still keep my son in my thoughts. Instead of sobbing and wailing that he was gone, it gave me something to do when I could not have possibly done a damn thing.
In one of the most stressful moments of my life, I found peace in prayer. This is what most people find. This is what I have heard patients and/or their families state time and time again.
Then I come across people like you who insist everything has to have a scientific basis for what is being experienced. Maybe there is a god, and maybe he did answer my prayer. If there is, and I meet him on "judgement" day, then I will thank him with my whole being, regardless of my intended place of rest.
And if there isnt, what harm did I commit? It would then be nothing more than an exercise in meditation, because I was surely hyper-focused in my prayers.
I do appreciate you do not view things as I do, just like I do not view things as many religious people do. What I will not do is condemn and insult people who choose a course of action that I may not take if there is nothing other than a beneficial outcome.
Prayer harms no one. Even the study you last cited could not point to a cause of harm in the levels of stress.
|
|
|
|
