"If you have enough faith to pray in the first place, you should realize that there is a fundamental difference between the measurable, earthly world of science and the world of divinity. You can only understand what you believe to be true, and if your faith is strong enough to pray, you shouldn't need numbers to confirm that your prayers are working."

I think a LOT of people who pray don't get this.

People incorrectly assign cause/effect relationships for *many* things other than prayer. Any semblance of a correlation between two things is enough to make people think there is a direct cause effect relationship, which is possibly one of the worst things you can do in science.

Is it worth the money to tell to get your point across to all those people who don't understand what you are saying? That prayer and the real world aren't related in the cause/effect way that people think they are. That it's about personal faith. That prayer is about you and God and not whether your lottery number is going to come up.

Keep in mind I agree with just about everything you say except for the fact that the researchers are missing the point/wasting money. If some people out there see that prayer isn't a earthly thing, isn't that good? To people inside the church it probably seems silly, because they already know what the study is saying, but I think a lot of people don't.

its a waste of money because one, that research money could've gone to something more "medical" and worthwhile in nature, like an AIDS study and two, my point about people's beliefs, science won't really convince people either way.

well maybe...i remember Hunter arguing sophomore year about some guy who went around proving the historical authenticity of Jesus' life. it seemed to strengthen his faith...kinda sad really.

Convincing someone that something is true often has little to do with the validity of the statement.

I have a hard time saying that almost any research is a waste of money. If you learn something (which they did, in some people's minds), it has value. Like akash posting about the cookie crumbling research. He said it was a waste, when in fact it was totally not a waste. Cookie manufactures will be able to improve their processes with that information. Just because it doesn't initially sound useful doesn't mean that it isn't. And someone just might stop asking God for earthly results if they believe in science and think that's how God works.

it's a waste in the sense that the medical community and humanity in general would be much better served if science stayed out of faith and those resources were used on cancer or aids research. maybe not a "waste" but not the best use of Duke's money.

I went back and reread the article. It struck me that the headline--"'No health benefit' from prayer" reads more like it's The Onion than a real BBC report.

In the sense that prayer is not about changing this world, it's about making some peace with being in it, I agree that the researchers were asking an invalid question.

But I still think it would have been a lot of fun if, for example, the Islamic prayers had scored enormous health benefits ahead of, say, the Southern Baptists.