By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer 3-30-06
NEW YORK - In the largest study of its kind, researchers found that having people pray for heart bypass surgery patients had no effect on their recovery. In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had a slightly higher rate of complications.
Researchers emphasized that their work can't address whether God exists or answers prayers made on another's behalf. The study can only look for an effect from prayers offered as part of the research, they said.
They also said they had no explanation for the higher complication rate in patients who knew they were being prayed for, in comparison to patients who only knew it was possible prayers were being said for them.
Critics said the question of God's reaction to prayers simply can't be explored by scientific study.
The work, which followed about 1,800 patients at six medical centers, was financed by the Templeton Foundation, which supports research into science and religion. It will appear in the American Heart Journal.
Dr. Herbert Benson of Harvard Medical School and other scientists tested the effect of having three Christian groups pray for particular patients, starting the night before surgery and continuing for two weeks. The volunteers prayed for "a successful surgery with a quick, healthy recovery and no complications" for specific patients, for whom they were given the first name and first initial of the last name.
The patients, meanwhile, were split into three groups of about 600 apiece: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but only knew it was a possibility, and those who weren't prayed for but were told it was a possibility.
The researchers didn't ask patients or their families and friends to alter any plans they had for prayer, saying such a step would have been unethical and impractical.
The study looked for any complications within 30 days of the surgery. Results showed no effect of prayer on complication-free recovery. But 59 percent of the patients who knew they were being prayed for developed a complication, versus 52 percent of those who were told it was just a possibility.
Dr. Harold G. Koenig, director of the Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health at the Duke University Medical Center, who didn't take part in the study, said the results didn't surprise him.
"There are no scientific grounds to expect a result and there are no real theological grounds to expect a result either," he said. "There is no god in either the Christian, Jewish or Moslem scriptures that can be constrained to the point that they can be predicted."
Within the Christian tradition, God would be expected to be concerned with a person's eternal salvation, he said, and "why would God change his plans for a particular person just because they're in a research study?"
Science, he said, "is not designed to study the supernatural."
Thursday, March 30, 2006
Wednesday, March 29, 2006
A More Pleasant Way to Die
Did that title get your attention?
My younger daughter had to write a paper on smoking. She asked me to type it for her. In it, she mentioned that cigarettes contained liquor, not licorice, and that liquor was bad for you.
I explained to her what tobacco and nicotine were and she lit up immediately, "Oh, yeah! That's what I meant. Can we change liquor to nicotine?"
I made the changes and then saw that she had written, "Over 100 people have died from smoking." After a trip to Google, we changed that to, "Over four million people die around the world every year as a result of smoking." That figure does not include deaths related to second-hand smoke.
I had two chocolate almond Dove ice cream bars today and one slice of homemade coconut pie. Though not really good for me, that was so much more pleasant than smoking a bunch of cigarettes.
My younger daughter had to write a paper on smoking. She asked me to type it for her. In it, she mentioned that cigarettes contained liquor, not licorice, and that liquor was bad for you.
I explained to her what tobacco and nicotine were and she lit up immediately, "Oh, yeah! That's what I meant. Can we change liquor to nicotine?"
I made the changes and then saw that she had written, "Over 100 people have died from smoking." After a trip to Google, we changed that to, "Over four million people die around the world every year as a result of smoking." That figure does not include deaths related to second-hand smoke.
I had two chocolate almond Dove ice cream bars today and one slice of homemade coconut pie. Though not really good for me, that was so much more pleasant than smoking a bunch of cigarettes.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Monday, March 20, 2006
My Favorite Day of the Year
By 1:26 pm today, Spring will have officially arrived, even if in name only. This is truly my favorite day of the year. I don't know if it means that much to those of you in milder climes, but here in the Midwest it represents all that is hopeful, beautiful and good. The sky may be overcast, as it is here today, and the air may remain chilly for weeks to come, as it is today, but we know beyond all doubt that the good stuff is closer than it was before!
I am just beginning to notice the leaves of the earliest bulbs poking up from the ground in south-facing gardens. Some years I have had crocus actually blooming in late February, but not this year. Thin carpets of snow remain in the shadow footprints on the north side of bushes and houses, but otherwise the ground is mostly clear. Within the space of just one month, we will be blooming all over the place. I almost forget each year what forsythia looks like, which is one of the blessings of our climate - to have the time and space to mourn, then be rewarded with warmth, color and scent as if for the first time each spring. I love it. I love the anticipation of it almost as much as I love the actual blooms. It can only get better from here on out!
I am just beginning to notice the leaves of the earliest bulbs poking up from the ground in south-facing gardens. Some years I have had crocus actually blooming in late February, but not this year. Thin carpets of snow remain in the shadow footprints on the north side of bushes and houses, but otherwise the ground is mostly clear. Within the space of just one month, we will be blooming all over the place. I almost forget each year what forsythia looks like, which is one of the blessings of our climate - to have the time and space to mourn, then be rewarded with warmth, color and scent as if for the first time each spring. I love it. I love the anticipation of it almost as much as I love the actual blooms. It can only get better from here on out!
Sunday, March 19, 2006
Thursday, March 16, 2006
Wednesday, March 15, 2006
The Goods, Delivered to My Feet
I like to walk and I like to find things as I go. When we used to live on the East Side, I would often find money. The East Side was very good for loose change. The population is denser and many more people over there either go by foot or dig in their pockets for meter money, dropping it into snowbanks to be found weeks or months later by people like me, not above stooping down to pick up a dirty penny, even in the middle of the road.
One year I decided to conduct a little experiment. I began keeping track of exactly how much money I found, putting each month's cache into its own plastic film canister. I only found one piece of paper money that year, a single dollar bill in the road on Cramer Street near the engineering building on campus - I believe it was in March. Why I remember these things, I don't know. By the end of the year, I had eight dollars and fifty-eight cents, all in coins save the one dollar. Of course, my husband, in the span of the same year, found $5.00 outside our apartment building one morning and another $20.00 in front of the frame shop where he was working. Go figure.
I bring this up because this past week has been a very good one for finding things. First, I found a one-pound box of PrimeGuard phillips-head 3.5-inch exterior screws that were inadvertantly dropped and then run over by any number of vehicles in our alley right behind our house. I can use those. A few days later in the cemetary, I found a small, threaded brass finial, shaped like a chess pawn, shiny and heavy in the hand.
This morning, I found a 1 by 1.5-inch chunk of purple amethyst crystal by the sidewalk near the park. Certainly not an autochthonous gem, a child somewhere is missing her treasure.
One year I decided to conduct a little experiment. I began keeping track of exactly how much money I found, putting each month's cache into its own plastic film canister. I only found one piece of paper money that year, a single dollar bill in the road on Cramer Street near the engineering building on campus - I believe it was in March. Why I remember these things, I don't know. By the end of the year, I had eight dollars and fifty-eight cents, all in coins save the one dollar. Of course, my husband, in the span of the same year, found $5.00 outside our apartment building one morning and another $20.00 in front of the frame shop where he was working. Go figure.
I bring this up because this past week has been a very good one for finding things. First, I found a one-pound box of PrimeGuard phillips-head 3.5-inch exterior screws that were inadvertantly dropped and then run over by any number of vehicles in our alley right behind our house. I can use those. A few days later in the cemetary, I found a small, threaded brass finial, shaped like a chess pawn, shiny and heavy in the hand.
This morning, I found a 1 by 1.5-inch chunk of purple amethyst crystal by the sidewalk near the park. Certainly not an autochthonous gem, a child somewhere is missing her treasure.
Monday, March 13, 2006
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