{"id":6042,"date":"2004-06-02T11:12:35","date_gmt":"2004-06-02T18:12:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/2004\/06\/02\/not-a-prayer.html"},"modified":"2004-06-02T11:12:35","modified_gmt":"2004-06-02T18:12:35","slug":"not_a_prayer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2004\/06\/02\/not_a_prayer.html","title":{"rendered":"Not a prayer"},"content":{"rendered":"

A famous study, published in the Columbia University Medical Center Journal of Reproductive Medicine<\/em> in October 2001, purporting to prove (or at least indicate) the efficacy of intercessory prayer, looks like it may have been fraudulent<\/a>.<\/p>\n

One of the study’s authors is a conman obsessed with the paranormal who has admitted to a multi-million-dollar scam. Daniel Wirth, now under house arrest in California awaiting sentencing, has used a series of false identities for several decades, including that of a dead child.
\nWirth is at the centre of a network of bizarre scientific research, often working with co-researcher Joseph Horvath. Horvath has pleaded guilty to fraud, has used a series of false names and is accused of burning down his house for insurance money.
\n[…] The study was based on an IVF programme in Korea. Prayer groups in the United States, Canada and Australia were shown anonymous pictures of women on the programme and asked to pray. The subjects were not told they were part of a study, but the results claimed to show that the group had double the success rate of a group not being prayed for.<\/p>\n

The story goes on to describe a laundry list of crimes, indictments, lack of qualifications, and other damning evidence against Wirth and Horvath’s bona fides<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Lots of questions here. First and foremost, how did CU let something like this past their peer review process? Something as controversial as this should have raised a lot of eyebrows. “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proof.” That two of the authors (not those listed above) were Columbia faculty ought not to have made a difference here, though …<\/p>\n

Secondly, science generally works through testing and retesting of hypotheses. Have there been attempts to replicate the results? If not, why not, and, if so, what did they <\/em>indicate?<\/p>\n

Finally, why has it taken two and a half years for someone to dig up the dirt on the paper authors? This study has been widely touted by various religious folk as proof of the power of prayer. Certainly some skeptics, cynics, or unbelievers out there must <\/em>have tried investigating further both the study and its authors.<\/p>\n

Note that the indictments and criminal record doesn’t necessarily invalidate the study. But it certainly should warrant another look at it.<\/p>\n

For myself, even as a religious person, I’m more than a bit conflicted <\/a>over the whole issue of intercessory prayer. Prayer clearly doesn’t work like magic — pray X and God grants X, or pray in Y way, and God will give over with the miracle. The study in question didn’t identify that everyone prayed for had success, which raises the issue of why God would pick and choose whose prayers (or which prayer targets) to answer. <\/p>\n

I think prayer’s primary effect is on the pray-er, to consideration and contemplation and as a call to personally act in support of one’s prayers. Does God (positing God’s existence) actually answer prayers? I think so, but I strongly doubt it’s something that can be easily studied or measured. “If it were that easy, anyone could do it.”<\/p>\n

At any rate, though, interesting stuff.<\/p>\n

(via Les<\/a>)<\/small><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A famous study, published in the Columbia University Medical Center Journal of Reproductive Medicine in October 2001, purporting to prove (or at least indicate) the efficacy of intercessory prayer, looks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6042","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion","category-science"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":25525,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2012\/01\/18\/bearing-false-witness-against-thomas-jefferson.html","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":0},"title":"Bearing false witness (against Thomas Jefferson)","author":"***Dave","date":"Wed 18-Jan-12 11:38am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm a quotations wonk (http:\/\/wist.info). Pulling elided phrases out of context to provide a meaning not originally meant irks the hell out of me. In this case, we have the National Prayer Breakfast folk absconding with Jefferson's love for the moral code preached by Jesus to make it sound like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":49014,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2014\/12\/18\/bobby-jindal-and-his-problematic-prayer-meeting.html","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":1},"title":"Bobby Jindal and His Problematic Prayer Meeting","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Dec-14 1:44pm","format":false,"excerpt":"If Bobby Jindal wants to do a big Christian prayer rally, more power to him. But he might have double-checked (or even triple-checked) before hooking up with a rally where the American Family Association were main sponsors of the shindig.http:\/\/www.rightwingwatch.org\/content\/bobby-jindals-clueless-defense-his-afa-prayer-rallyHis concern would not be so much because the group (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":18336,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2010\/08\/30\/unblogged-bits-tue-31-aug-10-0201.html","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":2},"title":"Unblogged Bits (Tue. 31-Aug-10 0201)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 30-Aug-10 8:01pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries .... Ramadan 2010 - The Big Picture - Boston.com - Prayer? Holy Seasons? Fasting? Pilgrimages? Charity? Jeez, what sort of crazy, evil, alien religion is this?! The Full-On Assault On Cable Is Underway - It's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Potpourri"","block_context":{"text":"Potpourri","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/potpourri"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":358,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/04\/29\/say_it_aint_so.html","url_meta":{"origin":6042,"position":3},"title":"Say it ain’t so, Joe!","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 29-Apr-03 12:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A new FTC study on spam says that most spammers lie. Remember, you heard it here, first. 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