Naked Medicine

For many doctors (religious or not), the practice of medicine is more a “job” than a “calling”, even though there may be an undercurrent of “desire to serve”. Ask any job applicant, and you’ll get the typical answer: “I am applying for this job because I want to help people.” Doctors enter medicine for many reasons, one of which may be “to help people”, but this is different from being called specifically to serve a certain group of people. It does bring a reality check for those patients who believe that a doctor’s religious affiliation may have a greater influence on the altruistic motives of that doctor than a doctor who does not claim a religious affiliation. Read the rest of this entry »

By Yvonne Kao

A study¹ on the effect of intercessory prayer on recovery was reported in the American Heart Journal. The study procedure, in short: Cardiac bypass patients all around the country were randomly assigned to one of three experimental groups:

1. Uncertain/No Prayer: Patients in this group were told they might or might not receive prayers; they did not receive prayers.
2. Uncertain/Prayer: Patients in this group were told they might or might not receive prayers; they did receive prayers.
3. Certain/Prayer: Patients in this group were told they would receive prayers; they did receive prayers.

This study was reported under headlines like, “Intercessory Prayer Has No Major Effect on Recovery (BeliefNet) ², “Long-Awaited Medical Study Questions the Power of Prayer” (New York Times)³, “Study Fails to Show Healing Power of Prayer (Yahoo! News)⁴, and “Prayer Does Not Heal the Sick, Study Finds (Times Online)⁵. These headlines may be catchy, but they do extreme violence to the actual science. Read the rest of this entry »