aec: Really, after dozens of studies showing that prayer works, they
finally got one that showed "maybe".Guess which one got the play in the
Establishment Media?
Albert: As far as I know, this was the only one which was double blind.
aec: Well, since it's the only one that got real Establishment Media play, that would make sense. But there have been lots of double blind studies on the subject, and up till that one, they all showed positive effects.
And here's one from personal family experience. I just herad the full story on this last weekend. The neighbor has the X-rays to prove it.
My wife's boys were playing soccer at a field in Honduras with a neighbor boy. A soccer goal fell right on top of him and directly onto his head. They all said that the boy's eyes--both of them--literally fell out of their sockets, and were hanging out of them. Gabriel, the oldest boy, carried him rushing to the boy's mother, and they rushed to take a taxi to the hospital.
The boy's mother was, and is, a woman of strong Christian faith. She was of course troubled for her son, but even my boys thought she was what we call "in denial" a little bit, because she said her boy was going to be alright. They were impressed with her calm. But she was praying.
The doctors were afraid to touch him, and one of them even said so. (Lawsuits are not so common there). They were waiting for a "specialist". They had X-rays of the smashed-up skull. Smashed-up they said was not an exaggeration. Eyes still hung from the boy's head hours later. The boy's brother finally made it there, and the boys, and my wife, finally went home, thinking in the morning they'd have to help find "a box".
The next morning the boy was fine, conscious, speaking to his mother, and the doctors couldn't believe it. They took more X-rays and there was no damage at all. None! He simply went home that day.
Now note that spontaneous physical healing was impossible. Only one person believed the boy would make it, the mother. That's the difference true faith makes. Faith "knows". It's hard to measure "faith" for a double-blind study, but it makes all the practical difference. But if you have any of them in a real study, they'll make the difference.
--Alan
