Science vs. Religion: (Chapter 6) (Humans)

by xeno6696 , Sonoran Desert, Monday, August 08, 2011, 23:44 (4651 days ago) @ xeno6696

I will begin with negatives instead of positives this time, because overall, this chapter has introduce a new level of doubt within me that never existed a priori. -First, you cite a study concerning fertility in 2001 on page 177. This study was discredited by finding that one study leader, "Daniel Wirth, a.k.a. John Wayne Truelove, is not an M.D. but an M.S. in parapsychology who has since been indicted on felony charges for mail fraud and theft, committed apparently at the time the study was claimed to be conducted." (From Wikipedia.) Further, "[A DHHS study] revealed that the study's lead author, Dr. Rogerio Lobo, first learned of the study six to twelve months after the study was completed, and he subsequently denied having anything to do with the study's design or conduct and claimed to have provided only editorial assistance."-http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_on_intercessory_prayer (For the full link)-I shan't use this to discredit all such studies, but I would further draw attention to the MANTRA Study. "A 2005 MANTRA (Monitoring and Actualisation of Noetic Trainings) II study conducted a three year clinical trial led by Duke University comparing intercessory prayer and MIT (Music, Imagery, and Touch) therapies for 748 cardiology patients. The study is regarded as the first time rigorous scientific protocols are applied on a large scale to assess the feasibility of intercessory prayer and other healing practices. It produced null results and the authors concluded, "Neither masked prayer nor MIT therapy significantly improved clinical outcome after elective catheterization or percutaneous coronary intervention."[19] Neither study specified if photographs were used, or if belief levels were measured in the agents or those performing the prayers."-"The STEP project" (2005) resulted in more negative effects of prayer, resulted in a comment by Dawkins, "It seems more probable that those patients who knew they were being prayed for suffered additional stress in consequence..."-This is the one that I tried to find previously that resulted in those being prayed for, suffering worse results than those who were NOT prayed for. -I will search for further negatives, and then move on to the postives.

--
\"Why is it, Master, that ascetics fight with ascetics?\"

\"It is, brahmin, because of attachment to views, adherence to views, fixation on views, addiction to views, obsession with views, holding firmly to views that ascetics fight with ascetics.\"