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Faith, Healing, and Skepticism

by James Barringer
8/22/2011 / Christian Apologetics

A few days ago, a friend of mine sent me a video that talked about the many interesting facets of the "placebo effect." Basically everyone in the western world knows what this is, but just so we're all on the same page, it refers to the fact that you can take, for example, a sugar pill instead of an aspirin, and as long as you think you're taking an aspirin, your headache will go away even though there's no medicine in the sugar pill. The brain tricks itself into healing, in a way. The video mentioned some neat tricks of the placebo effect, such as the fact that a large placebo pill is more likely to fake-heal you than a small one, because I guess your brain thinks that big = effective. What it didn't touch on (somewhat to my surprise) was the frequent accusation by atheists that prayer is a placebo. Does prayer do anything at all, or is it just an illusion? And does the question even matter?

What I want to suggest is that no, the question of whether prayer helps has no value, either to Christians or to skeptics. This may surprise you if you came to this essay expecting an impassioned defense of healing by faith and prayer, but stay with me and put your thinking caps on.

In late 1998, Duke University did a test in which half of a group of heart patients was prayed for intensively by people from all faiths and from all over the globe, and much to the researchers' astonishment, the prayed-for group recovered 50-100% faster than the non-prayed-for group. (A writeup can be found in the November 11, 1998 issue of the Greensboro News and Record.) What's really amazing about this study is that neither group knew whether they were being prayed for or not, which means that skeptics couldn't possibly claim it was all in their heads. However, just a few years later, Duke University did another study of patients about to undergo major heart surgery and found that prayer seemed to make no difference in the time or smoothness of the patient's recovery. In fact, those who knew they were being prayed for actually recovered at a slightly slower pace and were slightly more prone to complications. Same university, same kind of study, opposite results, just a few years apart. How are we as Christians supposed to interpret this information?

The answer is that if you're a Christian, you will typically emphasize the first study while de-emphasizing the second, and if you're a skeptic, you will do the opposite. Cherry-picking information that confirms your prior opinions is called "confirmation bias," and everyone does it. While reading up on these statistics, I came across a violent atheist who said there were "zero studies" showing that prayer helps people heal faster. That fellow is obviously blinded by his bias to the point that he is willfully ignoring evidence...but we as Christians are just as guilty of being blinded by our own bias. There is no such thing as objectivity, ever. And that's why I say the question of whether prayer helps is a total non-starter.

Rather, the problem lies with the attitude that something is not true unless it has been (or can be) scientifically proven. "It is a fact that prayer does not heal people," the angry atheist wrote. "It's never been proven." Well, sure it has. It's been proven in roughly 50% of the studies that I've read. So if the atheist is absolutely determined only to believe things which have been proven, he cannot believe that prayer heals people (not proven to his satisfaction), and he also cannot believe it is a fact that prayer doesn't heal people (plenty of evidence to the contrary). So...what exactly does he believe? He's totally stuck in limbo. He can't believe anything.

Unfortunately this is the essence of science: there is virtually nothing which can be proven beyond the shadow of a reasonable person's doubt. There is evidence that the Atkins diet is healthy and evidence that it can kill you. There's evidence that antibacterial hand gel makes kids healthier and evidence that it makes them sicklier. While in college, I had one nutrition major tell me to exercise after eating, because it would help me digest my food up to 40% faster. The next week, another told me not to exercise after eating, because the body can't digest while it's exercising. Two people pursuing the same major in the same school have scientific evidence which contradicts each other. And it gets better. You can't prove that George Washington was or wasn't a real person. You can't prove that The Illuminati do or don't rule the globe. You can't prove that your life is a real thing and not an elaborate TV show being broadcast out to the "real world" like the movie "The Truman Show." You can't prove any of those things by scientific experiment, but you're required to have opinions on them. Practically speaking you will live as if they are or aren't true.

And that's why it's a total non-starter to ask whether prayer heals people. We could point to the studies that suggest it does, and say there's conclusive evidence. We could even point to the people we know of who have been healed, seemingly miraculously, through prayer. The skeptic will merely point back at the studies which suggest that prayer doesn't do anything, and will remind us of the many people we've prayed for who have not healed any faster or have not been healed at all. You can't settle the debate simply on the sheer weight of evidence, and it's foolish to even try. All we'd end up doing is trading punches with a skeptic, not convincing him while becoming more convinced of our own correctness, and that's really not very profitable. If all that happens is "I win a fight," I consider that a loss from the Kingdom's point of view.

So does prayer heal people? The honest answer is that it doesn't matter. Scripture tells us to do it, so we do it. We must reject the world's mindset of being pragmatists, doing something simply because it does or doesn't work and for no other reason, and adopt a disciple's mindset of doing something because God commands it even if and even when it seems to make no sense whatsoever and serve no purpose. His ways are not our ways. His thoughts are not our thoughts. He commands us to pray for the sick, and sometimes they are healed and sometimes they are not. We pray anyway, not because science says it works, but because God says it's our duty. Asking whether it "works" is merely ceding ground to those who are gripped by the delusion that only things which are "proven" can be true. Don't be paralyzed by questions or doubt. Just pray. Let God handle the rest.

Jim Barringer is a 38-year-old writer, musician, and teacher. More of his work can be found at facebook.com/jmbarringer. This work may be reprinted for any purpose so long as this bio and statement of copyright is included.

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