Is God able to heal people?

Answer 1

yes he can!

AnswerThe only relevant way to answer this question is to find out whether he does heal people. Of course, if he can heal people, but chooses never to do so, then the question is unanswerable.

In 2005, the John Templeton Foundation conducted a carefully designed, double-blind trial of the effect of intercessary prayer on the outcome of surgery. The intention was to evaluate whether (1) receiving intercessory prayer or (2) being certain of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with uncomplicated recovery after coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) surgery. It was felt that previous trials showing a benefit had used sub-optimal methods of data analysis, non standard methods of randomization and allocation concealment, and untested outcome measures, while those showing no effect had insufficient statistical power to reach this conclusion.

Patients at 6 US hospitals were randomly assigned to one of 3 groups: 604 received intercessory prayer after being informed they may or may not receive prayer; 597 did not receive intercessory prayer, also after being informed they may or may not receive prayer; and 601 received intercessory prayer after being informed they would receive prayer. Intercessory prayer was provided for 14 days, starting the night before CABG. Any complication within 30 days of CABG would be regarded as a primary outcome. Secondary outcomes were any major event and mortality.

- Results

In the two groups uncertain about receiving intercessory prayer, complications occurred in:

· 52% (315/604) of patients who received intercessory prayer

· 51% (304/597) of those who did not receive intercessory prayer

Complications occurred in 59% (352/601) of patients who knew they received intercessory prayer. It was suggested that the patient's knowledge that he or she was being prayed for could have caused anxiety, thus resulting in a worse outcome.

Major events and 30-day mortality were similar across the 3 groups.

- Templeton Foundation Findings

Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on complication-free recovery, but certainty of receiving intercessory prayer was associated with a higher incidence of complications. On page 14 of their findings, the Foundation states that the fact that intercessory prayer, as provided in this study, had no effect on the incidence of complications might have been due to study limitations and discusses those limitations.

- Conclusion

The Templeton Foundation trial is far from adversarial to the notion that prayer is beneficial. Nevertheless, they conclusively report that intercessary prayer was proven to have no benefit on the outcome of surgery, in the most carefully designed trial of this type ever undertaken.

The Templeton Foundation should be congratulated for standing by its findings and for publishing them widely, including on the Foundation's own website.