hi doma,
there's a distinction between actions within an organism and actions between organisms.
there's no good evidence that prayer affects outcomes. but administering sugar pills seems to. must be something to do with the administration of pills, i guess.
"If a patient can cure themselves by having
a belief that the medical pill they are taking will
cure them,why can't a priest have a similar
statistical outcome to those with a strong
religious belief....."
it isn't an if-then condition. it doesn't seem to happen. a lot of folks have tried to demonstrate it. no evidence.
in its absence, an intention-based belief system has a difficulty. maybe you can navigate around it. in the absence of a reliable series of studies in which prayer appears to have an effect, i am not sure that i can.
| 