We prayed in formation - it didn’t help

It was not possible to believe the grace of statistics

The American John Templeton Foundation managed to throw $2.4 million down the drain in an original way. This non-profit organization is interested, in particular, in the “moral and spiritual aspects of life” and is trying to find common ground between science and religion (about the Templeton Prize “for progress in research and discoveries in the spiritual sphere”, see “Vremya Novostei” of March 20) , conducted a large-scale study of prayers for the healing of the sick. The intention, apparently, was to check whether, as believers believe, the prayers of priests in some way still help sick people. The foundation, founded by millionaire philanthropist John Templeton, took up the cause on a scale befitting funding: 1,800 volunteers were recruited from American hospitals to await coronary artery bypass surgery.

In order to eliminate any errors, the experiment was approached according to all the rules: the test subjects were divided into three groups of six hundred patients in each. The priests of the Protestant and two Catholic parishes had to pray for the health of some of the sick. The rest had to fight the disease only on their own and with all the means of modern cardiovascular surgery. Moreover, one third of the volunteers for whom the priests offered prayers daily were informed about these prayers. In addition, the clergy prayed for the healing of another six hundred people, to whom, however, the experimenters did not say anything specific: this group was informed that they could end up both in the group of those for whom they would pray, and in the group of those who would be left without help priests. The same “maybe” was announced to the remaining 600 patients, but no one prayed for their health.

The test with each of the experimental patients lasted two weeks: doctors carefully monitored the health of the operated patients. But the medical results were disappointing: prayers for healing did not reduce the high rate of postoperative complications with bypass surgery. Thus, among those patients for whom they did not pray at all, deterioration occurred in 51%. Almost the same number of complications - 52% - was recorded in the second group of patients (those who were not firmly promised the prayers of the priests, but still received them). But among those 600 people who knew in advance that clergy would pray for their health, the number of complications unexpectedly increased to 59%.

The Templeton Foundation cannot give any clear explanation for such an amazing result. However, there is probably no need to make attempts to tempt the Lord by mixing the sphere of mystical phenomena with scientific phenomena and trying to measure the level of grace using statistical methods. A psychologist might be interested in how much the faith and prayers of the patient himself are able (or, conversely, unable) to increase his chances of recovery... And the mysterious result of the foundation’s experiment, it seems, did not bring any benefit to either doctors, theologians, or anyone else. the clergy themselves, all of whose efforts turned out to be, according to statistics, useless at best.

Vladimir DZAGUTO