Do you believe prayers matter? Should I pray for my friends health?

[Anonymous]

I am not a religious person I believe in God but I’m not really into any organized religion.

I recently found out a friend with health problems has more issues recently.
I know her from online interactions and I never met her in real life.
She has auto immune issues, has issues walking lately and has something weird show up on an MRI scan.

I truly wish for her health to improve but since I don’t have that power I wonder if prayer would mean anything.

[Pinay_ako]

Praying and having faith helps than doing nothing.

[genericname85]

i actually do "somewhat". i'm a social scientist and there is actually a very interesting study about this that i read during my time in university. i am too lazy to find the source now but to sum up the content:
the study tried to measure the impact of prayer on sick people by measuring the recovery time of sick/injured people in hospitals in a double blind study. double blind means neither the study subjects nor the doctors knew whom of the patients was being prayed for and who wasn't prayed for.

The result was that the people who were prayed for actually had worse health outcomes. meaning they took longer to recover and had more fatalities than the people who weren't prayed for.

If you're interested, i can also elaborate on the explanation they came up with.

[Asker]

I did hear about this study.

I do believe the explanation was because this caused the sick person stress because people were worried about them and invested in their health.

Am I right?

[genericname85]

it was something along the lines of that the fact that people prayed for that person made them feel that their health status must be bad enough to warrant prayer. meaning that would reflect in their behavior towards the sick/injured person, which then would consequently psychosomatically make them worse.

[mommymommymommy]

Prayers are nice, but not a be all end all. You can pray the sickness away or, you can actually take care of it with modern medicine

[Anonymous]

Prayers are total nonsense.

[Agagagagaga]

Sort of like your life.

[Agagagagaga]

By the way, bigot, most hospitals have Christian chaplains, Jewish rabbis, and some even have Muslim imams available to minister Abdullah pray for the sick.

What a sad, miserable person you are. I’d say that I’d pray for you (and your family), but hey, you think it’s all completely worthless.

[Anonymous]

the leaves and herbs are for the healing of the nation

TELL THEM TO ALKALIZE THE BODY

[Akam93]

Yes they do. And yes you should.

[zebronics]

Yes, psychologically it works and beneficial.

[BarryLiverstone]

Yes prayer matters and is important