The world, especially these days is witnessing a difficult time; many people are suffering form wars, the global economical crisis, and social issues. For these tragedies, prayers is becoming more recognized and practiced. Besides knowing that the super natural being “God” is going to answer these prayers, a new study revealed that prayer could help patients get better even if these prayers were not answered.

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For thousands of years, people have believed that prayers have the power to change their lives by making them feel better about themselves, the new study has also concluded that prayer might be a comfort to the people praying anyway.

The study leader Wendy Cadge evaluated over 18 published studies on intercessory prayer that were conducted between 1965 and 2006, and said “I do not know why physicians and scientists conducted these studies,” said Cadge, “but personal religious beliefs appear to have played a role, along with curiosity.”

Another similar study was conducted back in 2007 by David R. Hodge at Arizona State University, concluded that “God” answers our prayers.

“Some have found positive results for prayer. Others have found no effect. Conducting a meta-analysis takes into account the entire body of empirical research on intercessory prayer. Using this procedure, we find that prayer offered on behalf of another yields positive results.” ScienceDaily

As a conclusion to my article today, prayers seems to have a positive impact on people who practice it even if the prayers were not answered, and they are only an alternative or supplement to the regular medical intervention.

Source – Brandies.edu