Christopher Hitchens - Dead at 62

I'm also going to miss Richard Dawkins when he'll die also.. Learning about the death of Hitchens made me think about Richard's aging as well.. Doesn't look pretty, but that's life

 

I was there... he needs your prayers, pray for him.

 

You were there? LoL.


Regarding praying for the man, I'm not sure why you would wish that on anyone.

 

Never mind him, you need to see the psychiatrist..LOL

 

Fake study conducted by atheists published by fake Christians: "the Christian Science church" LOL

Real studies here: http://www.alternative-doctor.com/soul_stuff/prayermorrow.htm

http://miraclestories.com/category/power-of-prayer-miracle-stories/

 

So following your logic, Mark Wheeler of the blog site "Catholic Answers" puts out an article accusing the founders of Christian Science monitor of being non-christian so, therefore, an article published in the christian science monitor about a scientific study must be inaccurate. Instead, according to you, we should follow the carefully vetted medical studies put out by alternative-doctor.com and miraclestores.com regarding the power of prayer.

Ignoring for a second the myriad of other credible references to the study

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16569567
http://www.templeton.org/pdfs/press_releases/060407STEP_paper.pdf
http://web.med.harvard.edu/sites/RELEASES/html/3_31STEP.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Studies_on_intercessory_prayer
http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00179491
http://www.ahjonline.com/article/S0002-8703(05)00649-6/abstract

am I the only one that finds it humorous that you a) are searching for scientific answers in religious publications, and b) when a publication with religious (Christian) founders publishes an article that disagrees with your views, you first try and slander their faith and then search out new religious sources that agree with your views and cite them on a public forum no matter how dubious they are?

It is the kind of mentality that brought us the dark ages, and scientific "Heresy", the kind that made Galileo an enemy of the church for suggesting the Earth was not the center of the universe.

That mentality is exactly analogous to the Sharia loving Islamic extremists in the middle east, who would have people follow not just Islam, but their specific twisted version of Islam based on specific hadiths that promote anything from sex with animals to killing innocent people,

To have faith means to have belief without proof. To have belief in spite of proof to the contrary isn't faith. Its just stupid.

 

faith-related studies conducted by atheists are not credible, period.

"Christian Science monitor" are not Christians, they are heretics.

"Christian Science purports to be a Christian organization. It borrows heavily from the Christian vocab-ulary but denies all the fundamental Christian dogmas. It rejects the belief in a personal God, the Trinity, the divinity of Christ, the existence of sin and the devil, the Resurrection, and heaven and hell."

http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/1992/9202prof.asp

alternative-doctor.com is not a religious publication.

"In December of 1998 issue of JAMA the Journal of the American Medical Association, Mike Mitka commented on the number of research articles available to physicians wanting to incorporate spirituality into their treatment arsenal. JAMA specifically referred to the following works:

1) Duke University reports that people who attended religious services at least once a week and prayed or studied the Bible at least daily had consistently lower blood pressure than those who did so less frequently or not at all.

2) Harold Koenig, M.D. from Duke reported that in his study that elderly patients suffering from depression related to hospitalization for a physical illness, the more spiritual they were, the quicker they reached remission from depression.

3) In a study of 1,718 older adults in North Carolina that indicated elderly people who regularly attend church have healthier immune systems than those who don't.

4) A fourth study found that patients aged 60 or older who attended church weekly or more often were significantly less likely to have been admitted to the hospital, had fewer acute-hospital admissions, and spent fewer days in the hospital during the previous year than those who attended church less often.

The Journal of the National Cancer Institute reported that studies indicate many cancer patients, in particular, rely on religion and spirituality after their diagnosis.

A University of Michigan study involving 93 of 106 women under treatment for various stages of uterine and ovarian cancer, said their religious lives helped them sustain hope.

Edward Creagan, M.D., of the Division of Medical Oncology at the Mayo Clinic, said that "among the coping methods of long-term cancer survivors, the predominate strategy is spiritual.

A 1999 study reported in the Journal of Gerontology found that individuals who regularly attended church lived 28 percent longer than those who did not regularly attend...this is the same percentage of longevity as nonsmokers compared to smokers!

A survey of 400 patients in Georgia in 1989 revealed that those who believed religion was very important had lower diastolic blood pressure readings than those who did not, according to Forbs magazine.

In 1996, Time magazine did a cover story on the belief in the power of prayer for health and healing. The poll found that 82 percent of the adult Americans believed in the healing power of personal prayer, 73 percent believed praying for someone can help cure their illness, and 64 percent believed doctors should pray with patients if requested to.

Newsweek confirmed the findings, a year later with its own poll, in which 79 percent of respondents who said they prayed regularly declared that they believe God answers prayers for healing.

Lancet, a British medical publication, reported: "Of 296 physicians surveyed during the October, 1996, meeting of the American Academy of Family Physicians, 99% were convinced that religious beliefs can heal, and 75% believed that prayers of others could promote a patient's recovery."

http://www.alternative-doctor.com/soul_stuff/prayermorrow.htm

http://miraclestories.com/category/power-of-prayer-miracle-stories/

 

Scientific studies conducted by non-scientists are not credible. The study of the effect of prayer on the sick is a scientific study, not a study of faith.

You are a heretic. Anyone who disagrees with someone else's faith based belief system can be called a heretic, and by that definition you fit my definition of heretic. Billions of Muslims agree with me on this, as well as half the Christians.

No, its a site run by a single doctor who makes his living exploiting Christians to promote his medical practice. Notice how not one of the claims made in your lengthy quote dispute the findings of the Harvard study on the effects of prayer on the sick.

Logic and reason are your friends, not enemies to be disparaged as heretical. The scientific method provides us a means by which we can actually obtain better answers to the many unanswered questions on this planet. Without it, we would still be blood letting to get rid of the plague. I would normally ask if you would refuse medical treatment for a serious disease for fear it might not be based in the bible, but I fear you are one of those people who would. A dying breed, in every sense of the word. I can't tell you how happy it makes me that you are out of step with most of the 70% self described Christians in the US.

 

LOL. the heretics you are quoting from are the ones who refuse medical treatment:

"Christian Science is best known today from the refusal of its followers to take medication or to consult a doctor."
http://archive.catholic.com/thisrock/1992/9202prof.asp

my sincere prayers are with you obamanation; rest in peace.. lol

 

As a muslim, both you and they are heretics to me, not that it has anything to do with the argument. They refuse medical treatment, you reject out of hand the results of a scientifically conducted survey. The only difference between you and them is which wacky unscientific B.S. you are willing to buy into.

Were you planning on addressing the actual results of the study at any point, or were you just planning on going on about the "Christian Scientists" because that happened to be one of the 15 articles I linked which reference this particular study? Perhaps you planned to fall back on the idea that the study is unsound because an Atheist may have been involved in it's construction? Do you only accept scientific results from people connected with the particular cult of Christianity you belong to, or can you accept the idea that facts stand on their own merit, regardless of whether they were presented by Mohammad(PBUH), Jesus, or Adolf Hitler.

 

well, at least he died atheist