Research into prayer, fertility link now doubted

[Newsjock]

http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/living/health/10553703.htm

By Julie Sevrens Lyons
Mercury News

Skeptics have called it the ``Miracle Study'' -- findings by scientists that simple prayers could dramatically boost fertility in women.

Published in a respected medical journal by a Capitola researcher, a department head at Columbia University and a Korean scientist also based at Columbia, it immediately attracted the attention of the news media, religious groups and couples desperately trying to conceive.

... But now, three years after the study first suggested that a higher power could influence pregnancy rates, critics are calling it all a sham, a black eye to the research community and proof that medical studies aren't always what they appear to be.

Many in the medical field are saying that the only miracle about the study is that it was published to begin with. They wonder if the research was ever conducted at all.

As the controversy rages, the Bay Area researcher is en route to a California prison camp on an unrelated fraud conviction. The second scientist recently took his name off the study. The third quietly left Columbia. The government conducted its own investigation and determined the study violated federal research guidelines.

more

[tk2kewl]

1. these "scientists" had to be wingnut plants...

no? :shrug:

[GeorgeBushytail]

2. In related news...

throwing quarters in a wishing well found equally ineffective.

Scientists are now testing the "wishing on a star" theory.

[rkc3]

15. In my years of experience, I've found the most effective way to get a

woman pregnant is to have sex with her. While it doesn't work on every occasion (thankfully), the odds of conceiving are better when sex is involved.

I still wouldn't rule out prayer as a means to having sex.

[rocktivity]

3. Candidate for this month's "You Call This NEWS?" award

:headbang:
rocknation

[Warpy]

4. ROFL!

"The third man is Capitola researcher Daniel P. Wirth. Federal court papers say he is a Santa Clara University law school graduate who is also known as John Wayne Truelove, Rudy Wirth and Rudolph Wirth. He was sentenced in November to five years in prison for embezzling more than $2 million from communications giant Adelphia. Now he is en route to a federal prison camp in Atwater, where he will be known as inmate No. 99442-111."

OK, we have two disgraced OB docs and a sleazeball lawyer who was caught with his hand in the till.

Yep, that's the standard for faith based research, all right. Just publish your conclusions, no nasty data collection needed, no messy numbers to crunch, it's all on faith.

This is what happens to science when you force gods into it.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

5. God chose for you to be barren. In vitro is wrong for born agains

If science is 'bad' and religion is 'good' in this new world order of radical religion, shouldn't the true believers accept that it was God's plan that they be infertile? They shouldn't turn to the evil scientists to intervene in this Divine plan. In vitro and fertility treatments allow man to intervene into the creation of life...clearly God's domain and part of the mysteries of "intelligent design". Right?!?!

[NashVegas]

6. I Suspect

If given the choice between looking at it as interfering with as god's plan, vs looking at it as interfering with Darwin, it'd be far easier to give Darwin the heave ho.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

11. Take 'their words' to the logical extreme

Since funadamentalists believe that God's plan is perfect, they must not support fertility intervention by the hands of man. They should accept GRACIOUSLY their infertility and praise the Lord for his divine plan. Right? In fact, the fundamentalists should unburden the US healthcare system completely by just praying about any illnesses. If God can actually be bothered to put W in the White House, surely he could take the time to cure their cancer. Doctors are all just evil scientists anyway.

[NashVegas]

16. Nope

God would have led man to invent fertility treatment.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

19. Then abortion is a safe medical procedure too. nt

[onager]

7. BWAH! "Trumpeted the New York TIMES..."

"Women who were prayed for became pregnant twice as often as those who did not have people praying for them," trumpeted the New York Times in 2001.

Um...would that be the same NY TIMES which just laughed at DU because a few posters indulged in Woo-Woo theories about the Asian tsunami?

So it's Tin-Foil-Hattery to wonder about the tsunami. But the TIMES reports it as undisputed fact when a few biased researchers announce that an Invisible Man In The Sky is fooling around with ovaries?

Priceless.

[iamjoy]

9. Link To NYT?

I would like to read exactly what they said about us.

[onager]

13. Check the board. At least 2 threads...

...are going strong on the subject, right here in LBN.

[genieroze]

20. Maybe they count the screaming "Oh God I'm Coming" as prayer. eom

[Solly Mack]

8. It took 3 years to call it a sham? 3 years? 3?

damn

[onager]

17. They were researching...

...if it counted as prayer when the subject screamed "OH GOD!" at just the right time...:evilgrin:

This study must have puzzled people, though. Especially those who bore children only to watch them come down with incurable diseases, which were not conquered by prayer.

[genieroze]

21. Oh sorry I said the same thing. It just popped into my head before

I read what you posted.

[onager]

23. No need to apologize...

Two slams are better than one! ;-)

[Solly Mack]

22. Wonder what the control group did? :)

[onager]

24. The control group also used Divine Intervention...

WARNING: This link is not work-safe or kid-safe. It will be VERY offensive to the religious:

http://www.divine-interventions.com/index2.html

[Solly Mack]

25. ROFLMAO

[illflem]

10. Reminds me of the Creation Science Fair

1st Place: "Using Prayer To Microevolve Latent Antibiotic Resistance In Bacteria"

Eileen Hyde and Lynda Morgan (grades 10 & 11) did a project showing how the power of prayer can unlock the latent genes in bacteria, allowing them to microevolve antibiotic resistance. Escherichia coli bacteria cultured in agar filled petri dishes were subjected to the antibiotics tetracycline and chlorotetracycline. The bacteria cultures were divided into two groups, one group (A) received prayer while the other (B) didn't. The prayer was as follows: "Dear Lord, please allow the bacteria in Group A to unlock the antibiotic-resistant genes that You saw fit to give them at the time of Creation. Amen." The process was repeated for five generations, with the prayer being given at the start of each generation. In the end, Group A was significantly more resistant than Group B to both antibiotics.

2nd Place: "Women Were Designed For Homemaking"
Jonathan Goode (grade 7) applied findings from many fields of science to support his conclusion that God designed women for homemaking: physics shows that women have a lower center of gravity than men, making them more suited to carrying groceries and laundry baskets; biology shows that women were designed to carry un-born babies in their wombs and to feed born babies milk, making them the natural choice for child rearing; social sciences show that the wages for women workers are lower than for normal workers, meaning that they are unable to work as well and thus earn equal pay; and exegetics shows that God created Eve as a companion for Adam, not as a co-worker.

http://objective.jesussave.us/creationsciencefair.html

[Heddi]

12. I love that website

For a long time I wasn't sure if it was satire or real because the satire is so.....subtle.

[illflem]

14. You've got to wonder when they use a line like this:

Take for example Apple Computers, makers of the popular Macintosh line of computers. The real operating system hiding under the newest version of the Macintosh operating system (MacOS X) is called... Darwin! That's right, new Macs are based on Darwinism!

[rkc3]

18. Is that site the Onion.com of religious sites?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

26. When the guy gets out of jail, I'll bet he gets a job on

the 700 Club.

[onager]

27. And while in jail, he can work for...

...Chuck Colson's Prison Ministries!