Can prayers heal?

Today's NYTimes carried this article. If the link doesn't work for many of you, and if there's enough interest, I'll paste the whole article in a subsequent post.
I'm interested to know your view of the quality and credibility and value of "prayer research".
Randy

Can Prayers Heal? Critics Say Studies Go Past Science

October 10, 2004
 By BENEDICT CAREY

".....The government has spent $2.3 million
in the past 4 years to study something that critics say has
nothing to do with science.
"Intercessory prayer presupposes some supernatural intervention that is by definition beyond the reach of science," said Dr. Richard J. McNally, a psychologist at Harvard. "It is just a nonstarter, in my opinion, a total waste of time and money."

Prayer researchers, many themselves believers in prayer's healing powers, say scientists do not need to know how a treatment or intervention works before testing it. ....."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/health/10prayer.html?ex=1098413232&ei=1&en=4a11147347747a25
Received on Sun Oct 10 09:13:56 2004