Can prayer cure cancer?

[rosebuddy]

Can prayer cure cancer?

[palmtreeguy]

i think prayer together with medicine can help cure cancer. so maybe pray for the doctors insights and the patients mental and emotional ongoings... check out this site - you can post prayer request on it - you probably know what they say about two or more people praying together so get you prayer out there! http://theopenprayer.com/

[wizard69]

In short, no!

[wizard69]

Let me ask you a question...can prayer make an amputees leg or arm grow back?

[Fingerprint]

Ive read a few studies about prayer and healing, they report quite mixed results really. I definately do believe that prayer has some healing qualities though.

On another point though, I have first hand experience of living in a country where there is little access to western medicine and the majority of healing is done through black magic. Whether it's wrong or right it definately does heal medical conditions beyond what can reasonably be put down to placebo.

[wizard69]

Mani...are you saying that god can / will cure cancer but not amputees?

[China Doll]

No. (This is based on me working with people with cancer for quite a long time and the power of prayer alone not working out too well for those that decided to opt for that than any treatment offered).

BUT....

A positive attitude can and does have an amazing effect in my experience and if you can get that through prayer then by God do it as the illness itself is hard enough to bare without not having something to support yourself.

[WaldoMcFroog]

...and your evidence for that rather startling claim is..?

We've also done this one before: http://www.theanswerbank.co.uk/Society-and-Cul ture/Religion-and-Spirituality/Question405067. html

[jake-the-peg]

If you mean somebody's prayers for another person then no.

There was an experiment where people were asked to pray for heart patients those prayed for did not make better recoveries than the others.

Praying for your own recovery could - the pacebo effect is real and strong. Indeed physiological effects - dopamine production - have been seen from placebos.

Would it be enough to cure cancer on it's own? I doubt it but it could make the difference between whether or not you survive the chemotherapy!

[WaldoMcFroog]

Sorry - that was to Mani and his rather surprising claim about amputees and the disabled being more inclined to have a faith than the rest of the population.

[China Doll]

Well I was going to suggest that was a bit of a mean response to my post Waldo!

I think Jake pretty much nailed my point though.... And diet can play an important part too. In both maintaining positive (too many carbs in any instance can usually send you in to a nice, lazy slump which always makes me moody) and in helping to treat cancer.

Personally I think 'curing' cancer is all about the whole package not just the chemo or the radiotherapy... or indeed a combination of the two.

[ludwig]

It's not a choice between prayer or chemotherapy is it, so I'd say if you've got cancer, give it a try. You've got f* all to lose.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Some some people it is, Ludwig.

[naomi24]

Ludwig, you haven't got anything to lose by praying, but I'd sooner trust medicine.

[naomi24]

fender, me too. I lost both parents to the dreaded "Big C", but unfortuately my prayers went unanswered. The doctors, on the otther hand, as mere human beings, did their best.

[Babz]

Prayer didn't save my husband or my mother, nor my cats or dogs. I've had it with him up there, might as well pray to the teapot for what good it does!