Prayer Can Be Murder!

The effectiveness of prayer has been studied scientifically. The studies have proven conclusively that intercessory prayer, at least, does not work.

Intercessory prayer may, in fact, be detrimental to your health. People who knew that they were being prayed for became sicker than those that did not know people were praying for them!

Needless to say, religion which relies upon faith or something like it, has yet to acknowledge those scientific studies and intercessory prayer goes on around the clock all over the world. Some people say that God has answered their prayers, but there is no way to know that because there are no controls, and so it becomes merely anecdotal stuff and not evidence at all. It proves nothing.

Christopher Hitchens says religion poisons everything. That's hyperbole, but it poisons enough things to create a lot of problems for a lot of people. I know it can poison relationships. People often become spiteful and filled with hate for others who do not believe the same things in the same way they do.

It can also poison a child to the point of death. You've read the story, I'm sure.

A Wisconsin couple who really, really believed the Bible and really, really believed that "healing comes from God," let their 11-year daughter die an absolutely horrendous death because they were so damn stupid they waited for God to heal her instead of taking her to the doctor.

The girl's mother actually said, in a phone call to a relative, that she thought her daughter had gone into a coma, but "she's relying on faith."

The girl, had a treatable form of diabetes. She died from lack of insulin. That's a very slow, excruciating way to die.

The parents may believe in God, the Bible and Jesus on the Cross, but they are still murderers in the first degree!