Faith healing

==Scientific investigation==
{{See also|Studies on intercessory prayer}}

Nearly all{{efn|name="All"}} scientists dismiss faith healing as pseudoscience.<ref name=Pigliucci-2013/><ref name="Hassani-2010"/><ref name="Contact"/><ref name="See-more-pseudo"/> Believers assert that faith healing makes no scientific claims and thus should be treated as a matter of faith that is not testable by science.<ref name="Patheos">{{cite web|title=Popular Delusions III: Faith Healing|url=http://www.patheos.com/blogs/daylightatheism/2006/09/popular-delusions-iii/|access-date=30 April 2018|date=26 September 2006|quote=Naturally, this result has provoked bitter complaints from many believers who assert that God should not be put to the test. In response to the MANTRA study, an English bishop said, "Prayer is not a penny in the slot machine. You can't just put in a coin and get out a chocolate bar." Similarly, in a ''New York Times'' article on prayer studies from October 10, 2004, Rev. Raymond J. Lawrence Jr. of New York-Presbyterian Hospital is quoted as saying, "There's no way to put God to the test, and that's exactly what you're doing when you design a study to see if God answers your prayers. This whole exercise cheapens religion, and promotes an infantile theology that God is out there ready to miraculously defy the laws of nature in answer to a prayer."}}</ref> Critics reply that claims of medical cures should be tested scientifically because, although faith in the supernatural is not in itself usually considered to be the purview of science,<ref name="Martin">{{cite journal |last=Martin |first=Michael |year=1994 |title=Pseudoscience, the Paranormal, and Science Education |url=http://personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/caw43/behrendwriting/Martin,%20Michael.pdf |access-date=30 March 2018 |journal=Science & Education |volume=3 |issue=4 |page=364 |quote=Cures allegedly brought about by religious faith are, in turn, considered to be paranormal phenomena but the related religious practices and beliefs are not pseudoscientific since they usually have no scientific pretensions. |bibcode=1994Sc&Ed...3..357M |doi=10.1007/BF00488452 |s2cid=22730647 |archive-date=13 July 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190713124733/http://personal.psu.edu/faculty/c/a/caw43/behrendwriting/Martin,%20Michael.pdf |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name='Gould_magisteria'>{{cite news |title= Non-overlapping magisteria |magazine= [[Natural History (magazine)|Natural History]] |date=March 1997 |first= Stephen Jay |last= Gould |author-link= Stephen Jay Gould |volume= 106 |pages= 16–22|title-link= Non-overlapping magisteria }} Re-published in {{cite book |chapter= Non-overlapping magisteria |chapter-url= http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_noma.html |title= Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms |last= Gould |first= Stephen Jay |author-link= Stephen Jay Gould |location= New York |publisher= New Harmony |year= 1998 |pages= 269–283 |access-date= 2008-01-30 |archive-date= 2017-01-04 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170104061453/http://www.stephenjaygould.org/library/gould_noma.html |url-status= dead }}</ref>{{efn|name="Flamm"|"The "faith" in faith healing refers to an irrational belief, unsupported by evidence, that mysterious supernatural powers can eradicate disease. Science deals with evidence, not faith." Bruce Flamm, 2004.<ref name= "Flamm2004">{{cite news |first= Bruce |last= Flamm |title= The Columbia University 'miracle' study: Flawed and fraud |date= September–October 2004 |publisher= [[Committee for Skeptical Inquiry]] |url= http://www.csicop.org/si/show/columbia_university_miracle_study_flawed_and_fraud/ |magazine= [[Skeptical Inquirer]] |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20091106095320/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/columbia_university_miracle_study_flawed_and_fraud |archive-date= 2009-11-06}}</ref>}} claims of reproducible effects are nevertheless subject to scientific investigation.<ref name="Hassani-2010"/><ref name="Patheos"/>

Scientists and doctors generally find that faith healing lacks [[biological plausibility]] or [[epistemic]] warrant,<ref name=Pigliucci-2013/>{{rp|30–31}} which is one of the criteria used to judge whether clinical research is ethical and financially justified.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wendler |first1=David |title=The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy |date=2017 |publisher=Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford University |edition=Winter 2017 |chapter-url=https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/clinical-research/ |chapter=The Ethics of Clinical Research}}</ref> A [[Cochrane Collaboration|Cochrane review]] of intercessory prayer found "although some of the results of individual studies suggest a positive effect of intercessory prayer, the majority do not".<ref name=Ahmed2009/> The authors concluded: "We are not convinced that further trials of this intervention should be undertaken and would prefer to see any resources available for such a trial used to investigate other questions in health care".<ref name=Ahmed2009>{{cite journal|last1=Roberts|first1=Leanne|last2=Ahmed|first2=Irshad|last3=Davison|first3=Andrew|title=Intercessory prayer for the alleviation of ill health|journal=Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews|issue=2|pages=CD000368|date=15 April 2009|volume=2009 |doi=10.1002/14651858.CD000368.pub3|pmid=19370557|pmc=7034220}}</ref>

A review in 1954 investigated [[energy medicine|spiritual healing]], [[therapeutic touch]] and faith healing. Of the hundred cases reviewed, none revealed that the healer's intervention alone resulted in any improvement or cure of a measurable organic disability.<ref>{{cite journal |first= Louis |last= Rose |title= Some aspects of paranormal healing |journal= [[BMJ|The British Medical Journal]] |volume= 2 |issue= 4900 |year= 1954 |pages= 1329–1332 |pmid= 13209112 |pmc= 2080217 |doi= 10.1136/bmj.2.4900.1329}}</ref>

In addition, at least one study has suggested that adult Christian Scientists, who generally use prayer rather than medical care, have a higher death rate than other people of the same age.<ref name=ACS/>

The Global Medical Research Institute (GMRI) was created in 2012 to start collecting medical records of patients who claim to have received a supernatural healing miracle as a result of Christian Spiritual Healing practices. The organization has a panel of medical doctors who review the patient's records looking at entries prior to the claimed miracles and entries after the miracle was claimed to have taken place. "The overall goal of GMRI is to promote an empirically grounded understanding of the physiological, emotional, and sociological effects of Christian Spiritual Healing practices".<ref name="GMRI">{{cite web | title=About GMRI – Global Medical Research Institute | website=Global Medical Research Institute – Applying rigorous methods of evidence-based medicine to study Christian Spiritual Healing practices | url=http://www.globalmri.org/index.php/about | access-date=12 June 2020}}</ref> This is accomplished by applying the same rigorous standards used in other forms of medical and scientific research.

A 2011 article in the New Scientist magazine cited positive physical results from meditation, positive thinking and spiritual faith<ref>Jo Marchant, "Heal Thyself", ''New Scientist'', 27 August 2011, pp. 33–36.</ref>