TY - JOUR
T1 - Divine intervention? A Cochrane review on intercessory prayer gone beyond science and reason
AU - Jørgensen, Karsten Juhl
AU - Hróbjartsson, Asbjørn
AU - Gøtzsche, Peter C
N1 - Keywords: Faith Healing; Humans; Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; Religion and Medicine; Review Literature as Topic; Science
PY - 2009
Y1 - 2009
N2 - We discuss in this commentary a recent Cochrane review of 10 randomised trials aimed at testing the religious belief that praying to a god can help those who are prayed for. The review concluded that the available studies merit additional research. However, the review presented a scientifically unsound mixture of theological and scientific arguments, and two of the included trials that had a large impact on the findings had problems that were not described in the review. The review fails to live up to the high standards required for Cochrane reviews.
AB - We discuss in this commentary a recent Cochrane review of 10 randomised trials aimed at testing the religious belief that praying to a god can help those who are prayed for. The review concluded that the available studies merit additional research. However, the review presented a scientifically unsound mixture of theological and scientific arguments, and two of the included trials that had a large impact on the findings had problems that were not described in the review. The review fails to live up to the high standards required for Cochrane reviews.
U2 - 10.1186/1477-5751-8-7
DO - 10.1186/1477-5751-8-7
M3 - Journal article
C2 - 19515229
SN - 1477-5751
VL - 8
SP - 7
JO - Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine
JF - Journal of Negative Results in BioMedicine
ER -