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Saturday, November 06, 2004

Scientific Studies of Praryer The sensible Michael Shermer is unlikely to get a job with the Bush Administration. In the current Scientific American, he takes a scathing look at 'scientific' studies of the efficacy of prayer. Many of these studies failed to control for such intervening variables as age, sex, education, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, marital standing, degree of religiosity and ignored the fact that most religions have sanctions against such insalubrious behaviors as sexual promiscuity, alcohol and drug abuse, and smoking. When such variables are controlled for, the formerly significant results disappear. One study on recovery from hip surgery in elderly women did not control for age; another study on church attendance and recovery from illness did not consider that people in poor health are less likely to attend church. 12:25:28 PM  Permalink  comment []

Op-Ed Columnist: The Values-Vote Myth Op-Ed Columnist: The Values-Vote Myth: "It was not throngs of homophobic, Red America values-voters surging to the polls that put George Bush over the top." (Via The New York Times > Most E-mailed Articles.) For David Brooks, this makes a lot of sense. 10:54:24 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.