The prayer placebo effect: it's no secret

The power of prayer may all be in knowing you're being prayed for, according to an article in the Jan 28 edition of New Scientist.

"The best way to understand the scientific effect of belief is to look at the literature on the placebo effect," says Herbert Benson, director of the Mind/Body Medical Institute in Boston.

The placebo effect is the biological impact of believing in a medical treatment. There is no doubt that it is a real and powerful force. Apparently, it works by making the body produce more endorphins, the body's own natural opioid painkillers.

All this suggests that the cognitive experience of anticipating relief plays a major role in allowing it to happen. But to benefit from the effect, you have to know you are being treated--the placebo effect won't kick in if a sham medication is given covertly.

Similarly, praying for yourself or knowing that family and friends are praying for you seems to produce positive results, while being prayed for secretly does not, according to a recent study in the journal, The Lancet.

So does prayer really do anything? Why would Jesus instruct us to pray in secret when it has no effect?

Perhaps one would say God doesn't answer secret prayers that are under study, the heart of the researchers isn't in the right place and so on. I doubt that. If the supernatural were to slip away whenever earnestly sought, that's a good argument for it's non-existence, or suspiciously selective manifestation at least. It's also counter to a biblical understanding of God as a rewarder of "those who earnestly seek him" (Hebrews 11:6).

Hasn't God said he would make himself known through signs to the unbeliever, as verification that He is real and still speaks to man? Didn't Paul say,

If you are all prophesying, and an unbeliever or a person unacquainted with you comes in, he'll be rebuked by all and examined by all, the hidden things of his heart will become open, and thus he will fall on his face and worship God, proclaiming, "Surely God is among you!"

"Surely our shared delusion makes us healthier!" the skeptic would say now, adding in triumph, "And that's why evolution created religion."