From: "Santosh Helekar" <chimbel...@yahoo.com>
--- On Sun, 4/26/09, J. Colaco < jc> <cola...@gmail.com> wrote:
He gave me additional reason to believe in my beliefs until
he places #3 wherein he then goes on to say that we (should) we not
take our beliefs too seriously. Hummh!
Taking beliefs too seriously, in my opinion, is succumbing to excessive
self-righteousness and over-zealousness. To the extent that one can
believe over-zealously in the goodness of all normal human beings and that
someone made a gaffe, I suppose my statement is applicable to these
harmless beliefs of mine as well, or for that matter, this one.
***People have died for their Faith. This is their witness that they cling
to a Reality (or to Somebody, God or Jesus). This is not
'self-righteousness' nor 'over-zealousness'. They have to take issues of
faith and human freedom 'seriously'. You cannot believe 'over-zealously' in
the 'goodness of all normal human beings'. "Someone made a gaffe" cannot go
unpunished, particularly when it damages human life, dignity, safety. The
human world is full of human and scientific "gaffes"... victimising
humankind. We experience human greatness, side by side with human frailty.
That is precisely the problem of human freedom, the mystery of Sin and
Grace. Your 'belief' will not be 'harmless', since it does not correspond to
the reality. Scientific statistics prove you wrong...
Seriously though, I'd like to study the evidence Santoshbab
refers to in #4
The two most thorough reviews on all the intercessory prayer studies
published so far are:
1. Roberts L, Ahmed I, Hall S, and Davison A (2009) Intercessory prayer
for the alleviation of ill health, Cochrane Database of Systematic
Reviews, April 15,(2):CD000368.
2. Masters KS, Spielmans GI, and Goodson JT. (2006) Are there demonstrable
effects of distant intercessory prayer? A meta-analytic review, Annals of
Behavioral Medicine, 32(1):21-6.
***Any thought or feeling can influence our health. So also any suggestion
or prayer can have impact on our health and life. Even 'distant intercessory
prayer' does have results. It does not necessarily mean that the incurable
diseases will be cured. But it can ameliorate the situation.
We have enough evidence in the prayer meetings.
Regards.
Fr.Ivo
