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How do they know members of the control group weren't being prayed for? Even assuming the study were perfect, the conclusion is not that retroactive prayer wor
by harshreality 12y ago
How do they know members of the control group weren't being prayed for?
Even assuming the study were perfect, the conclusion is not that retroactive prayer works, but that retroactive prayer in the context of conducting a scientific study works, since if you believe the deity being prayed to exists, you also have to believe that the deity knows it's part of a scientific study and not genuine spontaneous prayer.
- gwern 12y ago> How do they know members of the control group weren't being prayed for? Randomization should balance confounders like that: there should be on average an equal number of pre-prayed-for people in both the experimental and control groups. (And even if all subjects had been prayed for, it seems reasonable that prayer would be additive and one would still expect to detect an average treatment effect.)