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Miracles can happen through prayer - claim
Read the likes of Richard Dawkins and they will tell you, in language so fiery and vitriolic it might well have come from the pulpit of a Medieval fundamentalist, that prayer is a futile exercise.
That it is futile because God does not exist. But the thing about God is, no-one can prove whether 'He' exists or not. Belief is just that – an act of faith.
In the modern secular world, belief in a supernatural God capable of miracles occupies the same realm as myth, legend and hocus pocus, but there are people who believe prayer – and faith – can heal everything from a headache to a cancerous tumour.
Christianity, and religion in general, has suffered withering attacks at the hands of science ever since the European Enlightenment. It has been forced to abandon many of it's central tenets – the reluctance to admit women bishops, to acknowledge homosexuals and even other faiths being just a few.
So, what can be made of subscribers of the Christian Science Church, who believe, rightly or wrongly, that prayer can heal almost anything, whether that's a headache or a broken leg?
Height problem
Tony Lobl, 48, who was born into a Jewish family, is an ardent believer and claims to have experienced his own miracle.
A graduate of the University of Surrey with a BSc in modern mathematics, he said: "When I was 18, I was very short – 5 foot 4 inches."
"I remember going to the doctor about it. It was affecting my life, because at that age I wanted to be dating girls. I was told I would not grow."
"That night I prayed. I remember it well, it was about 3am and I just remember all of the anxiety draining away. Then, I started growing again. Today I am 6ft."
"It was about four years later I came across Christian Science and it was in retrospect I realised what had happened to me."
Broken legs
Christian Science is based on the book Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), an American who claimed to have recovered from a severe spinal condition through prayer.
Christian Science 'healings' are usually validated by several witnesses. However, there are is no independent authentification, so one may argue the whole process is open to question.
They advocate prayer over traditional medical remedies, even for things like broken legs, although are careful to point out that the use of medicine is by no means banned."
Marta Greenwood, 68, has been preaching since 2003 and recently in Leeds.
Miracle healings
Born in Tehran, Iran, she came to UK in 1968 aged 19 and attended King's College and went on to be a nurse, ward sister and midwife at Guy's Hospital.
The mother-of-two, who has five grandchildren, said: "I had to have a hysterectomy. That's when I started to look at homeopathy. Someone asked if I had read Mary Baker Eddy. It made sense to me.
"I'm not out there trying to convince everyone that this is the only way. But for people who want to improve themselves, it is one way."
But what about the reports of so-called 'miracle healings' through prayer?
Crushed finger
She added: "It's about helping people find solutions. I have people who ring me and they have physical problems, one of them had a crushed finger, another vision problems, hearing difficulties, another asthma.
"They have all rung me to ask for physical healing. I pray for them.
It's about how we can respect one another and how we can make a difference in the community. It's an act of faith.
"For years I did not want to know about God, nothing would make me go to church. When my need was great I could not get there quick enough."
Anne Mepham (corr), 60, is a former community care manager in Kirklees, who has just become a grandmother and is a member of the Christian Science Church. She said: "It's the mental regeneration I like. It had an immediate healing effect on me."
The sceptic wants to dismiss such testimonies as fanciful anecdotes or wishful thinking, but the thing that rankles is that the people making these claims are, for the most part, hard-working, serious folk, many of whom have held down professional jobs with a fair degree of responsibility, whilst others have degrees in things like mathematics.
San Francisco
Dr Rachel Takriti (CORR), a senior lecturer in psychology at Leeds Metropolitan University, said: "There's some evidence that prayer does work. There was a study in 1998 in San Francisco, in which 2,000 people prayed - without the doctors knowing it - for 200 heart patients, while another 200 had no-one praying for them. Statistically, those who were prayed for came out with better results in term of medical outcomes.
"There's evidence it can increase self-efficacy and lower levels of negative emotion. Certainly, people who pray can have shorter stays in hospital and fewer post-operative complications. I think it helps to give the person who is praying a belief that they have more control over what is happening to them. Obviously, they have faith, the question is, is it God giving them that control, or not?"
FACTFILE:
website: www.churchofchristscientist.org
Christian Scientists will be giving a talk in Wakefield on June 12, 7.30pm, at First Church of Christ, Scientist, 3 Wentworth Street, Wakefield WF1 2QT; and in Harrogate on June 14, 3pm, Ashville College, Green Lane, Harrogate, HG2 9JP.
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Thursday 24 May 2012
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