How does someone explain a healing from a prayer offered up for someone?

Prayers have been tested and no positive effect was present. It was completely random. There were actually some patients, who were told they were being prayed for, who had complications associated with stress. The stress was supposedly, because they thought they were dieing since they needed prayer.

Source?

Because I’ll bet any amount you’re willing to lose that people who pray for cures see their prayers “answered” exactly as often as people who don’t pray go into spontaneous remission.

Now — show me an amputee who regrows his lost limb after offering the proper prayers, and then you might have something to talk about. But we both know that’s never going to happen; and, deep down, we both know the reason why…

The same way someone who doesn’t believe in jesus christ is cured from these diseases.

Luck. Medicine. Immune System, etc.

When you do a properly controlled experiment, prayer has no effect: http://www.nytimes.com/2006/03/31/health/31pray.html?ex=1301461200&en=4acf338be4900000&ei=5088&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss

Thus the only ones with something to explain are the guys who predict that it would.

Cancer; cancer does go into remission on it’s own sometimes. Prayer has been repeatedly proven to have no effect whatsoever on how often this happens.

HIV: No-one has EVER been cured of HIV through prayer, or indeed other means. If they had been it would have been worldwide news. There have been a few occassions where misdiagnoses were made originally and they have been shown as that, but there has certainly never been any case of someone with a full-blown, symptom-showing case of HIV suddenly being cured of the virus.

people don’t get healed from HIV, it might be dormant but they are still carriers.

also, with other diseases sometimes people get well and sometimes they don’t. it’s just life. doesn’t have anything to do with Jesus, otherwise all the other religions would have all their people dead from disease.

By the same token, why do others who are prayed for die? And why do some people recover without being prayed for?

Did prayers to God help cure cancer?
Patient and doctors believe divine intervention helped aggressive brain tumor go into remission
By Don Teague
Correspondent
NBC News
updated 9:30 a.m. CT, Fri., March. 25, 2005
Durham, N.C. - By all medical standards, Andy Delbridge should be dead. The North Carolina father of two was diagnosed three years ago with the most aggressive and dangerous type of brain tumor.

“It was just devastation. I thought, ‘I’m not going to make it, I’m just not going to make it,’ ” says Delbridge.

His chances of surviving were no more than a few months.

“Half the patients are dead within 12 months of diagnosis. The overall survival at several years out is felt to be 2, maybe 5 percent,” says Dr. Henry Friedman, a neurooncologist at Duke University.

But despite long odds, Delbridge underwent surgery, radiation and painful chemotherapy. And while putting his trust in doctors at Duke University Hospital, Delbridge also put his faith in God.

Members of Delbridge’s church prayed for him daily. He and his family asked for divine intervention.

“I prayed for a miracle, I really did. I said, ‘God, I know you can do it,’ ” says Andy’s wife, Nancy.

“The minute you think that you have no hope, you are down for the count. So you’ve got to always think there’s hope,” says Andy.

Today Delbridge is cancer free. Not only is the brain tumor gone, so are the growths that had appeared near his heart. They simply disappeared, without surgery.

For decades the medical community basically ignored the impact of religion on health. But in recent years, scientists have begun studying the possibility that faith matters.

Dr. Harold Koenig leads Duke University’s Center for Spirituality, Theology and Health.

“There are hundreds and hundreds of studies — scientific studies — that show that religious people are healthier,” says Koenig.

Even Dr. Friedman — who treated Delbridge’s cancer — says faith can’t be ignored.

“I think it’s critical. I can’t quantify it. I can’t measure it. I can’t do a test to prove that there is some special ingredient to therapy associated with faith,” he says.

Still, others say people of faith are simply more optimistic — which means less stress — and that in general they lead healthier lives.

“There’s virtually no evidence about the personal benefits of prayer. Certainly lots of people find it rewarding, but there’s very little evidence about any health benefits,” says Dr. Richard P. Sloan, associate professor of psychiatry and director of behavioral medicine at Columbia University.

But Andy Delbridge has all the evidence he needs. Delbridge says, “I believe he answered my prayers. I really do.”

I suppose it’s up to you as to what you believe.