Prayer vs Medicine/Medical Treatment

[This is rough outline]

The healing power of prayer has been the subject of a lot of debate between the religious community and, well, common sense. The belief is that the power of prayer is able to heal people whereas medicine cannot. This is a rejection of all the evidence that has been compiled in the systematic search over the centuries to finding ways to cure or heal people. The worst cases of abuse and ignorance of the power of healing is when parents refuse medical treatment for their children on the basis that their prayers are more powerful than medicine. This is often seen in the rejection of blood transfusions and chemotherapy.

There have been studies done that have tested the power of prayer. [need to look up those studies to cite and quote correctly]. Summary: its not the prayers that affect, but the thought that someone is praying for you that results in higher recovery rates. So the focus ought not to be prayers but should be on bringing the mind of the patient to ease. [need to bring up recent studies done on the changes in hospital environment, such as personal space]

[Can bring up point in Bill Maher's Religulous about the people at the vatican going to be healed, but having same rate of recovery as someone who received no medical treatment.]