So much of this, if not all, is case-by-case basis. If one wants
to go extreme and say, "either medical treatment *or* prayer"
well, for the majority of either side, it's ridiculous. To say,
"I don't want your prayer at all!" is ridiculous, although not
as ridiculous as, "I refuse ALL modern medical treatment". Heck,
even the Amish, who avoid contact with the English and handle
most medical emergencies themselves, WILL resort to hospital
care when absolutely necessary. Seems like a reasonable
compromise. Then again, they have bad teeth and do pullings
instead of dentists, but maybe they should cut down on the apple
pies. Whatever. So, once you leave the obvious extremes, you
have narrower margins. Let's go chemo vs radiation. It depends.
My mother's best friend for years is one of the longest
survivors of thyroid cancer. She's one of quite literally a
handful (less than 5 last I heard) that had their treatments in
the late 1970s and are still around and fine. In her case, it
was radiation-only, no chemo. Does that mean that chemo is bad?
No. Just a case of someone who didn't use it and it worked out
for. She also prayed a lot being a devout Catholic. Now, to me,
I wouldn't say, "Oh, she prayed and therefore it cured her",
just as I wouldn't say radiation only cured her. But I can say
she didn't do chemo. Correlation? Yes. Causation? No. Would I
say that prayer did nothing? No, I can't say that. Some people
can say that - that's their choice, but I don't know. I was
raised to believe in the "power of positive thinking", so I'm a
product of my environment as
