In August 2007, Victorian Premier John Brumby initiated a legislative process which will almost certainly result in the decriminalization of abortion in Victoria, Australia.1 This process allowed community groups and churches to write to the state’s Law Reform Commission, expressing their views and wishes concerning the issue. (more…)
Monthly Archives: May 2008
Do you believe in the power of prayer?
During the past 25 years, numerous medical studies have been conducted to try to measure whether prayer has any beneficial effects on patient recovery. The experiments usually involve two randomly assigned groups of patients, and a group of ‘pray-ers’. The ‘pray-ers’ are asked to pray for the recovery of one group of patients, but not for the other. Neither staff nor patients are told whether they are being prayed for, so that any effects are attributed to the power of prayer, rather than the power of suggestion.