53 minutes ago, Phi for All said:

That seems like a semantics argument. I'm talking about actual contradictions. In Genesis 1, animals are created before man, and in Genesis 2, man  is created before animals. 

I see

I'm not very religious at all, so keep that in mind when considering my opinion.
We are finding that more and more health problems are associated with stress.
And prayer, like yoga, or meditation, can have a 'calming' effect on a person, and reduce levels of stress.
I would imagine this works only if you believe that it is going to work.

I myself used to get stress headaches, and I used to take acetaminophen with caffeine ( Tylenol Ultra ), then I convinced myself that it was actually the caffeine that dilated my brain's blood vessels, and stopped the headaches.
Now I just make a large cup of coffee when I get one of those headaches, and I get relief, without having to take any acetaminophen.
( for some reason espresso doesn't seem to work, no matter how many I consume; maybe it's the Sambuca I add to it )

Edited June 26, 20205 yr by MigL

18 minutes ago, MigL said:

I'm not very religious at all, so keep that in mind when considering my opinion.
We are finding that more and more health problems are associated with stress.
And prayer, like yoga, or meditation, can have a 'calming' effect on a person, and reduce levels of stress.
I would imagine this works only if you believe that it is going to work.

I myself used to get stress headaches, and I used to take acetaminophen with caffeine ( Tylenol Ultra ), then I convinced myself that it was actually the caffeine that dilated my brain's blood vessels, and stopped the headaches.
Now I just make a large cup of coffee when I get one of those headaches, and I get relief, without having to take any acetaminophen.
( for some reason espresso doesn't seem to work, no matter how many I consume; maybe it's the Sambuca I add to it )

Could it not be that your headaches were a symptom of caffeine withdrawal and, of course, consumption will remove it? I reduced my consumption and the headaches were really quite painful when withdrawing. Decaff for me now, which is about 90% reduction. Caffeine is mainly thought of as a vasoconstrictor,  I think.

15 minutes ago, StringJunky said:

caffeine withdrawal

That triggered a (not 100% serious) question in the context of the topic's talk about if prayer is scientifically healthy. What about the opposite, "prayer withdrawal"? When someone healthy that used to participate in prayer stops praying, for instance due to lost faith, are they supposed to get health problems? I've encountered numerous dubious source claiming "science proved" this or that religious activity to have a positive outcome but not so much about the opposite. 

1 hour ago, MigL said:

I'm not very religious at all, so keep that in mind when considering my opinion.
We are finding that more and more health problems are associated with stress.
And prayer, like yoga, or meditation, can have a 'calming' effect on a person, and reduce levels of stress.
I would imagine this works only if you believe that it is going to work.

I myself used to get stress headaches, and I used to take acetaminophen with caffeine ( Tylenol Ultra ), then I convinced myself that it was actually the caffeine that dilated my brain's blood vessels, and stopped the headaches.
Now I just make a large cup of coffee when I get one of those headaches, and I get relief, without having to take any acetaminophen.
( for some reason espresso doesn't seem to work, no matter how many I consume; maybe it's the Sambuca I add to it )

We have the same religion.  +1.

55 minutes ago, Ghideon said:

That triggered a (not 100% serious) question in the context of the topic's talk about if prayer is scientifically healthy. What about the opposite, "prayer withdrawal"? When someone healthy that used to participate in prayer stops praying, for instance due to lost faith, are they supposed to get health problems? I've encountered numerous dubious source claiming "science proved" this or that religious activity to have a positive outcome but not so much about the opposite. 

Good point but we have to see it just like someone who practices sport regularly and then stopped 

He won't have health problems but he might get fat