Earlier this month, the Guardian published an article citing a study of religious belief as a source of pain relief: “Brain scans of volunteers who were subjected to electrical shocks revealed that Roman Catholics felt less pain than atheists and agnostics when they were shown a painting of the Virgin Mary.” In a post at Get Religion, Elizabeth Eisenstadt Evans asks, “Where’s the rest of the story?”
I’m surprised, as a nonscientist, that the author thought anything worth reporting could be determined from an experiment on 24 people. Does the aura of truth associated with the word science carry that much credibility in the world of journalism?
As interesting as the results of this experiment are, the results, as explained by Sample, sorely lack any context — scientific or religious.
It would have been wonderful, too, if Mr. Sample had consulted someone who bridged the worlds of theology and science to offer an alternative explanation.
Read the Guardian article here, and Evans’ post at Get Religion here.