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A 2004 survey of 1,087 U.S. doctors discovered that 73% of them believe miracles are happening today.
But what was perhaps most stunning is 55% of the doctors said they had witnessed a miraculous "treatment result" in their own practice.
One of the authors of the report, Rabbi Leonard Sharzar, who worked as a plastic surgeon in the 1980s, told of a patient sent to him with a critical neurological disease. There was nothing that could be done and Sharzar and his colleagues knew the man would soon die and informed the family of their diagnosis.
Everyone waited for the inevitable. Eight weeks later the man was still alive and on the road to recovery. Sharzar considered it a miracle.
Sharzar said, "The longer you are in a practice the longer you can see things that you can't explain on the basis of your own actions and your own abilities."
The survey was conducted by HCD Research, a market research company that works largely with the pharmaceutical industry, and the Louis Finkelstein Institute of Religious and Social Studies located in the New York-based Jewish Theological Seminary.
The poll also showed that doctors are quite religious with 72% stating religion was a necessary part of life.
This belief transferred over to their prayer life, where over half the doctors (59%) said they prayed for individual patients. Most of the doctors (66%) recommended their patients pray. The reasons were mixed:
- 5% did it because they believed God would answer their prayer.
- 32% did it because they thought prayer provided a beneficial psychological boost.
- 63% did it citing both reasons above.
The survey also asked doctors their opinions on the Bible:
- 37% believed the Bible's miracles were true, 50% interpreted them metaphorically and 12% did not believe they were true.
- 9% believed the Bible was written by God, 58% believed God inspired it and 34% classified it as of human origin.
Overall the authors of the study were surprised by the results. Since the medical profession is highly educated, they expected it to be less religious than the average American. Clearly, this was not the case.
Poll: Doctors believe in Miracles (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/: December 23., 2004) / Medical skill or miracle? (http://www.jta.org/: December 23, 2004)
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