An unsurprising discovery

I read this in the Baltimore Sun

" Praying for someone who is ill and preparing to undergo a risky medical procedure appears to have no effect on the patient's future health.
That's the finding of one of the largest scientific investigations of the power of prayer conducted to date. Scientists said the study, published today in The Lancet, will undoubtedly renew debates over whether prayer has a measurable effect on illness and even whether it's a suitable subject of scientific inquiry.
For the study, researchers at Duke University recruited nearly 750 people undergoing heart-related procedures. Religious groups of different denominations were then randomly assigned to pray for the health of half the volunteers. The other half received no organized prayers.
Researchers found that the prayers, offered by representatives of Christian, Muslim, Jewish and Buddhist faiths, had no effect on whether patients experienced post-procedure complications such as heart attack, death or readmission to the hospital."

How shocking! Who would have thought? Im sure that now, after having the efficacy of their methodology so thoroughly debunked the major religious organisations of the world will rethink their position on prayer.

Great to see the folks at Duke pushing back the frontiers of human knowledge. Maybe now we can send them to Africa to research the effect of tribal dances on weather patterns or to Vegas to see how the possession of a rabbits foot affects Roulette wheels.