Praying Doesn't Work

Riley says pray for rain to fall from heavens- al.com

With the state's weather forecasters not delivering much-needed rain, Gov. Bob Riley on Thursday turned to a higher power. The governor issued a proclamation calling for a week of prayer for rain, beginning Saturday.

LOL! This guy is the governer of Alabama? And his new policy to tackle the drought is "pray for rain". American's are so screwed.

Also, what happened to seperation of church and state? mm? HMMMM!?!?!?!

Here are some "facts" from like, "experiments", if you're interested in that sort of thing:

The largest study, financed by the Templeton Foundation and published in the American Heart Journal last year, followed 1,800 patients at six hospitals. Christian groups prayed for some of the patients from the day before heart surgery and for two weeks after, and did not pray for others.

According to an Associated Press account of the study, the patients were divided into three groups: those who knew they were being prayed for, those who were prayed for but knew only it was a possibility, and those who weren't prayed for and were never told it was a possibility.

The study found that there was no effect of prayer on patients' recoveries.

I'm sure in the God Delusion, Dawkins said that the people who knew they were being prayed for actually came out worse. Oh yeah here it is:

The only statistically significant blip appeared in a subgroup of
patients who were prayed for and knew it. They experienced a higher
rate of postsurgical heart arrhythmias (59 versus 52 percent of unaware
subjects).

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