Prayer's effects on health have been studied many times.
Small studies initially reported some benefit, but more rigorous studies found null or even harmful effects.
In sum, prayer seemed ineffective, recommending focus on more promising interventions: https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000368.pub3
Notably, some of the investigators had "a prior belief in the positive effects of #prayer" (Benson and Byrd) and nonetheless found plenty of null results, or results that hovered on either side of the null (p. 16, 👆).
🔓 https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7034220/pdf/CD000368.pdf
Hi @AndrewHenry
I find that even those who may want to find positive effects of prayer can accept these results. They may quibble with the scientific presuppositions and remind us that prayer may have *psychological* benefits, but even these believing (or belief-friendly) people seem to admit that those quibbles don't excuse us from the need to assess other observable effects (e.g., on health) and accept the conclusions.
Example: https://www.templeton.org/discoveries/the-science-of-prayer
