Prayer Studies

[Silver]

I don't believe this is true. If what you claim is true, you wouldn't need people to actually pray to be an element of the study. Instead you would simply tell(lie to) one group that they were receiving prayers.

For the group to pray does not have to be an element of the study. A recent study showed the effects on those whom were being prayed for by others as opposed to those who were not informed that others were praying for them. The study showed that those who knew they were receiving prayer fared worse in recovering than those who were not receiving prayer.

Prayer studies make the assumption that God exists and then proceed to test if God answers prayers.

The problem with the scenario is that without concrete evidence that god exists, it cannot be proven that god answered any prayer. It can be proven that those who believe in god believe that god answered their prayers, but it cannot prove that god had any hand in answering the prayers whatsoever.