Done! I will look for the study, but a while back someone did a study that seemed to say that praying for someone actually results in worse outcome, but only if the person knows they are being prayed for. It was something about stress and expectations. If I find it, I will post it here.

[en.wikipedia.org]
I didn't find what I was looking for, but this Wikipedia article discusses some studies on prayer's effectiveness, or lack thereof.

@Organist1 Thank you for the link. I think we all know and have heard all the excuses when prayer doesn't seem to work (god must have other intentions, or he works in mysterious ways or so and so didn't deserve to get better). Now with religion in recession in many developed countries the efficacy of prayers is being more thoroughly being analyzed and being shown to be the hoax it really is. The attempts of the religionists to revive the importance has a 'prayer' of a chance (pun intended).

@JackPedigo Yeah, and remember the infamous book by Harold Kushner, "When Bad Things Happen to Good People?" The ultimate justification.

@darren316 Thanks!!!

@darren316 Phil Zuckerman is an active member of FFRFR. He has written numerous articles for the newsletter.