Still in my darker moments I Pray.  Not to your god necessarily. Here is
the article that does not resonate with me  in a some fundamental way.  
Perhaps it is mental as fundamental suggests. Perhaps folks in dire
circumstances look to prayer.

Bill

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsarticle.aspx?type=domesticNews&storyid=
2006-03-30T204217Z_01_N30395850_RTRUKOC_0_US-PRAYER.xml&rpc=22

or http://tinyurl.com/ktlqk

Study fails to show healing power of prayer
Thu Mar 30, 2006 3:42 PM ET
By Michael Conlon
CHICAGO (Reuters) - A study of more than 1,800 patients who underwent
heart bypass surgery has failed to show that prayers specially organized
for their recovery had any impact, researchers said on Thursday.
In fact, the study found some of the patients who knew they were being
prayed for did worse than others who were only told they might be prayed
for -- though those who did the study said they could not explain why.
The patients in the study at six U.S. hospitals included 604 who were
actually prayed for after being told they might or might not be; another
597 patients who were not prayed for after being told they might or
might not be; and a group of 601 who were prayed for and told they would
be the subject of such prayer.
The praying was done by members of three Christian groups in monasteries
and elsewhere -- two Catholic and one Protestant -- who were given
written prayers and the first name and initial of the last name of the
prayer subjects. The prayers started on the eve of or day of surgery and
lasted for two weeks.
Among the first group -- who were prayed for but only told they might be
-- 52 percent had post-surgical complications compared to 51 percent in
the second group, the ones who were not prayed for though told they
might be. In the third group, who knew they were being prayed for, 59
percent had complications.
After 30 days, however, the death rates and incidence of major
complications was about the same across all three groups, said the study
published in the American Heart Journal.
COMPLICATIONS AFTER SURGERY
"Intercessory prayer itself had no effect on whether complications
occurred (and) patients who were certain that intercessors would pray
for them had a higher rate of complications than patients who were
uncertain but did receive intercessory prayer," the study said.
There is "no clear explanation" for the latter finding, it added.
The study -- called the largest of its kind -- was designed only to try
to measure the impact of intercessory prayer on heart surgery patients,
an intervention that some earlier reports had showed seemed to be
beneficial.
"Our study was never intended to address the existence of God or the
presence or absence of intelligent design in the universe" or to compare
the efficacy of one prayer form over another, said the Rev. Dean Marek,
director of chaplain services at the Mayo Clinic, one of the authors.  
Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

Of course, this will be the first time he's heard of the study, as he
has no hospital privileges anymore. Perhaps his firing in Ocala is what
made his mind snap.