In the battle between science and religion, it looks like science has just won a major victory.

The most scientifically rigorous investigation into the effectiveness of prayer to date, spanning 10 years and involving over 1800 test cases, has concluded that prayer does no good, and may even be bad.

PRAYERS offered by strangers had no effect on the recovery of people undergoing heart surgery.

In fact, patients who knew they were being prayed for had higher rates of post-operative complications

Of those being prayed for, 18% had serious complications, compared to 13% of those for whom there were no prayers.