Scientific Evidence for the Efficacy of Prayer

In our Judaeo-Christian society, prayer has always been recognised as a way of ameliorating distress. Let us start by looking at the way in which the power of prayer was regarded over a century ago. This is a story told by a country lawyer in the mid-west of the US around 1880. There had been a prolonged drought in the area, so long, so severe that the little farming community in which he lived was facing grave difficulties. Without rain, and rain soon, the harvest would be ruined. All the ministers of the various churches in the community put their heads together, and it was resolved that at midday on a certain day, the whole community would pray for rain. On the day in question, at midday, work in the town came to a standstill and as a body, the town prayed for rain. After a couple of hours, the sky clouded over and the rain came. It came in bucketsful, accompanied by thunder and by lightning. Unfortunately the lightning struck and completely destroyed a barn, which was, again unfortunately, not insured. The owner of the barn, a sceptical town worthy, decided to sue the preacher whose idea this had been, and the lawyer was asked by the priest to represent him. The case achieved some notoriety and in fact went all the way to the US Supreme Court. Did the plaintiff