It’s trite but necessary to point out that when you believe in nonsense, it will be very difficult to arrive at realistic assessments of real-world phenomenon. The “power of prayer” is intellectually indefensible and merely a symptom of an incurable solipsistic mindset. It’s not surprising that real-world events should be interpreted so as to support the solipsism, as we humans rarely revise our beliefs merely because reality disproves them.