That would mean that if we looked at a population of people and corrected for all other factors, we would see a correlation between prayer and medical outcomes.
Do we see this?
Read what I said again.....no one is talking about prayer miraculously affecting medical outcomes. I said that those with faith have a better way of dealing with health problems. There is a correlation of better outcomes because those with faith are in a better psychological position to cope. A good deal of our health outcomes are affected by how we think and feel about our situation.
*Believing* that you can get well, can affect medical outcomes. The placebo effect is proof of this. The other factor is that not all cancers will kill you. Some people who have more active immune systems will deal with these cancers themselves, sometimes without any knowledge that they ever had a cancer. (I had a friend who experienced this....a scan revealed that she had suffered a brain tumour which her immune system had apparently dealt with it.)
For those with no faith in God and no hope for any future life, a terminal medical diagnosis is the end of everything for them. But for a Christian, death is not the end, but there is a promised new beginning. Dying is difficult for everyone, but hope keeps a person's spirits up. Looking forward to something better can make death easier to bear, knowing that you will see lost loved ones again.
Unbelievers have no idea......