Nearly 80 percent of likely American voters believe in the healing power of prayer, according to a recent poll conducted by Fox News. The findings could be significant as a stable of mostly Christian Republican presidential candidates compete for the right to challenge Barak Obama in the 2012 presidential election.

A full 77 percent of Americans believe that “prayers can help someone heal from an injury or illness, while 20 percent don’t believe that,” reported Fox of its phone survey, conducted in late August. “The remaining 3 percent are unsure.”

Fox found that the groups most likely to believe in the healing power of prayer “include those who regularly attend religious services (93 percent), white evangelical Christians (91 percent), blacks (89 percent), conservatives (85 percent), and those who are part of the Tea Party movement (84 percent).”

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Photo: The "Praying Hands" sculpture at Oral Robert University in Tulsa, Oklahoma.