Well, it's not that I want to hurt anyone's feelings, it's just that I want to say this.
What is the point of Praying? It appears that the answer is this: It benefits the person praying. And I would argue, the person being prayed for - provided they know they are being prayed for.
Does this mean I think that praying actually helps God decide whom He will help? No. And Duh!
To be clear, I originally wanted to write a post ripping the logical (and theological for that matter) soundness of efficacy of prayer. But my interest in behavioral psychology, cognitive biology etc suggests to me that this may be a premature judgment. But again, to be clear, this does not mean that I think this is evidence of God; it is not.
So let's start with what I would call the common notion of prayer and how it works and why I think it's complete crap. Then I will come by the points I made above.
Conventional notion of prayer: You make this sincere appeal to God for X, Y and/or Z and, if you pray hard enough (whatever that means) and if your request is holy, God will answer your prayer. For example, someone's mother or son or whatever gets super sick and is expected to die. Everyone starts praying and lo and behold, they recover. See? God answers!
But of course, the truth is that people who are prayed for often die anyway. In often horribly painful deaths. Why is that? And even so, why would God need us to tell Him who to save and who to let suffer? How could our desires (expressed through prayer) possibly cause the infinitely wise know-it-all we call God to change His mind? This makes no sense. If the right thing is that Grandma should live to 92 instead of 82, He already knows that. He doesn't need you to tell him that.
And in general it makes no sense. If God is all knowing and perfectly good, then your emotional appeals to him are a waste of time. Seriously, they are. Assuming you think there is a God.
This is basic irrationality of prayers. If they pray, and something good happens, obviously god has answered. If not, then He has a plan, just trust Him. God is in a no lose position. Nothing can happen that would suggest that He doesn't actually exist. This is Anthony Flew's argument: What can you imagine could happen that would make you believe that God does not exist? The answer for nearly all believers is this, nothing. And that is the point. Their belief is unshakable. And therefore NOT empirical. It is simply wishful thinking. And that is what prayer is all about - wishing.
So, given my observation, what are the benefits of prayer? Well, there is evidence that praying increases one's subsequent level of self control (there are other ways to do this, like drinking a glucose drink). And that is a good thing. Not sure we know how that works, but a good guess is that it is because the prayer feels like that you have had a social interaction. Talking to your dead father or sister I think would likely work about as well.
Another benefit is that people who know they being prayed for appear to enjoy a placebo effect. And that's not bad either I don't think. Of course, like all placebo things, they don't work on the informed.
So where does this leave me? I don't pray and never will. It makes no sense. On the other hand, I can benefit from having conversations with imaginary people, or the sky, or the moon, or whomever. But I will not pray for your mother, or you child, or you for that matter. However, I will put you in my thoughts. Because it is what I do when I care about people but can't really do anything for them other than to tell them that I love them. And that is what I am saying when I say you are in my thoughts.
Now, does it bother me when someone prays for me? No. Why not? Because it is their way of saying that they love me. And that is a good thing. Note of course, I would not include the acerbic "I am praying for you to change your ways" or "I pray for your soul" which in context generally means "fuck you! But I pretend I am too nice to say it".
To sum up, I think prayer is mostly a waste of time and the conventional view of the religious that God is listening is complete crap. But I admit that there are benefits for those that believe in God (just as placebos work for those that "believe" in the placebo). I won't pray for anyone. But I am not bothered by people praying for me, provided they mean it kindly.
