Prayers don't work so why do religious keep jabbing at it?

[Fake Messiah]

“The function of prayer is not to influence God, but rather to change the nature of the one who prays.”

-- Kierkegaard

That's certainly not very Jesusian since in NT "faith" and prayers are being discussed in a charismatic endowment, an active power of which one may possess and exercise more or less.

Mark 11:22-24 "Have faith in God. Amen: I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, Be taken up and cast into the sea,' and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says will come to pass, it will be done for him. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask in prayer, believe that you will receive it, and you will".

And Matthew 7:7-8 & Luke 11:9-10, tell us it is as simple as knocking on a door and expecting someone to answer. “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.

But I understand why people like Kierkegaard looked for other "purposes" of prayer since it has no effect at all, just like modern piety has yet another excuse at the ready: "God will answer your prayer, but he may answer 'no."'

And also when you think about that "faith" thing: How can there be a little or a lot of faith? Do you believe God can do it, or don't you? Your options are belief or atheism. But when prayer does not work, and since God cannot have failed, the blame must lie elsewhere, and you're the only remaining candidate.