On the lunacy of prayer

[Spongebob]

Your comment re. praying audibly / publicly probably stems in part from the indoctrination process. How does a parent know the child is praying properly and for the right things? How do you "prove" to other Christians that you are praying (and therefore strengthen the communal bond). If everyone always prayed silently and without any physical gestures at all, a lot of the societal / communal "common language" would be lost. 

Your comment also made me think another crazy thought. That which relates to people always looking up when they are talking to / thinking of God. Clearly that comes from the outdated concept that the Earth is flat, infinitely deep and they believed that good things (ie. Heaven, God) must be in the "sky" and bad things (Hell, the Devil) must be within the earth. I don't think that modern Christians still believe that Hell is somehow located within the Earth itself, or God or Heaven are floating in the sky somewhere, but the concept still prevails. The other funny thing is if God IS concentrated more in some areas in the universe than others (and not uniformly distributed) then where? Maybe praying downwards would actually give you the best bang for your buck 

Yes, the rituals of mass prayer and group prayer are manifestations of what I was talking about, prayer as theater.  Theists of all sorts do this and it boils down to the same reasons.  You want others to see/hear it.

Keep in mind that most Christians bow their head in prayer as a gesture of reverence and perhaps humility.  But closing the eyes, I have no idea what that's about.