There's basically three types of prayer, to suit three types of occasion.
The first is a general "I want you to know I'm thinking of you" which apparently is worthless, according to the OP. It's generally offered when the prayor can't think of anything else to say.
Then there's the "I am really concerned with your situation and this is the best way I know to help short of actually helping", equally worthless.
The last is the universal fuck-you: "I just want you to know that in my opinion there is something fundamentally flawed in you that does not match up to my own standards; and rather than grow the bollocks to tell you to your face, I'm going to hide behind a layer of magic and pretend I want to help you like the good guy I want you to think I am".
In any event, the fact that invariably the theist comes out and tells you that he's praying for you always strikes me as hilarious. Doesn't it work unless the prayee knows you're doing it?
The first is a general "I want you to know I'm thinking of you" which apparently is worthless, according to the OP. It's generally offered when the prayor can't think of anything else to say.
Then there's the "I am really concerned with your situation and this is the best way I know to help short of actually helping", equally worthless.
The last is the universal fuck-you: "I just want you to know that in my opinion there is something fundamentally flawed in you that does not match up to my own standards; and rather than grow the bollocks to tell you to your face, I'm going to hide behind a layer of magic and pretend I want to help you like the good guy I want you to think I am".
In any event, the fact that invariably the theist comes out and tells you that he's praying for you always strikes me as hilarious. Doesn't it work unless the prayee knows you're doing it?
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
