Prayer is definitely contradictory and confusing from a non-believers standpoint, and you will get radically different answers depending on who you ask. A central tenant of the religion in general is that god is not only omnipotent and omniscient, but also cares about humans. A lot of ink has been spilled trying to reconcile that with observed reality. One common explanation for prayer is that you are supposed to be listening – it isn’t so much asking for god to intercede on your behalf but that you are talking about whatever is worrying you and asking for advice on how you should respond. Or you do pray for intercession, but also acknowledge that in the end, it’s god’s will not yours, so you also pray for the strength to accept it if what you wanted doesn’t happen.
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