It’s not about what you think. You think it works only because they told you so.

The fact that prayer has no effect on the occurrence of anything, should indicate that whatever you believe to be true because prayer works is absolutely false, no matter what. The ability to produce the same results with or without prayer, or whether or not prayer exists, has existed, or has taken place, is proof enough that prayer is entirely useless. With or without prayer, the outcome remains the same. With or without prayer, you will get the same results. Whether or not prayer has taken place, the result would never be, or would have never been, any different, no matter what, except for the effects that may be described as the placebo effect, or the effects of delusion, which would make the praying individual not only believe that everything that happens in favor of what the praying individual wants means that God has answered their prayers, but also the delusion and placebo effect of religious prayer sometimes makes this praying individual become actually better because the praying individual believes that they are now receiving divine aid directly from God, whether or not this is actually the case or what has actually happened.

According to how much the individual strongly believes they will reach their goals, they will be able to succeed, with or without divine intervention. You have to reach something through prayer that is impossible to be reached without prayer no matter what, or else you cannot assume that prayer makes any difference.

Aside from the power of belief and its effects on you, if anything that you receive due to prayer could still be received whether you’ve prayed or not, then prayer in and of itself changes nothing in both cases or whether or not you pray. If a factor could be removed from the equation without the equation changing, then the presence or absence of this factor does not make any difference in the equation or in the outcome.