the difficulty here lies in history. unfortunately the history of the church and prayer have been plagued by wars, brainwash, murder, torture and deceit all in the name of God. The same bible that so many hold dear, is a book compiled by a "religious" order that purposely excluded certain books of the bible (see apocrypha for more info)to keep certain "truths" away from the common man, so that the power will stay in the church. See, prayer is not a complicated thing for those who believe in a higher power. its the religious sects that try to teach the power of prayer that makes things complicated. truth is, the majority of people praying were taught the wrong way, and their prayers will not be answered anyway (Matthew 6:1-8). The ironic thing is the message is very clear, it's all about free will, the choice to believe and not to believe, the option to pray or not to pray. Even the immortal, powerful angels of the bible were jealous of man because of our ability to choose, and some were thrown out of heaven because they were equally jealous of God because of his love for man and man's worship and devotion to God. I personally have my beliefs, and I normallydo not discuss them because i do not wish to scare anyone away,lol. I am not a satan worshiper, but because of my own personal studies in theology, and history, i believe in a different ways that seem more logical and factual to me. Free will is the one thing we have that is real.