It is amazing that people have been praying for thousands of years and haven't recognised the pattern of the responses, or lack of responses. It must be the enormous power of hope that keeps prayer going.

Speaking only for myself as a former evangelical ... I always had grave reservations about the efficacy of prayer, and always doubted that people touting it seriously believed in it either. Ultimately, the uselessness of prayer was the undoing of my faith -- the final nail in the coffin being my 2nd wife's slow, painful death despite a number of acclaimed "prayer warriors" making oblations on her behalf. By that time the outcome wasn't even a surprise to me, but I noted it as something to mark, and never forget.

I think prayer is usually best understood as a self-calming deflection in a hopeless situation. Someone is suffering or dying or in jeopardy and you can't do a thing about it ... imagining that god is doing something at some level about it eases that tension. Even when the stakes aren't high, there's a certain amount of anxiety about not being in control of things -- affirming that someone benevolent is in control on your behalf eases that tension, too. It's about as effective as thumb-sucking, but more socially acceptable.

Everything happens under "God's" design. So it is not for us lowly human beings to understand "God's will"
Therefore we can rest in peace knowing that God just don't give a fuck about our lives.(sarcasm) We will just have to trust that "God" knows what he is doing.

Minus the sarcastic part this is what they will likely say. Smh.

Maybe they think it’s time to sacrifice something … an animal, or perhaps a child.. Isn’t that how religions work..?

Isn't "God moves in mysterious ways." the phrase trotted out by the righteous on these occasions.

They would call it fake news, or fake shooting, or perhaps say that people were having fake prayers, oh hell who knows. They sure would have a reason for it.