I guess it gives them a feeling of satisfaction. I look at a football game and both teams pray. Who is the lucky team? The winner. I guess the losing team didn't get their prayers answered. Oh yes, doesn't the talent of the winning team count?

There are two general kinds of prayer -- petitioning prayer that's seeking change of circumstance and what might be called meditative prayer, of the "not my will, but Thine, be done" variety.

People can be centered and calmed by meditative prayer just like they can by any meditative discipline. They are generally going to be frustrated by petitioning prayer, as the "answers" are indistinguishable from random happenstance. But for people whose lives are sufficiently lucky, the notion that "prayer changes things" gives a false sense of control that seems real, until it doesn't.

Don’t know, perhaps it does for them.

As a retired Hospice home heath care "nurse" I find these comments so amusing. Here's just one thing I've read, there is a lot to read about death, BUT most people call out for something (it's usually a god like figure, a parent, each person is different) it's not just this simple slip away for most. Some do die in their sleep, but if you are being nursed to death it usually isn't very pretty. There can be a LOT of mumbling and discomfort. I never nursed a person who didn't pray....or talk to spirits. You know what? It is whatever YOU make of it. [express.co.uk]

Because they know of no other solutions and it's easy, words instead of actions. When you have a heart attack, pray. When you have a 2nd pray harder. At 3rd, hmm maybe one needs to change their lifestyle.

The prayer delusion.

The Babble says so......

Because they believe they are talking to god and that she will help them

They were told that praying made a difference and if it appears that nothing happened they can always say we do not know the mind of god or why he does things as he does.

Believers are not people they are functioning as a group organism like aspen trees connecting by the roots sending more shoots up through the soil hoping birds or wind will spread seeds beyond the aspen grove

Because some people feel the need that there be a power greater than themselves at work in the universe. Attachment to that power in any way, shape or form gives them comfort and they don't feel as small and insignificant. It gives them a (false) feeling of belonging to something greater than themselves. They are scared!

Delusion is not "comfort" it is mental illness.....prEying is intended for real ears to deepen cult brainwashing.....the perpetrators fear voices in their heads and want to force a voice into any ear that can hear

Desperation

Confirmation bias.
If for instance your child comes down with an infection and you pray for their recovery, and they do recover, it is very easy to attribute the recovery to the prayer rather than the medicine given by the doctor, and when this is pointed out to say something like, "The Lord guided the doctor to the right treatment" or "The medicine worked because of the prayer, or was enhanced by it" or "I told my husband the doctor was an unnecessary expense, but you know what he is like" and so on and so forth.

For some however it is a way of confirming to one self that god takes a special interest in you personally.
For example a Jewish acquaintance of mine (a fellow writer) once boasted to me of how they were still god's chosen people because her aunt had prayed for a new skirt and despite god being so busy with all the gentiles, he took time out to grant her request. The skirt as it happens was a birthday gift from a neighbor who noticed the need and was moved to kindness by nothing more than friendship, but of course this was not the case it was exclusively the work of "haShem"

Because if things work out they will attribute that to their prayers being answered...when things don’t turn out well...they will just rationalise that as being god’s will. They will never think of it as prayer not being answered.