In the past, prayer &c was technology, not fashion and lifestyle. It was an experiment. When you pray there's supposed to be specific results under specific conditions.
Jesus is supposed to be omnipotent. Hence it is impossible for Jesus to be unaware of a prayer, and it is impossible for Jesus to be unable to answer the prayer, unless you ask for a circle with corners or for the sun to set during the morning. (Setting aside the problem, for Christians, that logic necessarily outranks Jesus. Logic is higher status.)
Theory 1: Jesus can do anything wholesome, and due to omnipotence already knows what you might pray for, but wants you to ask.
Experiment: step 1: want things, don't pray. Step 2: want things, pray for them.
Results: you can do this yourself? Remember to tabulate the results. Ideally in excel or something so you can have a binary computer run statistical algorithms on it. Keep track of the details to see if there's a wholesomeness pattern regarding pass and fail.
This means gods are fully scientific and natural. If they're real they answer prayers. If they're not, they can't or don't.
Theory 2: Jesus judges whether you deserve something and provides it due to benevolence, whether you ask or not.
Result: Jesus clearly judges the world is unworthy of justice, which is why it's not provided. Praying for justice is actually to pray that the unworthy get something which makes things even more unjust.
If Jesus is omnipotent, that is if he can answer prayers whether you voice them or not and doesn't need to consume prayer energy or can't see stuff unless you tell him or something, then some Calvinist variety of fatalism is accurate.
On the other hand having faith in Jesus is irrelevant. The benefits will be provided, due to benevolence, either way. Prayer is done for meditative reasons. Jesus won't make you have gratitude, because free will is more important and he can't make a triangle without corners, but gratitude and humility is still good for you.
Again the results of this can be tabulated and assessed. Try various prayer regimes and tabulate the mental health and mindset & habit results. Obviously, compare prayers to Odin &c.
In this case, gods are almost fully scientific and natural. E.g. they are natural enough that the results of theory 2 contradict theory 1. Popperian logical positivism applies.
I can feel a theory 3 around here somewhere. (Set 2.) Although it may merely be an underappreciated aspect of 1 or 2. It doesn't matter enough for me to go finding it. 1 & 2 more or less cover the bases. As before, I'm not a Scientist or a Christian, I'm an alchemist, practicing logiomancy.
P.S. Complication: principle: do not test the spirits. If you're praying to Jesus just to see if Jesus answers prayers, Jesus is going to recognize this and take a dim view of that prayer. "Hey Jesus, can I have a cookie?" Umm... If you test prayer in a lab specifically, Jesus is going to notice it's a stupid lab test and not something you genuinely care about.
This is part of the general principle of having a model of ESP, because otherwise you can't interpret your results. "Is ESP possible?" isn't an experiment, it's thoroughly unserious. A cloud of burnt weed.
P.P.S. Double complication: "Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits, whether they are of God," John, 4:1.
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