That first paragraph is the point I was trying to get to in my posts.
I have discussed this before in a Christian Forum and it was impossible, even in that relatively non-fundamentalist forum, to reach a consensus on what the intention of prayer is. This was even before attempting to discuss the logical outcomes of prayer and how their god must 'be', based upon these outcomes.
It is an entertaining debate topic, but how christians personally reconcile an omnipotent, infallible and predestinal god with human free will is their issue...As long as they keep it out of my government and out of my school (unfortunately, they don't seem to be able to do this right now).
One entertaining question is to ask how they reconcile the (sometimes diametrically) opposing opinions between denominations and even themselves. Either none of them are wholly correct or some of them are wholly correct, in which case there are a lot of christians headed for their hell, whatever that is.
Broadly speaking...
Theologically they obfuscate behind denominational and personal interpretations of scripture, that's where this thread will end up btw.
Politically, they hide the problems by sucking moderate* christians into loose coalitions based upon a loose agenda and then use the membership numbers as leverage to push an essentially fundamentalist agenda.
*(Personal definition here but I think of moderate christians as being essentially spiritual but agnostic)
OK, now I'm officially off of my soap box.