I remember seeing a program about atheism presented by Dawkins and he told the story of his friend, another academic atheist, who'd been in a car accident (or something) and ended up in a coma.
When he came round his family were there and they told him they'd prayed for him. To which his reply was (apparently) "Gee thanks. Did you also sacrifice a goat?"
Taking the story to be reasonably true I was struck by a couple of things. First, pretty amazing presence of mind to come up with that quip straight out of a coma. Kudos. But second - how ungrateful. Un-kudos.
As the saying goes - it's the thought that counts.
My grandma has at times prayed for me, and while we don't share beliefs (even after taking her personal brand of crazy conspiracy theory christianity into account)(it's pretty unique stuff) I have never been anything but utterly grateful and humbled by her strength of love. I would never (I hope) say anything disparaging about her prayers, as what they mean to her, means a lot to me.
But I've also met people who expressed pity for those who didn't share their beliefs... which makes me mad.
Still... my money's on this whole shebang being some sort of very very advanced computer simulation designed by uber-clever alien programmers with an
evil sense of humour. (And I occasionally shake my fist at the sky, and mutter "You b*stards"...
)