This paper critically examines the roles and theories of prayer in human existence. It raises questions on the logicality of some theories of prayer such as petition, confession and thanksgiving; since according to some theistic assumptions God knows our needs and heart desires before we pray and ask of them. He decides whether to answer a given prayer or not, yet, he does not answer the prayers of a
sinner, since they are an abomination unto him. Furthermore, God is not egoistic and selfish as implicative of prayers of thanksgivings, praise and adoration. The paper further hypothesizes on some other possible theories of prayer such as reminiscence, sociological, command and emotional. In all, it was discovered that none of these theories of prayer are foolproof, since there exist some logical
inconsistencies between the ontological as well as cosmogonic compositions of God and that of human beings. These inconsistencies do not provide the framework for any mutual relationship in the nature of communication as prayer may envision. However, the paper finds a natural ground that validates prayer, hence our conclusion that the desire to pray is a natural desire formed out of the natural human instinct to ask and have those things which they do not have. Prayer therefore is merely a pragma-naturalist or psychological product of man’s failure to assert his “will to power”. It is the expression of the will to have, the conscious desire to think and meditate on things yet to be apprehended and possessed physically or spiritually. Some prayers die in this social-Darwinian process of survival of the fittest if the hard-work element is not employed, since prayer is the human will to transcend the given to the eternal and everlasting realm of the good life. The paper adopts the content-cum-textual-analytic methods of study.
