I had to come back to this because I was closing old browser tabs, and it matters.

If I have zealotry u/DangerCat , it's not The Science, it's truth. If you had read more of my comments, you'd know damn well my position on "I Fucking Love Science" people.

Back to you Kienan.

The existence of your God matters because it is the very core premise of your entire moral framework. If you don't know if God exists, you're not a Christian. Morality must stem from that construct. Otherwise, it stems from... well, there is no Christian answer; there can't be. If God doesn't exist, nothing of what you believe makes any sense, nor is it well founded in anything.

Again, does it matter? Plenty of religious people feel like their prayers are answered, what really changed?

You're missing the point. I'm emphasizing the alternative. It doesn't matter that it feels like. It wasn't. None ever has, and ever will, from anyone. I'm not asking you to defend the idea that other people think prayers works. I'm saying, let us assert that there is no God. By definition, it does not, and can not work. You are doing something that is nothing more than a magical incantation. You are doing something just as ridiculous, useless, and wasteful as 'witches' in Portland. If we assert that God does not exist, and we expound from that. Prayer is no different from "casting Magic Missile". Some of the most meaningful and intimate efforts you have made in your most desperate times of your life, would have been the acts of a silly person deluding themselves into thinking that someone else was going to help them.

I can't imagine that that wouldn't be a painful experience.

But, whether or not you believe in God, plenty of people will behave that way anyway

If you think morality isn't objective, then you aren't religious at all. Not only are you not Christian, you wouldn't even fall into any Abrahamic religion.

I think plenty of religious people realize this.

Again, no religious person would believe that, particularly a Christian. God's forgiveness, is literally the whole point behind why man is allowed to live at all. The greatest gift of The Christ is his forgiveness of all men, of all sin, forever, at the cost of his own life. The value of forgiveness through God, even if your victim isn't involved, is what relieves you of your burden.

If there is no forgiveness, then you have no choice but to live with that burden, forever. It is the entire purpose for why you would worship Him.

What time was wasted?

All of it. Every prayer, every ceremony, every incantation, every second you spent reading, every debate, every donation, every festival, all of it.