I assume you mean that prayer has never worked for anyone. Your wording is unclear as to whether this is a yes or a no, but I would like to let you know that there have been studies on prayer. ALL of them have shown no evidence that prayer is more effective than blind chance alone.
Whether or not the physical act of abjecting oneself before one's deity and praying for something makes one feel better or gives a sense of well being is entirely immaterial to the question of whether prayer works. Music can change one's mood at least as effectively. The bare fact of the matter is that prayers cannot be shown to have actually been answered. Therefore, prayer does not work.
I am an atheist. However, if I were a card-carrying, bible-thumping, Jesus-worshipping Christian (not that there's anything wrong with being Christian, or ANY religion, but locally to me, the predominant religion is Christianity, so that'll be my example. =) No offense, Christians!), I would be DESPERATE to convert as many non-Christians as possible.
Why? THEY'RE ALL GONNA *N' DIE! What kind of cynical asshole who, believing that Hell is real (beyond a shadow of a doubt) and being ABSOLUTELY CONVINCED that they were going there for ETERNITY unless they converted, could just sit by and let them murder themselves forever?
I feel like Penn Jillette puts it best (I'll paraphrase from a BigThink video of him) when he says, "If a truck was bearing down on you and you refused to believe that it was coming, and I could see it coming, eventually I'm just going to tackle you, because it's more important to me that you get saved."
In fact, I find the religions that DON'T proselytize to be offensive, or I would if I had any reason to believe it mattered.
For one thing, it is neither acceptable to kill a human being in revenge (which is all capital punishment amounts to), nor is it a proper punishment for anything. Confining a person from society for life without killing them, or the possibility thereof, gives them hope. Without hope, there can be no real punishment, only release. Let's not let bloodthirst prevent true, lasting satisfaction on behalf of the victim's family. And let's not taint that satisfaction by having more human blood on people's hands.
More importantly, no good comes of capital punishment. A family's satisfaction at having revenge for their loved one is short-lived compared to the sorrow of having to still deal with the loss of that person. By the same token, the killer can never be examined, or perhaps even rehabilitated, by psychologists and therapy. You can argue that evil is subtracted from society, but this isn't zero sum. Good is not added to society by the killing of anyone.
Finally, the cost of capital punishment is ludicrous. Between all the numerous appeals (and the substantial amounts of time between them), and the additional security and housing costs of death row inmates vs. lifers, it actually ends up costing taxpayers more to kill a guy on average than it does to just let him rot.
...however, that's all the perspective of a non-murderer. Of COURSE I'd choose death if I were the murderer. Not even faintly a question.
