The Reality of "Mysterious Ways"
The phrase "God works in mysterious ways" is not a real explanation though liars treat it as one. It is lazy and an emotional shield. It is set up deliberately to avoid refutation or criticism.
The Problem of Contradiction
The idea applies to opposite results with the same logic:
Good news: A person survives cancer, so it is called a divine act.
Bad news: A person dies of cancer, so it is called a mystery.
Because nothing can count against it, it explains everything by explaining nothing. It simply renames events to protect a belief system.
Emotional Comfort Over Logic
This shows that the believer is not looking for a logical or even divine cause. They are looking for emotional comfort. If you have a loved one who is suffering, remember that comfort you seek may blunt your realisation of how bad things are and are going to be. See your own selfishness.
Facing innocent suffering causes deep helplessness. Using this phrase lets a person pretend to explain tragedy while avoiding tough questions. It satisfies the mind's need for order without requiring any logic. A natural progression of this is prayer.
Why People Pray in Tragedies
When people cannot fix a tragedy, they often turn to prayer. This serves three simple purposes:
Action: It makes helpless people feel like they are doing something. Remember that many who seem utterly helpless in fact are not and do not realise it. Prayer that enhances that feeling is dangerous.
Relief: It reduces their own grief and anxiety.
Peace: It helps them feel okay when facing terrible events.
Overall it makes them feel they know more than they do.
The placebo makes good people less efficient in doing good.
Conclusion
This belief system lasts because it fixes feelings, not facts. It is a tool for emotional survival and/or pride. By making the idea impossible to disprove or show unlikely, people permanently protect themselves from doubt. It trades logical accuracy for personal comfort.
We already have filters that help us downplay wars and other terrible things we are in the middle of. It is why we still smile and rise in the morning. These filters should be minimal - we should not be using prayers to reinforce them. Prayers are not needed at all.
Saying God works in mysterious ways looks like you do not care if there is no God working at all – whether that means God for some reason is not involved or perhaps does not exist. Any one of the three is as likely as another. Do you want to think that God wants people to speak for his mysterious ways? That he wants us unduly influenced by persons who easily tell us his ways are mysterious and that the situation is better than we think? Surely he knows humans are too tricky to deserve that amount of trust? Surely they know it too yet they encourage one another. Those people simply show that do not care enough. And you could use the argument for Yahweh, Thor, Shiva. Or you could use the argument for any God incarnate be it Jesus or Krishna or Henry James Prince.