Believers in prayer gloat when pure chance seems to wreck a hated person's life. That is vindictiveness not justice. Wishing ill luck on a person, regardless of how evil they are, is not justice. Justice means getting controlled and regulated penalties not that. Believer will also forgive someone else, perhaps a worse person, too easily. They don't have a God so much as a mirror they call God. We should accept that it is generally true that believers are treating their prayers like tricks to fool God or to get him to be as dishonest as themselves. Many but not all believers are open about it. It is not surprising that the crafty ones say nothing.
An evil, malice or dishonesty has to be already active in them before they can outsource it or project it unto God, Satan or whoever. If it is latent, they can outsource that too. They only do that if you know it will be acted on. Or if they hate themselves for having that potential.
It is an act of hate against themselves to use those distractions instead of healing themselves. Such hate will soon erupt against others. Hate infects.
It is passive-aggressive against anyone it is projected unto.
They will likely get away with it for they choose persons to project unto, who will not have the voice, the time or the in-depth knowledge to challenge them efficiently. God or Satan conveniently don't actually speak.
They are already using faith and prayer to get a placebo and feeling of power over the impossible. If God is good they are asking the impossible.
It would not be surprising if they are telling themselves their prayers change the past or do something that like that
The subject of people praying to alter the past is ignored in religious circles. There is no admission or concern that everybody does it.
Why?
Because religion, including its main practice which is prayer, has a manipulative side.
Because it is embarrassingly stupid and uncaring to pray to a God who managed the past so badly that now it needs to be reversed literally.
Because one asking, for example, that their mother didn't die young though she did, is disgusting when one is not asking God to reverse the plague that killed all the babies
Because it exposes how prayer is too much about feeling good for doing nothing - a way to get relief.
Because there is no need for growth if the past can be altered. Why learn from a bad past that has no longer happened?
Because if the past can be undone then there is no point in worrying about forgiving or getting forgiven.
Because if what free agents did in the past can be literally undone by God that shows that free will matters little if at all.
Because many spiritual people already feel that even if the past happened, the now, the power of now is what matters. So the past can be disregarded. Once a person thinks that way, there is no barrier to praying to actually change the past.
Because many seem to think there is a multiverse where all possibilities happen so it makes sense to ask that their mothers did not meet their violent fathers and marry them
Because the human memory is not a video recorder and keeps changing the past in our heads anyway so if the past cannot actually be changed, what really matters is changing how it is seen. Prayer is happening in that context and HAS to involve hoping that perceptions of the past will alter to suit the prayer.
Because there is relief in asking for such a huge miracle - it is convenient that the miracle will be unseen and in the past. It is noticeable how people who don't have deep faith want miracles they do not see for they don't have the confidence that God would/could do one in front of them - ever.
Let us look at some examples of such praying.
In Christian or Islamic circles, one may worry that a friend or loved one has died without repenting and getting God's mercy. So they pray, "Dear God let them have turned to you."
People pray, "May my children have arrived safely this morning at school."
Some pray, "Dear God, make it so that Jesus really did rise from the dead. I have such doubts."
Think about it. The recent past generally will be a bigger issue than anything happening right now. For that reason, most prayers for help are about asking a deity to reverse something when it is too late.
Theologians say that prayer is rational. They say that God helps usually through nature. They would suggest that God and nature ensure that you cannot go back in time and murder your grandfather. They say that would contradict your own existence for you are one quarter made of him. They warn that if people want the past changed and appeal to the divine for help, they are effectively asking for a magic spell. Changing the past is associated with witches and science-fiction.
Spiritual teachers advise, "Past harms and wrongs can still do damage in the present. Ask God to show you your sins and harmful attachments so that with his help you can amend them and be a part of the healing. Asking for the past to made different is a sin."
To that I answer that if you can ask God to change the past, you can ask him to make it look like nothing happened. You can say it has been changed after all.
Also, if like most you suspect the past ceases to exist and is just a memory now, it is a short leap to pray that it be undone. You ask just in case. But in either case you are trying not to take the past seriously even if you should.
Also, even if the past cannot be literally altered, you will still believe in a God of miracles who can make it as good as altered. He has the power to direct memories and make documents get lost.
The present moment is so brief and short. Too much so. We say the now matters. We don't mean that. The now we have in mind is a summary word for the immediate past and immediate future. This is not a now at all. We stretch the meaning of now for now is no good to us. For that reason, every prayer is asking to change the past.
NIETZSCHE, PRAYER AND THE IMPLICIT DENIAL OF THE VALUE OF FREE WILL
Nietzsche argued that free will is either a fundamental error or a theological invention. He rejected the idea that moral approval or disapproval is justified by the belief that, in the present moment, we could genuinely have acted otherwise. For Nietzsche, this assumption—that our current actions could have taken a different path—is misleading. He maintained that we cannot truly know whether we are free to change our actions in the moment. If our choices are generated by internal and external forces beyond our awareness, we may feel as if we are choosing freely, but that feeling doesn't prove anything. Even if change occurs, it may still be the result of these hidden forces, not the kind of spontaneous, undetermined transformation that defenders of free will imagine.
Nietzsche emphasized that the mere absence of a felt compulsion does not mean we are not being compelled. He pointed out that our present actions are shaped—and indeed determined—by forces from the past. What we call a “choice” does not emerge from nowhere; it is the outcome of a causal chain. Even when a decision feels free, it is deeply rooted in prior causes, making the notion of absolute freedom illusory.
If you see moral as being normal it follows that it does not matter how we behave ourselves but only that we do. Nietzsche considered the free will doctrine to be exaggerated in importance for that reason. To me it seems to be used very manipulatively.
Also, praying for conversion for yourself or others amounts to asking a deity to change the past for your acts are mostly or totally rooted in it and determined by it. Subconsciously, you are denigrating the doctrine of free will. A God who can amend the past as if it never happened, is not one who values human free will.
FINALLY
Praying to change the past, though incoherent, is a good anxiety reliever though a selfish one. In a cruel world we need clear vision before we can help correctly. The temptation to pray for an evil event in the past to be literally undone is going to be overwhelming. We have to be giving in and doing it a lot. It is a religious version of the atheist nihilist who finds comfort in how nothing really matters to her or him. To be precise, there is a placebo effect in thinking all is absurd.
Also, as there is barely any "now" to focus on, and by the word we include the seconds just past and the seconds to come. We are already using prayer to undo or change past events. It is concerning that nobody is honest about it. This reflects a desire for control and comfort rather than true growth or justice. Such prayers undermine forgiveness, free will, and personal responsibility. We end up with something very like them but that is not actually them.
Nietzsche argued that free will is likely an illusion shaped by forces beyond us, so praying to change the past implicitly denies real human freedom. Ultimately, praying to alter the past reveals deeper struggles with acceptance and the limits of control that religion often avoids facing.
Such prayer would be more like science-fiction or magic so maybe we need to stop hiding behind the prayer word.
We should stop taking the men of prayer such as Jesus Christ and Muhammad, in particular, seriously as moral guides.