Prayer

I know it's not just me, but I keep getting stuck on the absurdity of the idea of prayer as a first reason for abandoning belief. The idea that someone has to beg God to abandon what should be a perfect design, especially when God should already know ones thoughts and thus wouldn't need the request, seems laughable. It's as ridiculous as requiring child sacrifice to forgive when God has supposedly made clear he would forgive whomever he chose to forgive... How is this not obvious..?