Unable to come up with a story idea for this, my first submission as a member of the revamped Iowa State Daily Editorial Board, I called my dad for some advice. For about 20 minutes he lobbed ideas my way and listened to me whine and complain about how I could not settle on anything.

Exhausted, I finally prepared to hang up the phone and go to bed, when I found inspiration in his closing remark: “I’ll pray for you.”

Now, I “came out” to my father — a convert to Catholicism — as an atheist when I was 16, and he is finally to the point where he accepts that. However, prayer has always been an awkward subject between us. I never know how to respond, and I never know if his sentiment is subconsciously passive-aggressive, or if it is something he is so used to saying that it rolls off of his tongue.

Assuming that this was not a nefarious gesture, it seems to me that to pray for an avid atheist with a general distaste for religion is a gross misallocation of prayer capital, a wasted opportunity and an inefficient way of using prayer’s power.

To clarify: As a religious person, my father believes that his personal prayers to God can directly cause a different outcome to occur than what would naturally occur if he did not pray. I completely respect his view as his religious right. But why not use this power more productively?

Certainly, God does not answer all prayers. Otherwise there would be an ubiquity of billionaires, no poverty, no world hunger and I would have just celebrated my fifth wedding anniversary with Angelina Jolie. So I find it difficult to believe that God would take an interest in the writer’s block of a kid from the suburbs who does not even believe that he or she exists.

Instead of praying for me, wouldn’t it be more productive for my father to pray for someone who could appreciate it? We have numerous sick family members, most of whom are devout religious persons. If prayer is truly powerful, why not take the time spent praying for me to pray for the victims of the Gulf oil spill? Many of those affected believe in God, and they certainly need prayer more than I do.

Some of you are thinking it’s only natural for a father to want to help his son. I agree with this, but why with prayer? Time, like prayer, is a precious commodity. Do you knowingly waste yours? Would you knowingly spend a night studying botany when your exam is in economics?

Many Americans are complaining about the Gulf oil spill and trying to determine culpability. While this is important, do you honestly think this is the most productive use of our time? Wouldn’t it be efficacious to dedicate at least some of our time to determining how to make our nation better, or how to help the people and animals effected? Do you think it is more productive for Glenn Beck or Keith Olbermann to dedicate more time to rambling than educating their audiences on how to donate time and other resources to help those affected? Have you maintained the same level of consumption as before the spill without even thinking of its implications?

Beyond the oil spill, are there not times you wish you dedicated your resources to something that really mattered? In hindsight, I wish I had done more to learn about Iraq, rather than have dedicated all of my time hating the Bush administration for the war. Are you more concerned with finding either Turkey or Israel responsible for their latest altercation than finding a way to alleviate suffering in the Gaza Strip?

If you answered yes to any of these, you may need to figure out more appropriate ways to use your time. Otherwise, you might as well be praying for an atheist.