The Goodness Challenge to Petitionary Prayer

If god is perfectly good, then he'll bring about the best state of affairs for every one. But it seems like whether we pray or not, it's not going to make a difference. It could be that just asking for something changes the situation in a way that affects what's best for you. And so maybe it's good if god does things that are good only if we ask for them because then more responsibility lies with us. This is a view that the howard snyders and also isaac troy have defended. Tom flint argues that sometimes God doesn't give us what we ask for because god knows it would not be good for us at all. So even