I know you're just being flip, but the benefits of "thoughts and prayers" isn't solely to ask some imaginary being for help. The benefit is that it directs the

I know you're just being flip, but the benefits of "thoughts and prayers" isn't solely to ask some imaginary being for help. The benefit is that it directs the attention of the community at large towards the problem. This raises awareness with the hope that those with the means to help will do so. Its an anti-fragile method of asking the community for help without knowing the specifics of how they can help. actually, now that I think about it, "Thoughts and Prayers" is no different than a "Call for Code" except that it is generalized to all society instead of just software developers.