Thanks for an interesting 'longwinded' ( ) answer. What I was aiming at is that one is not supposed to feel one's faith strenghtened or dimminished based of whether one gets "one's prayers worth back" (hence the example of my late mother).

Anyway, risking that someone proposes another Off-off-topic area titled "Bonzi the atheist pestering Christians", another question:

You explained a bit about differences between two of three main 'flavors' of Christianity. More that a billion of people follow various kinds of Islam; there are many Budhists, Brahmanists, Hinduists, Shintoists..., even leaving animist, Viccans and various recent cults aside for the moment. How do you see them? Do you see them as worshiping "the same God" as you do, albeit through distording tradition (at least monoteists)? How comes their equaly strong beliefs are so different from yours? What do you think (if such contemplation is permitted or indeed possible) is "your God's view" of them?