um cant be stuffed to quote exactly what people said but a few points
a) on the whole prayer thing and whether christians are whiny
um firstly, i believe thats an incredible simplification, prayer as a christian is a lot more than just praying for what we want and having God 'change his plan' for us and make things 'turn out all right'. its also about glorifying God, asking forgiveness, giving gratitude, and having an ongoing, immediate, relationship with God.
also, among most christians i know there is no kind of conception that pray enough for something God will 'give in' and grant it. its generally accepted that if something is not within God's will or in the overarching plan of God it won't happen, not matter how much you pray for it.
b) also, ntb, you say that you can infer love exists because it makes itself evident in the actions of other people? well, cant a christian infer or as you put it 'observe insofar' that God exists because He makes himself evident in ways such as response to prayer, or even the actions of Christian people?
yes i know that there is probably never going to be any definitive evidence in this lifetime that God either does or does not exist. this may be cliched, but isn't a view where you limit yourself to only what you can see or definitively prove one that is incredibly constricting and not allowing for all that we clearly dont understand as human beings?