Let's pray for Christopher Hitchens

The Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness; but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. II Peter 3:9

As you may know, "New Atheist" polemicist Christopher Hitchens has revealed that he has throat cancer (which, given what comes out of his mouth, I find oddly appropriate). Let’s pray that God will use this situation to get Mr. Hitchens’ attention, and that he may come to repentance and saving faith in Jesus Christ.

I must admit that I do find it odd to see, in the comments under the news item above, denunciations of Christians for praying for Mr. Hitchens. In addition to confirming the truth of Psalm 14:1 and Psalm 53:1, I suspect that such denunciations betray a fear on the part of atheists that they may be wrong. I've noticed that atheists often react with anger when told that Christians are praying for them--a strange reaction from those who are so certain that there is no God. If, as they claim, there is no God, my prayers can't possibly have any effect. The worst the atheist can say is that I'm wasting my time in praying--in which case, it's still my time to waste, and is no concern of the atheist. So why do atheists so often react as if they're afraid that prayers will indeed have an effect on them?