Nicely done. Of course, "no" is a perfectly good answer to prayer. I can hope that a prayer will be answered, but not expect it just because I have ginned up my faith.

I don't think that the scientific method is pagan—it is not religious at all. Underlying it, of course, is the theology from Newton on that God is not part of creation, and so you can't explain a phenomenon by saying that God did it. In effect, for us believers, God "made it that way", so to explain, say, the precession of the Earth by pointing to the Creator is no explanation at all, but a tautology. Loving God with all your mind—as we are commanded—requires more than that. Much more.