In support of the other post going on here, let me crib a Catholic source I happen to know of:
> ... attention is of the very essence of prayer. As an expression of sentiment emanating from our intellectual faculties prayer requires their application, i.e. attention. As soon as this attention ceases, prayer ceases. To begin praying and allow the mind to be wholly diverted or distracted to some other occupation or thought necessarily terminates the prayer, which is resumed only when the mind is withdrawn from the object of distraction.
So there's nothing intrinsically wrong with it, and if you're starting to lose some of your faculties and of this is a device that helps you actually accomplish the prayer that's great... but if you're all like "oh, great, this will get me my prayer points faster", you've missed the point of the entire exercise.
Many forms of prayer, especially the repetitive ones, are devices for focusing attention (e.g. the rosary). There are also parallels in Eastern forms of meditation that employ chants or mantras (e.g. Oṃ maṇi padme hūṃ).
I don't usually discuss matters of faith in this forum since it's pretty far off topic.
However since you asked. Most christian faiths would say yes. The form is less important than the intended meaning for a prayer. And God would be perfectly capable of understanding the index form since He is considered to be Omniscient. QED: index form is perfectly fine.
Other religions may differ as to whether the form is less or more important than the intended content so I can't say whether principle transfers or not.
With modern computers we should be able to recite religious texts fast and efficiently. Even a Raspberry PI with a solar panel could probably get up to some decent speed compared to a prayer wheel. Not sure it helps you reach nirvana though. :)
Well since "Nirvana" is a somewhat shared concept in several religions. I know of atleast one religion in which the point is to achieve "automatic prayers at super fast speeds" and obviously that isn't by rapping verses. it even transcends reciting the index or "thinking" of it.
Legend has it that a certain prime follower of this religion could finish the entire scripture tens of thousands of times while getting on to a horse.
But if I were among the faithful, the answer that it's the intent and level of attention that counts seems the most reasonable. A computer using TTS to recite prayers at high speed wouldn't count for anything at all; a prayer wheel would, if the person turning it were using it meditatively (vs., say, turning the thing while thinking about what to eat for dinner).
