christian looking to understand athiests

[robvalue]

Positive attitude definitely can bring about greater success, there's no doubt about that. My entire recent therapy is based around that principle.

There's all sorts of sound reasons why a good state of mind and belief in yourself pays dividends, which don't require anything supernatural/spiritual. Even a prayer can "work" by simply making yourself believe you can do something. That can be a double edged sword though, because you need to really believe the prayer has innate power. There are other ways to achieve similar effects such as meditation.