Atheist Prayers?

[Eilonnwy]

If you think about it (excuse the pre-emptive pun) then praying is the same as thinking, even if you are a theist. When people pray they don't talk to God, they think things over and answers come to them, in exactly the same way atheists think about problems and answers come to them.

I would disagree. First, I'll add the caveat that I agree there are some meditative prayers and in that case I'd grant the premise, but if you're talking about all prayer I think that analogy fails. Even if we believe people are not talking to God, the person praying still believes. They are still talking to something even if it's just the air and I would argue that people who pray on their own behalf or another person don't work out the answers but expect them to just come and as a result things do not get better because they are not trying to fix their own problems. (Because as we know intercessory prayers have been proven to not work.) Or what about Christian Scientists, do their praying heal their children? Thinking about it has never solved illnesses.

When I tell someone I'm thinking about them, I mean it in the sense that I care. I know I can't do anything to make things better but I have genuine human concern. I think that people who say they are praying for someone are trying to show the same thing but they are very arrogant because they don't stop to consider someone's religion, and there is the added fact that they think they are doing good by praying.