"I considered myself atheist, but I still talked to god"

[ReasonableRuben]

B-mine So, yes, your contention did hinge upon the narrative you invented. Would have been easy to just say yes, wouldn't it? An atheist speaking to a god is about the clearest contradiction one can imagine. A person praying to a god they don;t believe in is equally as mystifying - but people do strange shit all the time, granted.

I appreciate this. I guess it would've been easier for me to just say "yes," but it wouldn't have been reflective of my views on the matter. It's a technicality, but my contention doesn't hinge upon that specific narrative. i.e. I could make up a different narrative in which an atheist prays.

Where[?]

Enter grammar:

It seems to me that the theist in question could most plausibly be seen to be using the word "still" in either of two senses.

1. the conjunctive sense, to mean "and yet; but yet; nevertheless" as in: "It was futile, still they fought."

2. the adverbial sense, to mean "at this or that time; as previously" as in: "Are you still here?"

I take the "still" in "I still talked to God" to be used in the later sense, indicating that he had a kind of residual prayerfulness from his past theism, even when he was an atheist. I could be wrong though.

Terr, do you have the original statement?