Atheists and Prayer

[Simon Moon]

Just wanted to get some thoughts on the following two questions:


1. Have any of you atheists here while you were an atheist, prayed to God (or gods) in certain circumstances in your life, especially like in desperate times or in troublesome times?

2. A small percentage of atheists said that they do pray (at least weekly or monthly) even though they don't believe in God. Are those people really atheists, then?

1. Never prayed once since I stopped believing in gods.

This despite the following:

Almost drowning while surfing on more than one occasion.

Burst appendix hours away from medical assistance, and a couple touch-and-go weeks in hospital.

Infection contracted in tropics, followed by more time in hospital, and a loss of 30 pounds (I left the hospital weighing about 130 lbs).


On all these occasions, not once did I appeal to any god. I was saved by: my swimming and surfing skills, the skills of many medical professionals and modern medical science.


2. These people could be praying out of habit, or maybe it relaxes them in a similar way that meditation does.

Are those people really atheists, then?

Praying does not necessarily exclude them as being an atheist, believing that there is a magic being that will hear them does.