Even before I realized I was an atheist I hadn't prayed in a decade or two.

I grew up in a Christian home. Realized after a while that prayer doesn't work. No, I don't pray instead I take action of the problem at hand. If it doesn't work out then I accept the fact that it is one of the challenges in life and go on with life.

Given that this is Agnostic.com populated mostly by ardent atheists, I wonder why you ask if people pray here?

Prayers are just ways people can try to talk themselves into thinking it's all going to be ok. No one is there to listen but you. I personally find it worthless and try to find other ways to comfort myself.

Even in hospital cancer ward each visit chaplains would come in and say something from a book to make themselves feel better and someone knitted prayer shawls. No idea what to do with them.

Nope. Pray in one hand, shit in the other, see which you get.

I don't really consider it praying, but sometimes I may think or say something along the lines of, oh please 4 the love of all that is good, someone help me!

It would be as good praying to you Shelton or maybe better as you are real.

I believe in the power of the human mind. When I face problems, I will meditate and focus my attention on the problem. I have been able to supress physical pain from injury by chanting and channelling "healing energy” to the location of the injury. I did this on a 15 km run where I was in pain and could only limp slowly at about the 9 km mark. I started chanting “healing energy” and envisioned drawing healing energy into my body and to my injured knee. As a result, I was able to run the remaining 6 km at close to my normal pace with a much reduced level of pain. I don’t know if there is such a thing as “healing energy” and it doesn’t matter, what matters is at the time my brain was focused on drawing it in and healing my knee instead of on how much it hurt. Belief is a very powerful thing, even if the thing you believe in is not real.

Pray to what. An imaginary bearded man that lives in the sky.

Never. Time's a'wasting. (Sorry, just listening to Joaquim Phoenix belting that out.).

I actually don't think prayer has to be religious, but I don't think this is common knowledge anymore. Most people associate prayer with religion. However, the word "pray" has a long history, and its basic meaning is (or should I say was?) simply to ask earnestly, to entreat, to wish or hope strongly for a particular outcome or situation.

A couple of other notes and/or examples:

1. Are you familiar with the phrase "pray tell"?
   -- "So what is the name of this new crush, pray tell?!"

The speaker is "praying" to the person (i.e. requesting).

2. People sometimes make impersonal prayer requests regarding daily events:
   -- "Ohhh, please don't rain today!"
   -- "Please don't let that be John. I'm not in the mood to talk to him."
   -- "Come on, hit the ball!" (watching the game)
   -- "Please let this be the letter I've been waiting for!" (she thinks silently to herself).
   -- "Oh pleeeease let it snow!"
   -- "Wild card, be a wild card! Come ooooon ..." (playing cards)

The speakers need not be addressing any personal god to say these things.

3. Older English literature used to have an expression "prithee," which meant "please," and had evolved from a contraction of "I pray thee," which simply meant "I ask you."

Any form of request can be considered a prayer, but not many people think of this meaning of the word any more.

I think it would be even more interesting to ask how many atheists and agnostics have ever "prayed" to the universe or to nature, regradless of how logical they felt at the time.

Thoughts?

I meditate but do not pray to anybody.

When I meditate I allow my thoughts to free flow. I still myself and as thoughts come to me I let them come in and out.

After meditation I journal... this is my daily practice.

I have only sincerely prayed once in my life as far as I can remember. But I regularly hope that good things will happen for me and for others.

Pray to who or what? I can be hopeful for something to happen and pleased if it does. That's not prayer.

I don't pray. On occassion, I have facetiously said things like, "Please God let me have this one thing and I will never do anything bad ever again!", but yeah, seriously praying doesn't happen with me. I understand that praying can have a positive psychological effect on people, but what about when someone's prayers go unanswered? What kind of effect does that have on people's psyche?

I day dream

At best prayer keeps you focused on what you want. Howeer if you only pray and do ntohing else, nothign will happen. If you take other action, then you are much more likely to get what you prayed for.

I don't pray myself because I don't see th epoint. I take actual action to being about changes in my life.

I don't like the connotation of the word prayer. I try to connect with universal live, light, energy, being...that is my form if prayer

It was hard for me to pray even when I was studying to be a preacher. I could pray but it just wasn't real to me for some reason. Then and now it's hard for me to believe people who say "we will be praying for you." I always thought it was lip service only.

Prayer is useless. If I wanted something I took action. I suggest everyone do the same. Religious or not.

I drink and dance.
At the same time.
Can get messy.
In so many ways.
One of my exes (now a pagan priestess of some persuasion) is convinced I've devoted myself to Dionysius. Her evidence is the afore mentioned coping mechanism, and the fact that I work in live theatre, aparently sacred to said god.