Atheists praying?

[bensmum]

Following on from naomi's question - I heard a radio report the other day where it claimed that everyone, even atheists, pray. They didn't mean in the Lords Prayer sense but that all people will say something along the lines of "Please God ..." at some time .
Can any atheists out there comment on this?

[Aquagility]

I think you would have to be superstitious to pray. And a superstitious atheist would be a contradiction in terms.

[bensmum]

In a pickle - that's what I would have thought but then I got to thinking that although I don't believe in God I do find myself uttering the odd reference to him/her. I find it hard not to.
Aquagility - good answer.

[rojash]

I'm an atheist, and I can assure you that I don't:
Leave teeth for the tooth fairy
Leave notes for Santa
Pray

[naomi24]

rojash, I know precisely what bensmum is getting at. The fairies and santa response is old hat on R&S, so nothing new there, and it's pretty tedious stuff, if I may say so. Can you honestly and truthfully say that if a loved one had been very seriously ill, or you've had problems beyond your ability to cope, you have never ever said " God help them", or "God help me"? I know I have - many times - although it's never the biblical God I'm speaking to. Soul(?)-searching time, so be honest.

In a pickle, I take your point, but my question to rojash also applies to your friend.

[Theland]

When posting on AB our defences are up and working perfectly, so tooth fairy and Santa always get a mention.
However, just think, it is 1942, you are sheltering under the table with your kids, the German bombers come over, and the explosions are getting nearer and nearer, until the house four doors away gets a direct hit, and you can STILL hear the bombs falling! You have just soiled your underwear, your kids are hysterical and clinging to you, and you are pumping adrenalin like crazy!
Where is your hope? Do you pray? Or do you think of the tooth fairy and Santa?

[rojash]

"The fairies and santa response is old hat on R&S, so nothing new there, and it's pretty tedious stuff"

But not quite as old hat as the worship of gods, which has been around considerably longer than R&S and is extraordinarily tedious...

[naomi24]

rojash, I wasn't being flippant. The question is not whether God exists - so it has nothing to do with any comparison between him and tooth fairies or santa.

So you have never, ever, called upon God to help you then, in any circumstances?

[Aquagility]

To say "God help us" when you find yourself up the creek is a manner of speaking, not a prayer. In such circumstances my devout friends - and I have some - tend to pray silently.

[jno]

if you say people who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones, it doesn't mean that you think anyone lives in a glass house (I've certainly never met or even heard of anyone who does.) Likewise if you say God help them it doesn't mean you believe in a god. It's an idiom, not a creed.

[WaldoMcFroog]

This is the 'there are no atheists in foxholes' argument.

Firstly, even if true (and there's no good reason to suppose that it is, not least because how the hell do you find out from all the now dead atheists whether they prayed before their impending deaths), what does it prove? Is it simply a numbers game? God (see, I used it there, and I don't believe) help you if Islam ever gets more followers, as Allah will suddenly become real...

Moreover, if the line is supposed to indicate that under all this evil, demon-loving atheism, there is actually a true believer waiting to surface, it should be rather worrying that all these people who said, 'Dear God, don't let me die!' did, in fact die. This is in contravention of Matthew 17:20, where Jesus says that if you have true faith, all you have to do is ask, and you will be given. Also cf Matthew 21:21.

The fact that some poeple believe this argument is a good one actually shows is how closely religion is associated with the exploitation of our deepest fears. 'Get someone scared enough - they'll believe.' Nice.

[rojash]

Sorry, naomi24, I thought that my first post has made it clear: No,I have never, ever called on a god to help me (at least not since I was old enough to think rationally about religion). I also wasn't being flippant when I mentioned santa and the tooth fairy - I just meant to emphasise that it would no more cross my find to pray to a god than it would to do any of the other things I listed - it just wouldn't make sense to me.

[naomi24]

Waldo, I don't think for one moment that under every atheist there's a true believer waiting to surface, and as you know, I don't believe in the biblical God. However, I do possess some sort of in-built spirituality which comes naturally to me, and I therefore find it difficult to comprehend any human being completely devoid of any semblance of a similar emotion.

[bensmum]

Thank you everyone for all you answers (sorry I had to shut down as the computer was being "serviced").
Having heard this comment on the radio it intrigued me as it wasn't something I had ever considered before. Like naomi I don't believe in the biblical sense and I suppose because of that I find religious devotion on the one hand and atheism at the other extreme quite difficult to understand.

[WaldoMcFroog]

Naomi, my comment was directed to Theland's contention - I should have made that clear.

[China Doll]

I think I've looked to the sky a few times and thought something along the lines 'How the hell do I get out of this one?' but it's less of a prayer and more a silent scream.

[chakka35]

It goes without saying (as one who has bored you to death with the number of times I have pointed out that Santa, fairies and God are all supernatural creatures who do magical things and for whose existence there is not a scrap of evidence) that I agree wholeheartedly with rojash. I really would feel very silly, embarrassingly so, if I found myself praying - exactly equivalent to putting those notes up the chimney.

Not for the first time I wonder why evolution bothered to give us such huge intellects when so many people so wilfully misuse them. What a waste!

[Theland]

I'm always intrigued as to why so many people who vehemently refute God, and even ridicule Him, spend so much time and energy on here arguing?
It would be as crazy as me going on to the food and drink threads, and getting angry over the supposed merits of a chinese wok!
Now I wonder why? Deep down, are they insecure? Safety in numbers maybe?

[WaldoMcFroog]

Just to set the record straight, Theland:

As long as people oppose equal rights for homosexuals, demand the teaching of fairy stories in science lessons, deny millions of people cures for illnesses by opposing stem cell research, oppose contraception to the third world, the subjugation of women etc etc etc etc etc etc etc etc, on the basis of what a made up sky fairy for which there is no credible evidence says, I, for one, am going to protest about it.

Every time I see you or one of your buddies repeat an outright LIE and says something like "'theory' means 'it's not true'", I'm going to pop my head up, say what it actually means and point out that you've been enlightened on this point before.

Every time. Promise.

I don't do it for praise or condemnation from others. I don't do it because I'm insecure.

Perhaps, instead of making ad hominim attacks on other people, you'd be better off attempting to plug the huge holes in your arguments?