Do atheists pray? No. Yes. Maybe …
It doesn’t matter.
The no‐god thing is no big deal. The absence of god would not smite one, were one to pray.
There is no reason why a person who does not believe should not use the prayerslearned in childhood as mantra, as words that help.
I think of a scene from some probably‐not‐very‐good movie, the subways filling with magma, a guy carrying an injured man, struggling to safety, reciting the traditional Lords Prayer. Perhaps he did not believe; maybe he used the words learned in his childhood to act with dignity and courage in a desperate situation.
Personally, I don’t pray. But I do reach for hope, for the human hope‐beyond‐hope, the hope one reaches for in times like these, a burning core of prayer.
From Molten Wood and Feral Ideas chasens.ca/book