No.
This xmas, at my gf’s mother’s house I shared a wonderful dinner with ten great people. As usual, one relative said a pre-dinner prayer. I sat quietly, as is my wont. I was surprised, however, when I looked around to find that six others were also surreptitiously looking around.
I did when I was a kid, but not anymore.
I’m an agnostic-ish type person - I was raised without any religion, and when anyone asks I tell them I’m an atheist, because it’s the simplest thing to say. But once in a while, I’ll do something that could be called praying. It’s just . . . checking in with the world, I guess. Whenever I’m done, I feel a bit silly about it, but it’s strangely comforting.
Great way to put it. That’s how I feel too. I don’t feel the need to ask God for things - He knows. I don’t feel the need to thank God for things - He knows I appreciate it all.
I do sometimes just need “someone to listen,” usually when I am thinking of other people. So I will pray to God in those times.
I used to pray every night before bed, when I was a practicing (but even then, not believing) Catholic. I kept the habit up when I finally stopped pretending I believed, just as a ritual; I would mentally list things I was grateful for. Rituals have value, even if they are not conduits to the supernatural.
I no longer even do that, but I might start again - pace aceplace57, it’s a good way to reflect on and wrap up the day.
I pray each morning, and sometimes before meals if I am alone.
When I was younger, I prayed a lot. Every morning and night, before any meal, and at one point before eating a snack.
Then I realized that I was doing it for the wrong reasons. Rather than meaningful prayer, much of it was just habitual. I wouldn’t call it scrupulosity, but it was somewhere in that neighborhood. I made a conscious effort to stop the repetitive, empty prayers, and to do less frequent, more meaningful prayer.
Between August and May I pray regularly on Saturday afternoons between 3.00 and 4.45 ish. Occasionally on Sundays and on Thursday nights (though I’d rather be praying on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.
My prayers were answered today though…
Every day, usually before bed. It’s a time to reflect on what I want to happen (goals etc) and to be thankful for what has/hasn’t happened to myself and others.
I pray every day. I don’t pray to anyone or anything, and the shock of having a single prayer answered in any way would probably give me a heart attack, but I still do it.
Like you, I feel like I have a conscious contact with God. And for me, prayer is best described as an opening of my heart to his presence.
I occasionally ask for things, but usually it’s more ‘lifting up’ a person or situation to the Lord, if I know a person who is having difficulties, or if there’s a troubling situation on my mind. My assumption is that I am unlikely to know what’s best, but God does, so I turn the matter over to him and trust him with it.
And yeah, I also do a lot of thanking. Ever since my wife and I adopted the Firebug nearly six years ago, I’ve felt like the last big thing that was missing from my life had finally fallen into place. And ever since, there’s been this rising tide of joy and gratefulness in my heart. I know how lucky I am. It doesn’t mean everything is easy, because it’s not. But now I feel like I’m in the right life, like some SF traveler who, after a long exile, has finally found a way back to the timeline he belongs in.
When I’m not cussing, I think I fall into the category of what is known as the “foxhole atheist.”
Although I would argue that cussing is a form of prayer, as one tends to assume the higher power one is cussing at is listening.
Atheïst here. Never prayed, other then: " oh please dear God don’t let the computer have eaten all my work ". If I feel the need, I type long emails I never send. Otherwise I talk to my talk- to friend.
Same here – you said it better than I could. 
We are lucky that our church has Eucharistic Adoration which is a very special way to be in prayer which I haven’t had access to before so I thankful for that.
Believing you are talking to God never hurt anyone.
The reverse, unfortunately, is not.
I grew up Mormon and we prayed all the time. However, I never prayed as an adult, and as an atheist, I don’t think there is anyone listening.
Yes. Thing is, prayer sometimes helps, even if there’s no one listening. It’s meditation; the person listening to you pray is you.
I complain regularly. Nobody listens.
I occasionally let loose an exasperated “Jesus Christ” or “God damn it!” Does that count?
Pray: To ask that the laws of the universe be annulled in behalf of a single petitioner, confessedly unworthy.
– Ambrose Bierce
I didn’t grow up religious (and didn’t pick it up along the way), so praying doesn’t really make a ton of sense to me. That said, on rare occasions when I’m facing some particular emotional overload, I’ll go through the motions and it seems to bring some peace. I don’t think it’s “connected” to any particular power, but I do think there is value in pausing and articulating whats on your mind.
Nothing fails like prayer. It’s been tested; prayer does not change the outcome of events. I’ll bet the very Catholic (among other things) people of Haiti were praying when they were hit with the earthquake, but that didn’t help.
Now, meditation and the like, as even sven refers to, are a different story. I don’t really do that sort of thing often either, but in any case they’re quite different from prayer.