There's something about a prayer that sits very well with my atheistic mind. byonic's been a very good listener to whatever rant I have on at the time, and I've expressed a lot of myself to him during the however-long we've been doing this. Sometimes, I express how I wish things to happen or have happened, but most of the time, I explore myself through verbalizing what I feel. Some people are content with writing it down; I need a person to listen to what I have on my mind. I think that this kind of exploration is an important part of a good prayer. I haven't attended or taken part in one myself, but from what I know about praying, it seems reasonable to assume that this - and not wishing - is should be the main point about it. Maybe people who pray in a religious sense talk to God the same way I talk to other people. Pinging rd95: I'd like your perspective on that as a religious person.