I tend to believe as Lisa Simpson once told Bart something like -"Prayer, the last resort of the desperate". With that said, I also believe as Emile Durkheim noted, any religion, if it works for the individual - is a true religion. Some people find solace and comfort in prayer, so it works for them. My only reservation is when they insist that I participate in their belief system.

My father would sit me at the kitchen table and get me to memorize the Apostles' Creed, which is like the longest of the standard prayers. Yuck!

I prayed earnestly that god would give my dad's arm back to him. He lost it at age 15 in a hunting accident. I probably gave up around age 13 or so.

I never really dread prayer time. Since, I don't pray to something that don't exist, it has freed up alot of time for rational thought,etc. I love being an atheist.

I didn't dread praying... I found that it didn't do anything for me so when I was being forced to go to church and Sunday school I would close my eyes and think about whatever subjects popped in my head while prayer time went on.

I would think either people like prayer or praying or they don't , i myself don't care for it cause it feels like i have to ask for something to a spiritual deity or God that honestly none of us know its agenda provided that it exists, also i usually don't like asking others for much... , so thats how i feel about it

There are two major types of prayer. Petitioning for something you want, or what some call "meditative" prayer where the objective is to bring your will into conformity with the alleged will of god. In practice, the latter can be a form of centering meditation, a form of letting go, of acceptance of things as they are rather than as you wish them to be. The religious cruft isn't really necessary or clarifying there, though.

Petitioning for something you want (or petitioning on behalf of someone else, aka "intercessory prayer" ) does run into the problem, why does an all-knowing god require you to ask for what you need. The general explanation is that it's a way to express dependence on him and to exercise faith, the implication being that if god just provided your needs without your engagement you'd not appreciate it properly or grow in trust toward god.

The problem of course is that god doesn't answer such prayers in any event, and alleged answers are indisinguishable from random happenstance. I found petitioning prayer to erode my faith rather than build it up. Given that, and the fact that god adds no explanatory or motivational mojo to meditative prayer, I found not having to engage in prayer one of the major benefits of leaving theism.

Did I "dread" it? Not really, as my tribe taught it as a mostly personal thing, other than "saying grace" aloud before meals or occasionally offering a public prayer at church. I didn't like it but didn't really dread it. It seemed objectively silly and I'm quite certain most other people felt the same because any time some pastor of teacher would ask for someone to volunteer to "ask god's blessing" over some meeting or activity, there was always an uncomfortable silence in which everyone was obviously wishing someone else would volunteer.

I never took it seriously.

I never understood the point of prayers, even at a very young it was clear there was no one listening or if they heard they didn't do much. At 4 or 5 the demands are pretty petty so could have been accomodated by an all singing all dancing super being.....but they weren't because it's all bollocks.

I hated church as well, what a lot of balls aching hypocrisy, I could see it straight away i just had to wait a few years until I had a word for it.

Dread is an awfully strong word… but not strong enough. Despite my dogmatic upbringing, and genuine belief, I never had those spiritual experiences that made me feel emotionally connected to faith or convinced me that prayer was doing anything. So it just seemed like a chore. I think being an altar server was what made church tolerable, because I had something to do instead of sitting there and focusing on this fruitless activity that just let my mind wander because I was so bored out of my skull.

I tolerated prayer in church, but always felt uncomfortable when called upon to lead prayer. I never prayed on my own, even as a child -- except for night-time prayers as a small child.

What is there about prayer to be dreaded? It is nonsensical ramblings of a dillusional mind with no consequences what-so-ever. Unless it is a request to incite followers to violence. IMHO

I was raised jewish. Jewish prayer is an exact text and there is a text for every occasion. Morning, matinee and evening, diferent holidys, sabbaths, etc. I am not good in repeating. If I read a book once, I will hardly ever open it again, so imagine opening the Siddur (prayer book) time and time again. BORING

You definitely had sharp instincts as a girl, and it has paid off. Add to that number a guy who has been to a couple of "healers" for my seizure disorder. One "pastor" as I remember him was blessing the wrong end-with his GI Joe Kung Fu Grip no less.

I’ve always prayed. I did it naturally. I talked to God while I was walking down the street, I prayed about silly things, like which color I looked better in when trying to dress up. I asked God questions about anything. I told him I was bored, or that what that person did to me was painful, or that I worried about future events. I told God jokes, and called him “Godfather...” (long story). I even told him when I was mad at him, or hated him because he let something awful happen. Prayer was a way of life for me growing up.

Now that I’m aware that I was only talking to myself, I still do it. There’s a part of me that has some pretty good insight, and why not call upon that from time to time. There’s a part of “me” that’s a little smarter than the “me” I think I know, and I have been engaging that so that I may have more insight into who I really am.

I always felt stupid talking to myself.

I was shammed in bible school by the teacher for asking why there were no dinosaurs ? in the bible. Jesus riding a raptor instead of an ass would have been far more dramatic. ????

Gees there's actually a website to find this: [biblehub.com]

Just made them up!

I was raised in religion. When I first started doubting the existence of a higher power, I still played it safe and said my prayers. I thought that whether or not I was communicating with the almighty, it was still a form of personal meditation. A quiet way to reflect on my feelings, identify things I may be anxious about, what things around me I was truly thankful for. When I went full atheist, I of course ditched formal prayers but I never dreaded praying.

I was required to pray and I hated it. It was a chore of either rote memorization or struggling to come up with appropriately mawkish words.

Even now the mention of praying just turns my stomach.

I used to pray as a child, but not like the adults did..I thought of "God" as one of my best friends. We'd laugh and joke around together, and I'd run over to "heaven" to visit him. Once I realized the adults didn't do this, I didn't speak of it anymore, but kept doing it.

Eventually, I reached a point where I saw "God" and I as "one entity" and stopped praying altogether, seeing everyone and everything as one point of energy.

Later on, when I turned agnostic, I decided that the entity I was speaking with must have been my Higher Self, Source energy, or my own subconscious. I once asked the person in my inner being who he was; "Are you "God" or are you myself?" and the answer was "Yes."

I always found "prayer-time" annoying AF. As messed up as my childhood was, getting booted from my mother's house was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

I didn't dread it because at the time I thought God was actually listening to me. I was always told that if God didn't answer your prayers it was because he had a master plan and that sometimes you didn't realize the consequences of what you were asking for.

When I got older I realized random chance had the same effectiveness as prayer.