And who or what do you pray to?

@lerlo Praying accomplishes nothing directly . Actual thinking about a person more may have effects but "Why should I pray?" when I can reason out solutions?

@Mcflewster well that was the original question caused by this woman's comment that she was spiritual but not religious but prayed. Turns out based on her reply to me that she does pray so I can't think of a reason but if you say you're not religious and you still pray I'm pretty sure youre religious

@lerlo Interesting observation about my own religiosity. I belie=ve that we should play them at their own game but get them to reach different conclusions .......... after a very long time .........eventually.

Perhaps. But who/what do they pray to and why?

@lerlo ,
[uua.org]

@Cecilia2018 wow, thanks. That makes almost as much sense as god. " “Prayer does not change things; prayer changes people, and people change things…. Prayer is not hearing voices, prayer is acquiring a voice.” Put that in your pipe and smoke it!
We should worship baseball. Baseball doesnt change things. Baseball changes people. People change baseball. Kinda like that Banafana fofana song...just change the noun and you get your own cult.

@lerlo , great idea. let's see how this sound if I put the word "Atheism"
Atheism doesn't change things.
Atheism changes people. People change Atheism.
Thanks for the idea. Oh yes, Atheism is changing my view about humanity and cultures' beliefs.

@Cecilia2018 as you read the comments here you can see obviously the word prayer means whatever anybody wants it to mean. Which is convenient when the answer may be nonsensical.

@lerlo , So prayers are like alcoholic beverages that come in different flavors and each person choose whatever she or he thinks is good and convinient. For me as non-drinker, alcoholic beverages are nonsensical like prayers.

@Cecilia2018 which takes us full circle back to my question: who or what are they praying to?
Who or what are they asking for help? It can be couched in whatever terms you want it to be or they want it to be and if the answer is vanilla ice cream then I got the answer I expected if it looks like a duck, sounds like a duck and walks like a duck...

@lerlo, Ok keep searching for the asnwers , don't give Up while the person who wrote the profile is chilling out with her favorite drink. If I continue answering to you it will be nonsensical. Have a wonderful day.

@Cecilia2018 See her response to me in the above update

If you mean by "frame" to interpret and understand, we do it on a daily basis. We communicate our worldview to others in many different ways, and other people will interpret that communication, and they sometimes get it right, and sometimes get it wrong. As long as we are using a fairly common frame of reference (no pun intended), they should get it right more often than wrong...

If someone tells me that they believe that the earth is flat, that someone is trying to communicate his or her worldview. I have an opinion about that worldview (and other associated guesses about his or her worldview). Is that what you mean by "framing others' worldview"?

@hankster Based on her reply to me (see above) I think my hunch or "frame" as you call it that she was probably religious came to pass.

@AtheistReader i just see us ready to verify, rebuke, or worry we're missing out on something so often. perhaps peculiar is not so much the correct word as curious. framing is crucial.

@hankster Well, you DO realize that we are in an internet forum? Isn't that what we do here? Lol! We are all trying to navigate through our realities that are uncertain, ambiguous and apparently meaningless. I think these "framing" helps us in doing that. As long as we do it with grace, some sense of intellectual honesty, and plenty of sense of humor, I think "framing" is to be encouraged.

@AtheistReader lol... of course you are correct about the Forum and the navigation we pursue, and most definitely the humor. but I still say there's a futility that makes it funny or at some level rather pointless. not in the behavior so much as in the expectations.

I tried asking here who was just mad at god and got called all kinds of wonderful names. I had people admit to being mad at god and then stop believing and some were just mad at god but to say you're not religious but pray? Leads me back to the original question.

re·li·gion
/rəˈlijən/
noun

1. the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, especially a personal God or gods:

@lerlo

She must be praying to God.

But maybe she hates the holier than thou attitude of many religious people.

@MrDMC which means that praying to god doesnt make you religious, contrary to the definition of religious and her assertion that she's not religious. Got it!

@lerlo One shouldn't get terribly technical. You are concentrating on strict definition and will never be satisfied with an answer. She is trying to express a complex attitude in a simple statement or two.

@MrDMC perhaps if I could get an answer we could find out if I'll be satisfied or not

So they pray to spirits or ghosts?