I will actually give a serious response to a question like this!
I’ve seen people complaining about such questions and how annoying they are. It occurred to me that I could actually write serious responses to such questions and try and make this site a better place. So, are you ready?
Do atheists secretly or inwardly pray to God in their moments of desperation?
The short answer to your question is no. For the long answer, please keep reading.
It doesn’t actually surprise me that some believers might feel like we need to pray to something in our darkest hours. I don’t really blame them. I understand why they feel that way. They were probably raised in a way that they never got to develop a coping mechanism. Despite being raised by Muslim parents, I didn’t suffer through that. I was taught by my parents to deal with reality on reality’s terms. If I needed something, I was taught to work for it. If my work failed, I was taught to reflect on it and learn from it and never make the same mistake twice. Never was I asked to not put in any effort and hope some magic will solve things for me.
Don’t get me wrong! I was taught to pray to God. However, prayer was taught to me as a form of humility, not as a means to a desired end. As such, I never relied on prayers to get anything done. Therefore, logically, I had no reason to resort to praying if things got really difficult. Maybe your parents/teachers/pastors/imam taught you differently. Maybe they taught you to ask for miracles to solve your problems. As such, you probably see no option but to ask for a miracle when things get tough.
The thing is, even if I did believe in a God, I’d still not pray to them in my darkest hour. Why? Well, please consider the following. Some 21,000 people starve to death on this planet everyday! Most of them are kids. A God that refuses to hand a sandwich to these poor souls should not be expected to show up to solve my life problems. I mean, what would praying to such a God make me seem like? How much arrogance must my heart harbor for me to think that the same God who refuses to save those 21,000 people from starvation even takes interest in my problems?
For these reasons, people like me don’t pray and wouldn’t have prayed even if there was a God.
Who do they look to when all seems lost?
We engage in some introspection. We talk to friends/family. Sometimes we talk to strangers too. That way, we share things and somehow it makes us feel better.
Actually, it’s not only about the emotional comfort that we get out of it. Often times, our social network can actually help us out of such situations. People don’t need to be Gods to offer to help you. Even a total stranger can change your life and pull you out of your misery. As far as I am aware, people have a higher track record of helping other people than any God ever did. Please look at the above image. When your God sent Hurricane Katrina to drown those kids and devastate the lives of people, it was people who came together to save them.
That is why people like me don’t feel the need to look up to such Gods for anything. If anything, we look up to our fellow mortals. We respect such mortals who may be limited in their abilities but does more to help us than the seemingly impotent and potentially evil Gods.
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