I am an intellectual atheist. But I pray to my god all the time and pretty much

I am an intellectual atheist. But I pray to my god all the time and pretty much daily. There is a difference between truth and utility.

You can’t argue using anything to do with religion, but you sure as hell can USE the services of religion.

And whether you desire those services in the form of meditation, in the form of stoic disciplines, in the form of ritual actions, in the form of ritual recitation, or in the form of discourse with a character, or some combination of all of the above, is merely whether you need to lie to yourself or not about what it is that you’re actually doing.

Every form of mindfulness works. Meditation (turning off), Disciplines (virtues – directing), physical rituals (acting), recitation rituals (acting chanting), ritual discourse(praying), or any combination of the above.

It’s just whether you need a lie or not to do it.