Dave Zimny 1 July 2023

"Notice that no deity is invoked or petitioned. The prayer takes the form of a wish that all beings will be well."

This category error vitiates Prof. Irwin's entire argument. Prayer by definition is a wish directed toward some supernatural force or entity that has the power to fulfill that wish. If a wish is not directed toward some force or entity, that wish is not a prayer. Atheists by definition do not believe that there is a supernatural force or entity that can respond to our wishes. Therefore atheists cannot pray in the precise sense of that word. Of course, Prof. Irwin doesn't value precision very highly. Instead, he seems to advocate Humpty Dumpty's philosophy in "Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There":

"‘When I use a word,' Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, ‘it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less.'
‘The question is,' said Alice, ‘whether you can make words mean so many different things.'
‘The question is,' said Humpty Dumpty, ‘which is to be master—that's all.'"

Dollie Ennis 16 November 2021

Admittedly, even though I believe that "nothing fails like prayer" to actually get anything done, there are personal benefits to the very act of praying itself. These benefits have been clearly documented by physicians, psychologists and philosophers in countless books over the last few decades. My approach is different. It's neither clinical nor scholarly. I'm simply asking the question of how to pray when you're an atheist because I loved to pray as a Christian and I still love praying as a nonbeliever.