Maybe if somebody occasionally gave some "Agnostic prayers" at the start of the town meetings in Greece, New York, the plaintiffs in this case would be satisfied.
From today's New York Times
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May 20, 2013
High Court Agrees to Hear Town Meeting Prayer Case
By REUTERS
WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court on Monday agreed to consider whether a town in New York endorsed religion by allowing members of the public to open meetings with a prayer.
Two residents sued Greece, New York, in 2008, saying it was endorsing Christianity, a violation of the Constitution's First Amendment guarantee of separation of church and state.
Susan Galloway and Linda Stephens said the vast majority of prayer-givers since the practice started in 1999 were Christian clergy. Attendees would often be asked to join in
or bow their heads.
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http://www.nytimes.com/...
Greece, New York, is a town of about 100,000 near Rochester, New York, on the shore of Lake Ontario. http://en.wikipedia.org/..._(town),_New_York A little browsing on Google shows that nearby Rochester has several Jewish congregations, a mosque and an Islamic center, at least one Hindu temple, and at least one Atheist group. Perhaps those folks could step up and offer the opening "prayer or thought for the day" at the town hall meetings. But meanwhile, I'm hardly surprised that most of the prayers are from people who make a living giving prayers -- clergymen. And you don't need a census to know that the great majority of paid clergy in upstate New York are Christian.
I've toyed with how an Agnostic/Atheist prayer could be phrased. If you start with, "Let us give thanks for...", and never specify Whom or What you're thanking, you come pretty close. If you start out, "May those who care for the ill be blessed with compassion...", you don't have to specify Whom or What is doing the blessing (and besides, we talk about God blessing us, but we also bless each other). I'd bet you could give "prayers" like that and a lot of people wouldn't even notice the absence of any reference to a diety.
I think the benefit of prayers comes from thinking about what we should be thankful for and feel blessed by. At least that's the benefit to people. And (I think it was Robert Heinlein who said this) if there is a God, I think it's unlikely he wants to be prayed to.