On the flip side...

As best I understand it, the goal is to have a personal communication with God.
A general question for Judaism today is how should we relate to the aspects of Judaism formed under a particular circumstance, worldview, or physical reality? Specifically, how do I pray using words referring to an incorrect cosmology or to a no-longer-existent political reality?

Cosmology becomes an issue when we regard what was the common cosmology at the time our prayers were composed. The earth was a flat chunk of land resting on pilers that extended down in to a giant sea. This sea surrounded the land and thus limited it. There was a half-sphere of sky above us upon which God orchestrated the daily movement of the stars and clouds. There were windows in this sphere through which water from the upper waters could pour down as rain and there were windows through which the sun, moon, & stars made their daily entrance and exit. Above the half-sphere of heavens was the sea of upper water and the heavens of the heavens.
Given this description we have examples of prayers referring to this cosmology including:

Regarding the issue of changed political realities we have fewer problems. Ykum Purkun stands out in that we bless and ask for protection for the Jews of Bavel and the Reish Galuta, a political position no longer in existence.

As always - Thoughts?