Atheists in Foxholes

It occurred to me that this idea was too close, in scope, to the concurrent False Sense of Security thread. I will save the topic for another day.

But I want to know, just what is an "atheist in a foxhole"?

And what is he doing in there? Reading Darwin's On The Origin of Species?

-Removed-

@secondson said
But I want to know, just what is an "atheist in a foxhole"?

There are no atheists in foxholes, apparently. So the saying goes. sonship brandished it frequently; it was a go-to "debating point" he used when he found my lack of belief an affront.

[He would even sometimes claim that I really wasn't an atheist but that I just claimed to not be a believer because I was "angry" at Jesus for making me accountable for my "wickedness".]

Anyway, it's one of those adages that's difficult to prove or disprove except on a case by case personal level about which there are no empirical data.

There are atheists who become theists in foxholes. This is undoubtedly true. Deathbed conversions etc. etc. Maybe they were never "true" atheists, to coin petewxyz's term.

"There are no atheists in foxholes" is certainly not true. I 'proved' this to my own satisfaction a couple of months ago during what may be described as a dark night of the soul.

I have often wondered over the last 15 or so years, if I ever found myself between a rock and a hard place, whether I would start praying in the way I used to.

Well, the sincerity and reality of my post-Christian beliefs were put to the test one night early in June as I sat alone, sleepless in the dark, in a hospital room coming to terms with the fact that the relative I was watching over was possibly going to die.

And yet I did not pray to the deity I used to believe in.

There are atheists in foxholes. I have no idea how many, but the conventional wisdom that there are none to be found in the proverbial foxholes is not true.

I have proved it to myself at least. No need to inform the mass media. sonship, if you're reading this between chess moves, you're wrong: I am not lying about no longer believing in Jesus.

To be perfectly honest, what a momentous thing ~ what a game changer ~ it would have been, in light of all the views I have espoused and propagated sincerely here over the last decade and a half, if I had prayed that night.

@secondson said
But I want to know, just what is an "atheist in a foxhole"?

And what is he doing in there? Reading Darwin's On The Origin of Species?

@badradger said
if the concept is that when in peril one starts to believe in a God,it didnt work with my father who on his death bed refused to see a vicar, nor did I pray before or after my heart op.

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@ghost-of-a-duke said
Atheism indeed doesn't work that way. I would be more likely to turn to my uncle Fred at a time of crisis than God, and my uncle Fred is convinced he's Napoleon.

Belief is not something an atheist can chose to do at moments of crisis.