05 Jul '20 04:52>
Removed by poster
@secondson saidHere you go...
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?
@divegeester saidI was being facetious.
Here you go...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/There_are_no_atheists_in_foxholes
@secondson saidI started the thread to air a personal anecdote - and canvas those of others - as they relate to the saying "There are no atheists in foxholes" but then had second thoughts when the False Sense Of Security thread got knee-deep in 'deathbed conversions'. With that thread now receding, I will soon kick this one off as originally intended.
But I want to know, just what is an "atheist in a foxhole"?
@fmf saidAt the risk of appearing to detract from your experience and honesty of it, even if you had prayed on that night (and I know it was a dark night), it would have not meant that your years of posting about your journey from theist to agnostic theist was either in vain nor false in some way. In desperate moments people despair and do desperate things.
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 saidif 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.
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 saidAtheism 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.
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.
@divegeester saidWhat I meant, I suppose, is that it would have been very interesting to confess to it happening here and then perhaps reassembling the faith in public in front of a group of people that includes some pretty ugly Christians. It would have been quite a turnaround.
At the risk of appearing to detract from your experience and honesty of it, even if you had prayed on that night (and I know it was a dark night), it would have not meant that your years of posting about your journey from theist to agnostic theist was either in vain nor false in some way. In desperate moments people despair and do desperate things.
@ghost-of-a-duke saidYou talk about atheism as if its a monolithic block. Deathbed conversions and ex-atheists in foxholes illustrate that atheism is a spectrum running from the hard, explicit kind all the way over to a softer, implicit type of atheism or even things like atheistic agnosticism.
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.