All atheism happens in good times?

Question

All atheists pray on their deathbed.
I have not met a real atheist so far.

Like one atheist marine once wrote in a book called
"we thought we heard the angels sing" : THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES.

All the atheism happens in good times.

Answer 1

If it makes you feel better to believe that then go ahead, but it isn't true.

Answer 2

Here are the last words of pilots about to die:

TRANSCRIPT AIRLINE FLIGHT

07 Jul 1962 Alitalia 771 Unable to make out your last message, will you please repeat

07 May 1964 Pacific Air Lines 773 Skipper's shot! We've been shot. I was trying to help.

08 Nov 1965 American Airlines 383 Have you still got the runway OK? Ah .. just barely .. we'll pick up the ILS here.

30 Jun 1967 Thai International 601 I have no radar contact with you.

06 Nov 1967 Trans World Airlines 159 Not very # far off the runway. Sure as # isn't.

10 Aug 1968 Piedmont Airlines 230 Watch it!

05 Jan 1969 Ariana Afghan Airlines 701 We're finished!

more at cited link. . .


You know a doctrine is false when its supporters have to lie to gain support for the doctrine. I served in the US Army during the Vietnam conflict and did not know of anyone who prayed other than the chaplain and an occasional goofball trying to avoid duty.

Answer 3

“There are no atheists in foxholes" isn't an argument against atheism, it's an argument against foxholes” - James Morrow

For you're question I'd like to put up a quote for your consideration and to pose a counterpoint, taken from the most excellent article linked to in the sources box...thingy.

"My great-grandfather returned from the Somme in the winter of 1916. He was an officer in a Welsh Guards regiment. He had been gassed and shot and had seen his platoon numerically wiped out and replaced more than three times since he first took command of it. He had used his side arm, a Webley revolver, so much that its barrel was pitted into uselessness. I heard a story about one of his advances across no-man's-land in which he set out with a full company and by the time he arrived at the German wire was one of only two men left alive.

Until that time, this branch of my family had been Calvinistic Methodists. . . But when he returned from the war, my great-grandfather had seen enough to change his mind. He gathered the family together and banned religion in his house. 'Either god is a bastard,' he said, 'or god isn't there at all.'

(Paul Watkins, "A Friend to the Godless," pp. 40-41, in A Tremor of Bliss: Contemporary Writers on the Saints, ed. by Paul Elie, Riverhead Books / Berkeley, 1995. Quoted from Shy David's Higher Criticism Page.)"

I would also point out that Anthony Swafford, the author of the excellent book "Jarhead" is at the very least agnostic throughout his stay in Iraq.

These to serve to prove that sometimes people react to stressful situations and horrors by reaching out for salvation and to a higher power in order to take the responsibility and some of the weight of their situation off themselves, a last ditch coping mechanism if you will. Others stare into the darkness of humanity and when it stares back they spit in its face and flip it off.

Beyond that I can assure you that I will not pray to anyone on my deathbead, and if I do pray to some deity I give you my express permission to shoot me then and there.

Answer 4

Almost all great scientists (I really think all) live and die as atheists. These are people who get for us knowledge about the world – get knowledge by their creativity, intellect, hard consistent work.

Formally the number of atheists in the world is considered to be fourth, after Christianity, Islam and Hindu. In reality majority of people are probably atheists, because large part (or most) Christians consider their varied confessions just as tradition. As for Islam, hey, would you be comfortable going there in your community/neighborhood in Saudi Arabia or Iran openly describing yourself as a thinking person?

Answer 5

I respectfully say I do not agree with you. When I left christianity I left it for good. I will not turn to any deity when it is my time to leave the earth. I have had good times and bad times in my life thus far and have never found the need to rely on a deity for either - not even when I was a Wiccan.

I am not trying to change your opinion... each person is welcome to their own as well as their own beliefs. I guess I just find it amazing that in the 21st century people still cannot respect other peoples choices.

Answer 6

Wow, I guess that means my life has been filled with a lot more "good times" than I realized.

(Although I'm not really an atheist, I doubt you realize the difference between an atheist and a nontheist, so I assume your comment was also directed at me.)

Answer 7

Ha, ha, I just read your statement on a site. so I would like to thank you for the opportunity to reply. I'm not sure How you come to make this statement, but I do not agree with it. I work in a nursing home and actually observed very little praying going on on death beds, Funny you would say that.

Answer 8

I really don't know the answer to that. It sure stands to reason though, doesn't it?

Many people who say they don't believe in God will admit to believing in demons and evil "things" but deny there being a hell. Supernatural is supernatural so why the problem believing?

This is a very thought provoking question. If i could I'd give you extra points!

Answer 9

I am a US Marine and an Atheist.

I have fought in more conflicts than you have heard about. Just so that you have the right to call me names.

You sir are a retard.

"THERE ARE NO ATHEISTS IN FOXHOLES"
Correct we are busy doing the fighting for you.

Answer 10

I have seen people who stand to their beliefs till the end, but in most cast people in their final hours will collapse from their self confidence and pray for forgiviness and a chance for mercy from their misery.

Answer 11

Why worry about it? It's about judging others and that's God's job, not humans. Live and let live. You really don't have to worry about other people, that is called being co-dependent.

Peace.