Atheists, would an atheist be willing to die for Atheism?

Question

You know sort of a give me atheism or give me death type of thing.

If, Atheism were to become punishable by death, God forbid, would an Atheist be willing to boldly go to their death for their belief.

I'm not talking about your rights I'm talking about the belief that many of you have.

As a Christian I am willing to lose my life before denying my belief in Christ, are you?

I am not advocating the criminalization of Atheism, just testing your conviction.

Please be honest, I know this is not an easy hypothetical.

Strong Atheist, those who positively affirm there is no God, will have the easiest time with this. Weak Atheists, those who claim that they believe nothing, will have a tough time as you are spineless and lack conviction in anything. You've got to stand for something or you'll fall for anything.

To all who answered that they would give up their lives before their convictions, thank you for your honesty and courage. I might even vote for you.

To all the liars, I wouldn't trust you to shoot me if you had a gun to my head and a copy of your arrest warrant for murder in hand. SPINELESS!

Answer 1

Yes, I would die before I would worship any God I didn't believe in.

To a further extreme, by being an atheist, and on the very small chance that I am wrong, I would spend an eternity in Hell.

Thats conviction.

Answer 2

I like your nice side swipe at Weak Atheism at the end. You are truly an ignoramus. Weak Atheists feel that there is no compelling reason to have conviction in either the other options of Strong Atheism or Theism. So they do have conviction in the foolhardiness of the other camps.

I myself am a Weak Atheist in philosophy but make spiritual decisions from the Strong Atheist view. This is because I certainly doubt a god exists, but since one can never know for sure I am, as an absolute, a Weak Atheist. I certainly wouldn't die for atheism. There is no point, unless it were somehow useful to overthrow whatever tyranny is forcing belief on me. And I feel it is the same for you. God shouldn't care how you are ostensibly, only what you truly believe and how you act.

Answer 3

You talk about atheism as if it's a religion. It's not. That question isn't as easy to answer as you try to make it seem, and it's not because people are spineless and lack conviction.
Like I said, atheism is not a RELIGION. You would be willing to die for your belief in Jesus, because it's your religion, and you believe you will be rewarded in the afterlife for doing so.
If someone told YOU that they were going to kill you because you don't believe in unicorns, would you go boldly into death to defend your non-belief in unicorns? I doubt it. You would probably lie and say you believe in unicorns, because it's not worth dying for. That's more along the lines of how I feel. If someone truly threatened my life, and there was no way I could fight back, then yes, I probably would lie to save my life. It wouldn't make me ACTUALLY believe it, but I believe we only get ONE chance, and then you're DONE. Kaput. For ALL ETERNITY. There's no reward afterwards. That doesn't mean I'm spineless or lack conviction. My non-belief in a diety is rock-solid, but so is the fact that I cherish the short life I have.
If I had a chance to fight back--an even fight--then I believe I could absolutely kill someone to defend my beliefs. If it was a coward with a gun to my head, and I was defensless, how would it be courageous to let him blow my head off and end my life? What would I gain? Nothing.

Answer 4

I positively affirm that there is no god. Would I tell the powers that be I "believed" so I could live? Yes, I would lie, but I would still be alive. If I was told I have to profess that I believed in Thor to be allowed to live, I would do that as well.

If you decide to take that as a "weakness", more power to you.

And, actually it is an easy hypothetical. I hear it all the time. I am just amazed that someone of christian faith would rather die as apposed to saying something they don't really mean.

This could be the flip side to the "no atheists in foxholes" statment you always hear. I would like to see how many christians, with a gun to their heads, told they could live by denying god, would actually allow themselves to be killed.

Answer 5

No. Why would I die for atheism? What kind of sense does that make? Atheism is a lack of belief in a god. Why would I sacrifice my life and limb for a non-exitent entity?

The fact that people are willing to sacrifice themselves for some cooky belief does not make them better people. If it did, all the terrorists would truly be the honorable martyrs they claim to be.

If atheism were punishable by death, then I'd simply keep it to myself. It's not as if some non-existent entity is going to put me on his black list because I failed to die for him.

On the other hand, I might be willing to give up my life to oppose any government that tried to take away my freedoms (including that of religion or the lack thereof) and force me to do its will if I thought that doing so would help regain those freedoms for the next generation.

Answer 6

You would be willing to die for your belief? easy for you to say, christianity isn't going to be under persecution any time soon no matter what the preachers tell you, christians are the majority here in the US especially.

BTW I would lie and say that I believe (in theism) then have secret support groups for us atheists. If I were caught then sentenced to death I would write a book telling of my struggle to just believe as I wish.

"strong" or "weak", it is the principle of religious freedom that makes it worth dying for. The same atheists who would die for atheism would probably risk their lives to save religion from being illegal, I doubt a christian would do the same!

Answer 7

If necessary.
I would certainly be working against the forces of religious compulsion but, like a member of the French resistance in WW2, declaring my allegiance might not be the most effective way to do that, to put it mildly.

But cornered? Oh yes, no recanting or trying to get out from under. I couldn't fake it through a lie-detector test anyway.

Answer 8

Martyrs are useless, and don't change anything. Naturally, I'd agree to anything that would save my life. But from that point on, I'd do my damnedest to educate and enlighten whatever ignorant society believes that faith should be a mandate for life.

I take exception, however, to your sneering admonishment of weak atheists. There's no unambiguous empirical evidence for God. However, there's also no extremely likely hypothesis yet that explains the universe in its entirety. To declare God's existence requires faith, and to deny God's existence requires faith. The only truly reasonable stance states that while current evidence has not revealed God, one cannot be certain of His nonexistence. I personally believe that He is unlikely, because I admit that I have faith that we -will- develop and prove an explanatory theory for the universe in total, but it's not anything I'd bet my life on.

Answer 9

I'm only an atheist because other people invented a God. I had and have nothing to do with that/those God(s). Not my invention.

I have to call myself atheist, because other people claim their God is real. All that inventing of Gods, I wasn't even part of that. I don't believe raw fish will taste fine, so I never tried it. But I don't call myself an asushist.

Again: other invented a God. I'm NOT part of that.

And now I should die for my beliefs? Die to prove I'm a true follower of atheism? That doesn't make sense, sorry. Not even in a hypothetical situation. I won't be willing to die because others invented a fairy tale, sorry.

Answer 10

Depending on the circumstances, maybe.

We don't set as much store by martyrdom as the Christians do. Our truths are self-evident and cannot be changed by tyrannical governments. Deny that the chemical formula for water is H2O and you are just an idiot...it's not worth dying for. Political liberties, the security of the homeland are different matters.